Ninja Legend of the Scorpion Clan Review

Another new game that I had a chance to play was Ninja-Legend of the Scorpion Clan. It is an intriguing game of an almost spy vs. spy nature, and is made by the same people who created Legend of the 5 Rings. The object of the game is for the Ninja and her accomplice, the Traitor to complete their 2 secret missions while the Guards attempt to stop them.  It truly is a very strategic multiplayer game, and a good way to spend an hour or so.  Thank you to all the hard workers at the AEG booth at Gen Con, who made sure that their retailers would have a chance to try out their new games before release!

This game is different than anything I have ever personally played, and the reasons for that are numerous. First of all, Ninja is probably one of the few games that plays well as not only a 2 or 4 player, but equally well (if not better!) as a 3 player.  Secondly, the fact that each player is responsible for their own actions but can still confer with other "allied" members is something not often seen in boardgames these days. Finally, the idea of each player requiring an individual (included) map to mark locations of either enemies or objectives is a very distinct feature, which I feel AEG has most definitely hit the spot on. But perhaps I should show you instead...

OPENING THE BOX

When you first open Ninja's box, the first items you see are the board and the 4 maps.  Underneath those is the 16-page rulebook, and finally the 27 miniatures, 4 decks, 6 mission objective cards, and 4 player privacy screens.  All of this is stored in a standard plastic box, although the outer cardboard box is sturdier than other comparable games. When you open the board for the first time, you'll see it is a tile-like foldout board, similar to Memoir '44 or Battle Cry.  Along the side is a descending group of 20 circles, which shows the turns of the game.  Underneath that is the Turn Order box, a handy reference for what each turn consists of.  Last is the 4 Alert Levels, which go from None to High.  You'll also notice that while the board is a beautifully rendered "blueprint" of a noble castle and gardens, there are faint blue and yellow dividing lines crossing its surface.

These are important for the maps which each player needs to fully enjoy the game.  Each player, whether Guard, Ninja or Traitor has a paper map on which to draw (about 25 map sheets per pad).  These are used to figure out where objectives are hidden, where the secret tunnel is, and which areas still need to be searched. Of course, it would not do to have a Guard see what the Traitor has marked off, even (ahem) accidentally...so the player screens are a must as well!
The plastic miniatures are also fairly well-crafted and are different colors for easy referencing, especially as the colors match up with the player screens. 

There are 20 tan and brown guards (10 with spears, 10 with swords), 1 red Traitor, 1 black Ninja and 3 yellow Drunk Guards.  There are also 2 silver Lanterns, 1 for placing on the current Turn Circle and current Alert Level.  

NOTE: Whereas the Guard cards have a tan Lion symbol on them and use corresponding tan/brown miniatures, the deck colors for the Traitor and Ninja are altered.  Thus, the Traitor miniature is red but uses the black Scorpion deck, and the Ninja miniature is black but uses the red Scorpion deck.  I don't know if this was intentional, but thought it should be pointed out!

PLAYING THE GAME
Now that everything has been explained, let's discuss game play.  As noted before, this can be a 2, 3 or 4 player game.  If it is 2 player, 1 person controls the Guards and 1 person controls the Traitor and Ninja. For 3 player, 1 person controls the Guards, and the Traitor and Ninja are split. The Guards are split as well, if you play with 4 people. 

First, set up your board and draw your cards.  Ninja takes 8 of the 12 cards available, Traitor takes 7 of the 10, and Guards take 24 of the 36 for their hands.  However, the remaining 12 Guard cards are kept out as a Draw deck.  No cards are to be shared with enemy players, and each deck has cards that are specific to the character using them.  For example, only Guards can play Listen cards, only the Traitor can use Potent Sake cards, and only the Ninja can play Shuriken cards.

Then, 8 individual Guards are posted as sentries, while the remaining Guards are grouped into patrols of 2.  Due to the wording of the cards, it is very advantageous to mix patrols (aka have 1 sword Guard and 1 spear Guard  per patrol).  The Traitor and Ninja miniatures are NOT placed on the board, and won't be for most of the game, but keep them nearby for when the Guards do find them. 

The Guard player takes her map and marks off the locations of 8 sleeping guards as well as 2 Traps, 2 Hidden Sentries, and the locations of the 6 Mission Goals (A thru F) that the Traitor and Ninja will be trying to find. They must ALWAYS be placed in their own zone. The Ninja and Traitor mark off their starting positions according to the rules, as well as the entrance and exit of the Secret Tunnel.  Place 1 Lantern on the lowest Alert Level, and 1 on the first Turn Circle. Now you are completely set up!

The game gets more complicated as it progresses, and players attempt to stay 1 step ahead of each other, but the Turn Orders always remain the same;

1. Alert Phase- Guard player draws cards corresponding to the current level of alert. The alert level then drops by 1, and the Guard plays any of the drawn cards she wants.

2. Guards Card Phase- Guard player uses cards for special effects.

3. Guards Patrol Phase- All patrols that are able to be moved or changed are moved.

4. Intruders Phase- The Ninja and Traitor make their secret moves, play whichever cards they can, and searches for their Mission Goals.

Although there are many different cards to be played, strategies to use and decisions to make every time the game is played, the Phases must be completed in order.  You cannot move onto the next Phase until the previous one is finished, no matter what.  So, even though your friend is going to spring a Trap on your Ninja or Kenjutsu your Guard, at least you'll know they have to wait their turn...

And there you have it, another wonderful game by our friends at AEG!  Ninja-Legend of the Scorpion Clan is a great game for more experienced players.  On a gamer learning scale (1=extremely new to gaming, 10=gaming professional) I would rate Ninja as a solid 7.  While not the most difficult of boardgames to learn, it does have several nuances that make it an inappropriate "first" for those who are new to board or card games. 

Like most of the games I review, we do have a copy of Ninja in our game library, so if you're in the Poughkeepsie area stop by and play!

Stasi "Dengirl" King

Gen Con 2011 The Best 4 Days of Gaming

Welcome back from the "BEST 4 DAYS OF GAMING" also know as Gen Con!

So we got back from Gen Con last night, and it was a fantastic show! We had a chance to try many different games, check out product that is not released just yet, and see all the greatest product that could be seen.  We are going to share some pictures, share some stories, and give some insight into some games.  To make life easy, I'm breaking it down by vendor so you can see the different areas you'd like more info about.  So if you are ready to read on and want to learn more, continue through the trip to Gen Con 2011!

Wizards of the Coast:

There is a lot to talk about with WotC. They had a great booth set up as a ruined castle, and a live action D&D event behind it.  The booth was amazing as was the D&D Mega Adventure that was set up through out Gen Con with QR Codes.  The players got into trying to find the codes and earn points for their faction.  All of this was for the soon to be released Neverwinter campaign setting.  Away from the booth you show the two locations for all the events: The Sagamore Ball Room and the TCG Hall.  At the TCG hall you had so many Magic events, it was almost overwhelming, with the highlight being Nationals!  So many players going in and between events, it was incredible to see.  Upstairs in the Sagamore there was Dungeons and Dragons. It was not just the RPG though, they also had 3 Dragon Ante, all the board games, and the D&D National event as well.A big announcement was for the Lords of Waterdeep board game which is a Euro style board game set in the Dungeons and Dragons world.

Wizkids:

What can I say about Wizkids other then WOW! The new Star Trek game that involves fleets of Federation and Klingon ships looks amazing.  The price point at first looked a bit high, until you started to count up all the ships you got in the base game.  We would love to get a copy of this game a give it a try to get the Trek fans into a great looking ship to ship minis game.  Another game that they had out was Quarriors! Quarriors is a fantastic game involving dice that is similar to the deck building games.  We had such a blast playing this game, that I had to buy a copy for myself then and there.  It played fast and had the option of adding new abilities to the dice without having to make all new dice.  We will be demoing this game soon and getting players excited to try a new type of game.  I really can't talk about Wizkids without mentioning the Heroclix.  They had a number of great items out for sale including Heroclix, Street Fight, and Gears of War... BUT the items that had people looking were the painted pieces (not on bases) of The Lord of the Rings and Pathfinder.  They all looked great!  Check back as more information becomes available we will be writing more.

AEG:

We had the opportunity to go over and talk with the people at AEG as well as attending their Big Game Night.  I would have liked a little more structure to the big game night and maybe in an area that was a little quieter so that we could really check out the games.  We did have a chance to play Ninja, which is a very secretive board game involving Ninjas and guards set in the L5R world..  It was a blast! We will have a copy in this week and will be running some demo games to give players a chance to check it out.  We also got a chance to see Thunderstone, Parthenon, and Legend of the 5 Rings CCG.  AEG has a bunch of really great games out now and if you are looking to give something new a try, they would make a great choice.

Gary Games:

Gary Games is the publisher of the game Ascension.  This is a great deck building game that was created by a number of Magic players who were looking for another game to play between Magic.  The same design group also created Redakai, but we can talk about that later.  I had a chance to play in a tournament for Ascension, but sadly came in second in my pod, so did not advance.  They also had a number of great promo cards that you could pick up at their booth.  We also had a chance to discuss the Dragon's Den becoming a part of the Game Day program that they run, so hopefully we will be a part of the next one which is coming up soon.  

Fantasy Flight Games: 

Well the big announcement here was that Fantasy Flight Games picked up the rights for Star Wars.  To show case this, they had several games on display and were running demo games of several of them.  Star Wars X-Wing looked fantastic! It is a miniatures ship to ship combat game that takes a few elements from Wings of War.  Instead of a deck of cards for movement, each ship has a disk that you pick your movement from and place face down next to the ship (for that hidden movement similar to Wings of War).  They used different templates then for movement and attacks.  They kept some of the flavor with the weapons and abilities on the different star fighters, but we only got to see the X-Wing and Tie Fighter.  They also did a new card game for the Star Wars universe, but we did not get a chance to demo that game.  Some other items of note at the booth would be their release of the Gears of War board game and the new revised edition of Dust Tactics. 

Plaid Hat:

Plaid Hat is the maker of Summoner Wars.They have a new starter box that will be coming out in a month or so... or maybe we will have several copies in a few days! We had the chance to demo the game with them at Gen Con, and they allowed us to get a few copies while we were there.  The new starter has new factions, which if I remember correctly is an addition 6 new factions.  It also has a double board so that it is a little easier to play on and see your side of the board.


I hope that you have found some new information or got to experience some of the Gen Con trip from the write up.  We will be adding more information over the week and get some other impressions so you can hear about some other games and events.  There will always be more to add about Gen Con, but I think this is long enough, so watch for the next post soon.

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks

Nightfall by AEG

So Dave and I just completed our first game of Nightfall by AEG.  The game is real cool with plenty of interaction between the players.  Nightfall is the newest Deck Building game to come out and as this genre of games continues to grow, it is fantastic to see a new game concept!  Here are a few highlights that we saw as we played, and a few questions that maybe we missed as we played. 

First, the cards look spectacular! The art is dark and really gives you the feel of a world full of Vampires, Werewolves, Ghouls, and Hunters. There appear to be more vampires in the starter set, and I hope to see some more of the rest as expansions come out. Oh wait... and I did not see a single sparkle on any of the vampires!

Second, the game flows in a very straight forward manner. To give a very simplified quick review: Combat Phase, Chain Phase, Claim Phase, and Cleanup Phase. Combat is very easy at first glace... all minions must attack other players. The Chain Phase is the most interesting as it allows you to play multiple cards, and to allow other players to play cards as well. The Chain Phase allows for players to also access a "kicker" effect, this allows players to really look/think about what cards they have in their deck as well as what other players have.  The Chain Phase mechanic really increases the interaction between players as they play cards not only on their turn but also on your opponents turn as well.  Additionally, most card games that involve playing cards when it is not your turn focus on prevent or blocking what your opponent does.  Nightfall instead allows you to benefit from playing the right cards during the Chain Phase, be it your turn or not!  Claim Phase lets you acquire more cards for your deck.  The last phase is Cleanup. This phase a chance to draw more cards, up to 5, and to take care of wounds.

One point to think about, and this goes for all Deck Building games, sleeve your cards! As you continue to play the game and shuffle the cards, you will begin to wear they out.  There are many different companies that make sleeves, but Mayday Games and Fantasy Flight Games make a clear back sleeve that is less expensive then most of the other companies.  The basic box that Nightfall comes in has several different foam spacers as well as indexed dividers with plenty of room left over for many future expansions.

Questions:

Well the game designer, David Gregg, got back to us on Twitter. He was able to answer some of our questions... which was so COOL that he read the blog and gave us an answer. He created a great game and we are having some fun trying it out in the store.

1. What happens when you need to draw more wounds then there are left in the wound pile?

Answer: As per game designer David Gregg: The wound stack should have all 60 wounds. Once face up run out, use face down. After that, exiled then pen/paper.

2.  When you discard a starting minion after the end of the Combat Phase, are they exiled?

Answer: As per game designer David Gregg:  YES!

3. How do we get the promo cards for our players?

4. Will AEG be running events, or organized play?

5. Are the Starter Minions Exiled if you discard them to gain additional influence?

Answer: As per game designer David Gregg: no, the starters are only exiled if discarded or destroyed while in play.

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks

GAMA Updates Tuesday!

So we have several employees at GAMA in Los Vegas! They are posting updates as to cool new games and information that they see. If you are following us on Twitter or Facebook you may have seen some of these posts, but I thought it would be great to have them all in one place... and posted per day of the show (as it runs all week)!

Wizards of the Coast:

October's MtG name is Innistrad and will be previewed in From the Vault Legends.

Innistrad poster child is Lillian-expect a dark tone to set with"resonant fantasy theme"


New Program: Magic Celebration on September 10, 2011 aimed at newer players.

Magic 2012 will launch on 360/PS3/PC at same time as paper cards with Garruk like promo card redemption 7/11!

AEG:


War of Honor is a board game based version of L5R and great intro to new L5R arc.

Nightfall from AEG is a new deck building card game that promotes interaction between players set in a Blade or Underworld world. 

We will have a demo copy of Nightfall on Saturday, 3/19.


Thanks Dave for keeping us all in the loop as to what you see and what is going on at GAMA!

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks