Catalyst Game Labs at GAMA 2012

Catalyst Game Labs has some great games out already and more fantastic ones to come!  They have some properties that many players may know already and some new ones that will get some attention once they release.  So lets start with some that you may know!


Shadowrun

This is the classic Shadowrun game you may remember from the early 1990s.  Many people feel that the game has disappeared, but it has been around for a long time!  Catalyst Game Labs has some new product coming out, one of which is the Runners Toolkit.  The toolkit has a GM screen, cheat sheets, and compiled charts for weapons and equipment.  This is a must have item if you are already playing, or if you are thin king about checking out the game.  They are also hoping to get a line of miniatures out for Shadowrun.  This will be fantastic for adding to game play! I personally can't wait to see how they do the Street Samurais and Deckers.

Battletech

The 25th Anniversary box set was fantastic!  If you aren't sure, then you can check and see how often they have had to reprint it!  The pieces could have had a little more detail, but they are good for getting players into the game.  They also included 2 premium figures (Thor and Loki) which are very nice.  Catalyst Game Labs will also be bringing out new box sets to introduce intermediate and advanced rules... with minis to enhance your games. 

Some other great games

• Hexagon
• Abstract pawn jumping game
• Family style game
• Linear
• Gem stones
• Line making game like Bejeweled
• Abstract
• Balance of Power
• Kings, Bankers, and Generals... who will win?
• The Duke
• Tile laying game
• Feels like chess

Leviathans

Saving the best... or most interesting, for last!  Leviathans is a game that has hit many speed bumps since it was showcased at Gen Con 2011 with massive replicas at the booth.  It looks like they are closer now to releasing this game and maybe we will see it after Gen Con 2012.  So let me give you some quick points about this very interesting miniatures/board game:

• Set in 1910
• Airship Battles
• Aerial height system
• Possible water units as well
• Prepainted Miniatures
• Lightly colored and easily repainted
• Color coded D12s
• 3 sets of rules: Basic to advanced
• Hex Maps, same scale as Battletech maps
• Multi player and Team play
• Looking at an RPG set in the world
• Starter box will include British vs French

If you are looking to try any of these great games, stop in and ask us about them.  We would love to discuss them with you and show you what we have.  We are hoping to maybe run some events for Leviathans or maybe even offer to help them with getting this going!

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks

Risk Legacy Game Number 1

So last night be sat down and played our first game of Risk Legacy.  It was really different and fantastic at the same time.  So we had 5 players and we began the game with only one person who had played this version before... and only once at that.  Let me break down some of the points so that you might get an idea of some of the differences in this version then to regular Risk.  As Stasi  wrote a product review and had some great pictures, I'm going to write this more from the play side... but add in some pictures too!

First we took a look at the factions, picked the one and wrote our names on the back.  The factions give the play a specific bonus (or a choice of two possible ones at the beginning) that can affect the game.  We were also each given a single Star Token, and a Scar card that can be used once to alter the board... PERMANENTLY! So I ended up with Khan Industry and the Scar card "Bunker."  Matter of fact, I was the only one who played a Scar card in this first game.

Play started out with a bunch of territory expansion, and only a little combat.  But by the fourth round several HQs had changed hands, and mine was under attack, which prompted the bunker Scar card!  I was able to pull off a quick surge and capture a second HQ and purchase a Star giving me 4 Stars at the end of the turn, which oddly enough was the end of the round as well.  As I was the first to gain the 4 necessary Stars, I ended the game.  Now, when we start next, I get a Missile Token rather than a starting Star!

The coolest part of the game is what happens at the end.  Not only do you have some permanent changes to the board with Scar cards, BUT you also get to change the board at the end of the game.  The winner gets several choices; name a continent, name a major city are two.  I chose to name a major city.  If you held on and were not eliminated (which was everyone else) you have other options. For example, you can add a resource to a card for a province you control or name a minor city.  We had 2 players  name minor cities and 2 add a resource to a card.  All of these change how the game will be played next time.

I'm so excited to play again!  I'm hoping to play with the same group and see if we can give some of the new players a little more time to grasp the tactics.  Here is who we had play the first game:

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks
Alex Sherman
Dave Steltenkamp
Amanda Cowen
Stasi "Dengirl" King

Sean "Striderlotr" Banks

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

Castle Ravenloft Board Game

Castle Ravenloft

This Boardgame is crammed to the top with stuff! 41 interlocking dungeon tiles, 92 plastic minis (yes they are the D&D minis, just unpainted), 5 different heroes, an adventure book, 200 cards, 192 tokens, and a D20! Play as a heroic adventurer, explore, overcome hazards, find treasure, and face Lord Strahd! Published by Wizards of the Coast for 1-5 players.

Below is a convention chart showing which prepainted D&D miniature (DDM) is represented in the game which an unpainted game piece. The chart offers the name of the DDM mini, and it's set.

Minis to Painted DDM Minis
Wolf = Warg, Harbringer
Spider =  Death Jump spider, Savage Encounter
Ghoul = Gravetouched Ghoul, Unhallowed
Zombie = Terror Wight, War Drums
Rat Swarm = Rat Swarm, Savage Encounters
Skeleton = Warrior Skeleton, Archfiends
Kobold = Kobold Soldier, Angelfire
Blazing Skeleton = Blazing Skeleton, Against the Giants
Gargoyle = Earth Element Gargoyle, Blood War
Zombie Dragon = Zombie White Dragon, Deathknell
Werewolf = Werewolf, Against the Giants
Kobold Sorcerer = Kobold Sorcerer, Aberrations
Dracolich = Dracolich, Dragonqueen

Also, WotC has now posted a new set of adventures for the game. Click on the adventures link in the previous sentence to check out the 2 new adventures: Zombie Guards of Castle Ravenloft, and Search for the Sunsword.

New Boardgames

Recently we got in many new Boardgames. Several of theses games really push the boundaries and will challenge you to a great game. We wanted to post a quick write up about some of these great games and hopefully see some on you in on Thursday nights to try them out! You can even play some of these games solo if you are having a night home alone.


Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer: This is a fast-pasted deckbuilding game set in an epic fantasy world.  The game was created by several Magic Pro-Tour Champions, with art for the cards from Eric Sabee.  Has many of the great features and feel of a CCG but in ONE box! Published by Gary Games for 2-4 players.

Dungeons & Dragons Castle Ravenloft: This Boardgame is crammed to the top with stuff! 41 interlocking dungeon tiles, 92 plastic minis (yes they are the D&D minis, just unpainted), 9 different heroes, an adventure book, 200 cards, 192 tokens, and a D20! Play as a heroic adventurer, explore, overcome hazards, find treasure, and face Lord Strahd! Published by Wizards of the Coast for 1-5 players.

Warlords of Europe:  Reminds me of Conquest of the Empire, but set in a feudal Europe setting. The game offers a variety of plastic units including swordsman, knights, archers, and spearman. Some people might think it is like Risk, but it does offer more diversity in play with cards that can change the course of the game.  They also introduced a mechanic to the game that allows you to roll different dice depending on what terrain you are fighting in(D8, D10, and D12). Published by Conquest Gaming for 2-4 players.

The Eagle and the Lion: Battles of Napoleon: The first game to be released in the Battles of Napoleon series, with everything you need to recreate classic battles between the French and the British. This game was great to demo at Gen Con! fantastic plastic pieces, order cards, event cards, and so much more. The game also has a scenario book to play historic events! Published by Nexus for 2 players.


Dungeonquest: Can you venture into the dragon's lair and steal his treasure? This dungeon delving game includes 6 heroes each with unique abilities. The game includes 50 dungeon tiles, many cards, lots of tokens, and a great game board. On an interesting note, if you are looking for sleeves for the cards in this game, Fantasy Flight yellow is the correct size... you will need 7 packs to sleeve all the cards in the game. Published by Fantasy Flight for 1-4 players.