More games from the Dice Tower Board Gaming Con

Here are more games I played at Dice Tower this year.

Last night, I closed out playing Sentinels of the Multiverse with all the expansions. This is DC's answer to Marvel's Legendary.
Official description:

Sentinels of the Multiverse is a cooperative game in which players control heroes with powers and abilities in the form of cards. Two to five players control three to five heroes who must work together to defeat the villains and survive the dangerous environments in which the battles take place.

Here is the box.

 If you read my previous post, you'll remember that I thought Legendary was "meh." Sentinels of the Multiverse as I played it, despite having some cool bits, is a broken game. The bad guys are simply too tough. I think this is because we played the "big box" version with all sorts of add-ons that made the bad guys into hero-crunching murder machines.

However, the basic game may be fine. As I played a 3-person game, a 9-year old ran up and waxed rhapsodic about the game. He LOVED my character, Wraith, and thought that her equipment was awesome. 

In fact, he was all: "Ohmygod! You've got Wraith! I love Wraith! She's so cool! And you've got her utility belt! Awesome. That's a great combination!"

So, maybe the basic game is better. 

This is Wraith ...

Wraith is a Batman-type whose super-powers are in her utility belt.  Here are some more characters from the game ...

One more thing: The art in the DC game is clearly inferior to the art in the Marvel game. To be sure, this is from an old man's perspective. Young kids like the 9-year-old may prefer the "Toon Channel" art style.

And don't think I'm against all card games. I closed out today (Sunday) by playing Among The Stars. I REALLY enjoyed this game.

The official description:

Each player takes the role of one of an alien race trying to build the greatest space station. Through card drafting, the players select locations, and use these to build their station, scoring victory points based on the placement.

Among The Stars is an excellent game, with the round-robin card-trading trait of 7 Wonders. You are an alien race (with alien powers that let you bend the rules), and you build your space station from the cards you are dealt or trade with others. Here is what my space station looked like in the end.

Among the Stars is highly recommended.

Now let's look at a game with more fun than depth: The Doom That Came to Atlantic City. The cover describes it as "A light-hearted game of urban destruction in the universe of H.P. Lovecraft."

The official description:

You're one of the Great Old Ones – beings of ancient and eldritch power. Cosmic forces have held you at bay for untold aeons, but at last the stars are right and your maniacal cult has called you to this benighted place. Once you regain your full powers, you will unleash your Doom upon the world!
There's only one problem: You're not alone. The other Great Old Ones are here as well, and your rivals are determined to steal your cultists and snatch victory from your flabby claws! It's a race to the ultimate finish as you crush houses, smash holes in reality.

Here is what the components look like. The individual monsters are awesome...

You know how in Monopoly you build Atlantic City? In this game, you play a Lovecraftian monster that is destroying Atlantic City, and attempting to bring about your own personal doom on the world.

The Doom that Came to Atlantic City (TDCAC) has an interesting story behind the game: It was a Kickstarter project that raised way more funds than was needed, then the person raising with the funds did not spend them to produce the game. The word "fraud" was thrown around. This shows the risks inherent with Kickstarter.

The good news: TDCAC is such a cool game, it was able to get beyond that crisis and get published anyway. The bad news: It's way too expensive for its asking price. Pick it up if you can find a real deal.

Speaking of lighthearted destruction, my family loved Rampage.  In this game, you build "buildings" out of decks supported by meeples.  You play a monster competing with other monsters to destroy the city and eat the meeples.

The official description:

In Rampage, you arrive in Meeple City as a gigantic, famished, scaly-skinned monster! Your goal: Dig your claws and dirty paws into the asphalt, destroy buildings, and devour innocent meeples – in short: sow terror while having fun. The monster who has caused the most damage after the carnage finally ends wins the game.
The buildings in Meeple City are comprised of floor tiles and meeples, with the meeples serving as pillars that support the floors. Four wooden vehicles are on the ground in the eight neighborhoods in the city. Each monster, which consists of a wooden paws disc and a wooden body, starts in one corner of the game board. On a turn you take two actions from four possibilities, repeating an action if desired:

• Move: Pick up your monster body, flick the paws disc, then place the body back on the disc.

• Demolish: If your paws are on the sidewalk surrounding a building, you can pick up your monster body, drop it onto a building, then collect any floors that have no meeples on them.

• Toss a vehicle: If you're in a neighborhood with a vehicle, you can pick up the vehicle, place it on your body, then flick the vehicle at a building or another monster.

• Breathe: Even while away from sidewalks with no vehicles, you can cause destruction by placing your chin on your monster's body and blowing across the board.

Now for the controversy: Asmodee Games didn't get the rights to the name Rampage, which was the name of a very similarly themed old video game. Lawyers kinda frown on that stuff. No wait -- "frown" is the wrong word. I mean that Lawyers rub their hands with glee and chuckle and chortle while preparing to vacuum out your wallet.

So, Asmodee is changing the name to "Terror in Meeple City." If you see a version with the old name, pick it up, because it's collectible (and a heck of a lot of fun).

I had a tremendously good time playing the car racing game Formula D with my wife, Cindy. a friend of hers (Jason) who knows the game talked us through it. 

Here is the official description, which does not do this game justice:

Formula D is a high stakes Formula One type racing game where the players race simulated cars with the hope of crossing the finish line first. Each player shifts gears, with each gear providing a different speed. (For example, 4th gear is a die that rolls random numbers from 7 to 12 for spaces moved.) Each turn, players may move up one gear, stay in that gear, or move down gears. However, speed is not the only issue! Corners have a "stop" rule that requires players to stop once, twice, or three times on that corner in consecutive turns or face a penalty. This creates an effective speed limit to the corners. 

Okay, here's the real deal: Every gear gets its own die: 6-sided, 8-sided, 12-sided and so on.  So you're constantly picking a die and rolling against the odds to make your turns and out-race your opponents at the same time. We were both yelling by the end of this game -- yelling because we were having such a great time.

It's easy AND fun, and looks like it has lots of replay-ability.  In fact, if you flip the board over, you get illegal street racing. Awesome!

In his descriptions/instructions, Jason kept emphasizing how if we did things wrong we would end up dying a fiery death. We need him to explain more games to us. He added to the fun.

We might have to buy Formula D.

A game I didn't get to play but it looks like a lot of fun is called Xia: Legends of a Drift System.

The Official Description:

Each player begins the game by choosing and customizing a Tier 1 starship. Invest all your money in engines and be a rapid, yet fragile, explorer. Put all your credits into an uber missile and watch other players flee in terror. Get a small engine and save space and credits to invest in buying and selling cargo. Or create a well rounded ship, ready for anything. In Xia, the choice is always yours. The goal is to become the most famous captain.

Here are the components ...

Pretty cool, overall.

Cindy and I also played Fresco, in which you are a master artist leading a team to restore a painting in a Renaissance church.

The official description:

Each round in Fresco begins with players deciding what time they would like to wake up for the day. The earlier you wake up, the earlier you will be in turn order, and the better options you will be guaranteed to have. Wake up early too often, however, and your apprentices will become unhappy!
Then, players deploy their apprentice work force to various tasks. You'll need to buy paint, mix paint, work on painting the fresco, raise money by painting portraits, and perhaps even send your apprentices to the opera in order to increase their happiness. Points are scored mostly by painting the fresco, which requires specific combinations of paints, so you'll need to buy and mix your paints wisely, in addition to beating other players to the paints and frescos you would like to paint.

The game was fun, though I think it may not have a lot of replayability. Perhaps that's why there are already multiple expansions. 

Cindy liked this game a lot, but I think she's moved on to Pastiche as her new favorite painting-themed game.

Fresco uses a mechanic where the person with the least points (last in line) gets to go first every turn).  My view: Fresco is fun, but Tokaido does it better and faster (Ouch!)

I played more games, including a Wits & Wagers tournament led by Tom Vasel, which was tremendous fun. Now it's time to head back home.  But we'll be back next year. This is too much fun to pass up.

Previous entry with descriptions and links to board games HERE.

First entry from Dice Tower Convention HERE.

More Games from Dice Tower Gaming Con

Here are some other games I've played at the Dice Tower board game con in Orlando. These are not in particular order. I have put clickable links for the games if you're interested ...

First up, Cards Against Humanity.

Manufacturers description: "Cards Against Humanity is a party game for horrible people. Unlike most of the party games you've played before, Cards Against Humanity is as despicable and awkward as you and your friends.
"The game is simple. Each round, one player asks a question from a black card, and everyone else answers with their funniest white card."

It's a fun game, though I didn't win any of the hands. Basically, someone puts down a card that says something like: "Come back to my place and I'll show you my ____." You put in a card that will make people laugh the most.

I played this late at night with a younger crowd. I didn't really connect with the group, because I think they had me figured for A) an old fart and/or B) a narc. They were right on one count.  Anyway, at least one player was partially illiterate (or maybe sleep-deprived), so perhaps it was not the best crowd for me to try this game. I enjoyed myself nonetheless.

Next up, Dungeon Fighter.  It's a light, silly game. It is dungeon-adventure themed, but it's basically a trick-dice-throwing game.

Here is the cover ...

From the Boardgamegeek.com description:

In Dungeon Fighter, a fully cooperative board game, players take on the roles of heroes venturing deep into a three-tier dungeon. Along the way, they explore the dungeon, search its many rooms, and face endless hordes of vicious monsters. Best of all, your skill determines the ability of your character. Can you kill Medusa without looking into her eyes, defeat the Minotaur in the labyrinth, or resist the breath of the dragon? Will you be able to hit a target by throwing the dice under your leg with your eyes closed?

You will feel truly part of a centuries-old battle between good and evil...with a touch of foolish stupidity.

And here is the Dungeon Fighter board ...

All dice have to bounce on the table once before going on the board, then have to NOT roll off the board. Also, they can't hit the holes in the board itself. And you thought it would be easy.

Here is one of the "monsters" we fought, a Cute Bear.

You can see on the bottom of the car the "trick" way you have to roll the die to hit the bear. 

The "Monkey King" required a different kind of trick roll, launching the die off your elbow.

Here is a game I almost played, called Euphoria. I say I almost played Euphoria because after all the set-up and explaining, I got called away to do something else.

From the Boardgamegeek.com website:

In Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia, you lead a team of workers (dice) and recruits (cards) to claim ownership of the dystopian world. You will generate commodities, dig tunnels to infiltrate opposing areas, construct markets, collect artifacts, strengthen allegiances, and fulfill secret agendas. is the Euphoria board. My one complaint is the dice are hard to read.

I hear Euphoria is quite good, though. It's an interesting twist on worker placement. You don't want your workers to become too aware of how much the dystopia they live in sucks.

Here is a game I'm picking up for the family -- Expedition: Famous Explorers.  It's like a competitive geography lesson with elements of Ticket to Ride.

You can watch Tom Vasel's review of Expeditions HERE.

Next up is Legendary, the Marvel deck-building game.  The art is gorgeous.

And here's more Legendary art ...

The official description:

Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game is set in the Marvel Comics universe. To set up the game, players choose a number of hero decks – Spider-Man, Hulk, Cyclops, Wolverine, etc. – and shuffle them together; since players use only a handful of hero decks out of the fifteen included, the hero deck can vary widely in terms of what's available. Players then choose a mastermind villain (Magneto, Loki, Dr. Doom, etc.), stack that particular villain's attack cards underneath it, then modify the villain deck as needed based on that villain's particular scheme.

However, I found the gameplay in Legendary somewhat "Meh." I don't think I'll pick it up, but if you like deck-building games, consider it.

Here's a blast from the past -- someonne made a customized PacMan board game.

I didn't get to play it, but it looked fun.

I saw a demo of this new game, Siege of Verdan ...

It's a Risk variant with less pieces and more exploration (territory grabbing)  diplomacy. I hope the creator doesn't take that as a slight.  Here is some of the card art on Siege of Verdan ...

Google cannot find a link for Siege of Verdan the board game, so dude who designed it, if you're reading this, send me a link.

Update: Link here: http://jestershandpublishing.com/siege/

I also taught a grand old game, Small World. Here's the line-up from the start of the game.

The official description:

Small World is inhabited by a zany cast of characters such as dwarves, wizards, amazons, giants, orcs and even humans; who use their troops to occupy territory and conquer adjacent lands in order to push the other races off the face of the earth.

And here is the board game in play ...

I actually taught it to two board-game designers/merchants and my friend Barbara, who manages a household of three barbarians (children). Guess who won? The person with the barbarian experience.

Just kidding, her kids are great, as well as cutthroat boardgamers.

I saw a demo of Space Empires.

The official description:

Space Empires is a game in the finest tradition of 4X space games - eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. Each player builds up a space empire and uses it to conquer the other players. Exploration on the mounted map is simple for players (and dangerous for their ships), revealing different space terrain that affects movement and combat 

Space Empires was developed to keep a rich theme without overcomplicated rules. The game includes carriers and fighters, mines, cloaking, a very large technology tree, fifteen ship classes, merchant shipping, colonization, mining, terraforming, bases, shipyards, black holes, warp points, and non-player aliens. Yet the rules are short and intuitive: The basic rules are 8 pages long and increase to 11 pages in length when the advanced rules are included.

And here is the board of Space Empires itself...

It's awfully good-looking for a black board. It's pretty much Master of Orion as a board game. All the information you need is on the chits for the ships, so you aren't looking things up constantly.  I want to play this game in full first, but I'm probably buying it.

I also played Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery, the board game.

The official description:

Spartacus: A Game of Blood & Treachery is an exciting game of twisted schemes and bloody combats inspired by the hit STARZ Original series. Players assume the role of the Dominus of a great house competing for influence in the era of ancient Rome. Players vie for dominance through careful diplomacy, cunning intrigues and the glory of the Arena. Undermine the machinations of rivals, leverage your wealth for advantage at market and pit your gladiators in bloody contest all with the goal of seeing your house rise to supremacy.

Here's what one of the cards and the board and pieces of Spartacus looks like ...

I did not win Spartacus, in fact, I did pretty poorly. But I still had fun.

However, I have some recommendations for the designers/manufacturers:

One problem is that only two gladiators are picked to fight each turn. This leaves everyone else sitting on their hands (sure, you can bet, but big deal). It would be better if all gladiators fought every turn. This would lead to more and shiftier alliances, too.

Also, if someone gets ahead early, they stay ahead. At least that's my experience. There are ways to fix that, too.

Also, my "special powers" only activated by getting bodyguards from the deck. I was only dealt one bodyguard all game. The guy next to me got like, seven.  That could be fixed, too.

So, I'm not buying Spartacus at this time.. I had fun, but I bet they'll fix the rules and it will be a better game.

I also was able to cross a game off my wish list by playing Star Trek: Catan:

The official description:

In Star Trek: Catan, players start the game with two small Outposts at the intersection of three planets, with each planet supplying resources based on the result of a dice roll. Players collect and trade these resources – dilithium, tritanium, food, oxygen and water – in order to build Starships that connect regions in the galaxy, establish more Outposts and Starbases (upgraded Outposts) at new intersection points in order to increase resource acquisition, and acquire Development Cards that provide Victory Points (VPs) or special abilities.
On a dice roll of 7, a Klingon ship swoops in to prevent resource production on one planet while taxing spacegoers who hold too many resources.

 This is the end-game. I didn't do particularly well.

Why didn't I do well? Let's blame Mr. Sulu. "Oh, Myyyyy!"

You get assigned a card at the start depending on how old you are. I am old, so I got Sulu. He's worthless (sorry, George Takai) early in the game. You can trade him out, but by the time I traded him out, I was hopelessly behind.

George Takai should sue. Just sayin'.

I closed the night playing Ubongo, which is a Tetris-like board game.

Official description:

On each row, twelve gems (of several colors) are arranged. Each player places his pawn in front of one of those rows.
Each player receives a playing card on which a shape consisting of several squares is depicted. Each player also gets 12 tiles consisting of 2, 3, 4, or 5 squares in some shape. By means of a dice roll, each player is assigned three or four tiles that he has to use to fill the shape on his card.
The players try to solve their own "puzzle." The race is timed by a sand glass. The outcome of this race determines the play on the main playing board.
Players may collect two gems from the front of the row their pawn is on, so the more rows you can move, the more control you have on what color gems you can collect.

Ubongo was hilarious fun, but probably shouldn't be attempted by the sleep-deprived. Bonus: When you finish your puzzle, you get to shout out: "Ubongo!"

All in all, it's been a great time. And I have more gains to try today.

Dice Tower -- Game On!

I'm at the Dice Tower convention in Orlando, a place for serious (and not-so-serious) boardgame geeks.

I've save the most interesting for down the page. Scroll down. Let's start with the obligatory zombie game: Run, Fight or Die!

Great fun, and check out the boss zombie.

Most zombie games are cooperative games. While there are limited cooperative elements in Run, Fight or Die, (mainly killing the boss), this the most individually terrifying game I've ever played. The zombies advance across a board toward you.

You save people for points. I got these two jerks. I also won the game.

I also played Catacombs, which is a tabletop dungeon explorer with elements of "Pitch Car." To elaborate, your characters are on wooden discs, which you "pitch" or flick across the table at the bad guys.

I was the elf. Better than the ice princess that some kid played; but the paladin was overpowered, as frakkin' paladins usually are.

Here are some of the cards for the baddies; good art. 

Next, a shot of the game play itself. And Catacombs is a game for all ages, so it has that going for it.

Late at night, two ladies agreed to let me joint them playing Carcassone: The Tower. I've played all sorts of Carcassone variants -- it is one of my favorite games -- but never this one. It has a good deal of "screw your neighbor" to it. One of the ladies seemed grumpy at first, but she warmed up to me.

... which was perhaps unwise, because I kicked their butts. Bwah-ha-ha! You can't see it, but I'm wringing my hands maniacally. 

 This morning, because someone kept hogging Alien Frontiers, I ended up playing some games sponsored by the companies selling them.  Good move, because I got to play Hooyah, the cooperative game of marines on a mission.

And here is my character ...

I've saved the most interesting game for last. Microvores.  This is a beta of the game, which was being demonstrated (and played) by its designer.

One of the best things about the Dice Tower con is you get to play with so many game designers. And they have some of the more interesting brains you'll ever come across. For example, who comes up with a game where you play a rampaging, mutating microbe ...

Here are some of the mutation/event cards from Microvores.

You can read more about at Microvores.com

To make it more interesting, the designer of this game has come up with his own patented system for showcasing and playing prototypes of games. It should save game designers lots of money. 

Oh, and I haven't played it, but I'll click-whore with a shot of the set-up they have for the Star Wars: X-Wing game. Fanboys go "ooh!"

I will post more later.