|
#45 Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 (2015)
|
||
 |
 |
|
|
Synopsis
|
||
|
There is a new and dying
trend in board games over the last few years – legacy games. When you
normally play a board game you get it out, set it up, play and then pack it
away. The next time you get it out, you do the same thing. Legacy games carry
over from play to play, where your actions and choices impact future plays
and generally a story evolves.
Pandemic Legacy was one
of the first legacy games and is widely considered a masterpiece (holding the
#1 spot on Boardgamegeek.com for a time (currently the world’s #2 game).
Other legacy games have not done so well…
Pandemic Legacy is a
game based on the game Pandemic (a cooperative game where players try to
prevent an outbreak of disease across the planet). Pandemic Legacy differs
from Pandemic because you can only play the game, at most 24 times. Your
choices during the game change how the game is played going forward and a
story unfolds.
Played over an in game
year, Rebecca and I have played through April and it is getting intense. One
disease has mutated and cannot be cured, it turns people transparent and
mindless. While we race to find a cure, London and Milan are rioting and
Sydney is running out of food (all a product of our hard choices we needed to
make over the course of the previous 4 games.
Pandemic Legacy is a
very different type of game built on the solid ‘Pandemic’ foundation making
it an engrossing experience.
|
||
|
Number of
Players:
|
2 to 4
|
|
|
Recommended
Play Time
|
60
|
Minutes
|
|
BGG Rating:
|
8.7
|
/10.0
|
|
BGG Rank:
|
2
|
/91 000
|
|
Complexity
Rating
|
2.83
|
/5.00
|
|
#44 Axis and Allies 1914 (2013)
|
||
 |
 |
|
|
Synopsis
|
||
|
As I am sure you would
all know Axis and Allies was originally a game designed as a light strategy
depiction of World War 2 where players assumed the role of supreme commander
of one of the major world powers.
Therefore Axis and
Allies 1914 is a game using the ‘Axis and Allies’ system based on World War
One.
Games about the Great
War are always hard to pull off. The nature of the conflict, particularly the
experience of western armies, does not really lend itself to an engrossing
game. With Axis and Allies 1914being a fun, light, dice chucking game
however, it achieved where others had failed.
I always liked Axis and
Allies game and the World War One version is no exception – I think it’s
because it combines my favourite things (military strategy) with an easy to
play and understand system (which allows others to easily get into the game).
Oh and did I mention the 100’s of little plastic infantry, tanks, plans
and guns and the ability to play my favourite country (Austro-Hungarian
Empire) J
|
||
|
Number of Players:
|
2 to 8
|
|
|
Recommended
Play Time
|
180
|
Minutes
|
|
BGG Rating:
|
7.3
|
/10.0
|
|
BGG Rank:
|
2 164
|
/91 000
|
|
Complexity
Rating
|
2.66
|
/5.00
|
|
#43 Sushi Go! (2013)
|
||
 |
 |
|
|
Synopsis
|
||
|
Talk about a change of
gears from the last entry!
Sushi Go! is a quick
simple card game based on the excitement and fast-paced panic of a
sushi-train (having 3 dishes in front of you and eyeing off another of your
favourites slowing rolling towards you - yes we have all been there).
In Sushi Go! players collect
sets of Sushi and amass points based on the difficulty of those sets. The
trick is that you can take one card from your hand to keep every round but
then have to pass your hand to the player on the left and receive a hand from
your right. Therefore risk mitigation and memory play a large part in this
game.
The fun artwork and
quick/simple nature of the game make it a good brainless or filler game when
you are short on time!
|
||
|
Number of
Players:
|
2 to 5
|
|
|
Recommended
Play Time
|
15
|
Minutes
|
|
BGG Rating:
|
7.1
|
/10.0
|
|
BGG Rank:
|
369
|
/91 000
|
|
Complexity
Rating
|
1.17
|
/5.00
|
|
#42 Doom (2004)
|
||
 |
 |
|
|
Synopsis
|
||
|
Before there was Star
Wars: Imperial Assault there was a game called Descent (basically a
dungeon-crawler like HeroQuest). Before Descent, Fantasy Flight Games (the
publisher of the previous two games) made a board game based on the first
person shooter video game ‘Doom’.
The reason I mention
Imperial Assault is because if you know the premise of that game, you pretty
much know Doom. A booklet of random map tile which are set up to make a
campaign, where one player is the ‘game master’ (i.e. bad guy) and the rest
of the players take on the heroes (in this case the ‘Marines’).
As a child I liked a
similar game based on the Warhammer universe called HeroQuest. When Doom was
released I was so excited because here was a merger of my two favourite
things – A board game (with HeroQuest gameplay) with a video game theme. A
perfect game, I thought, to finally get some of my friends interested in
board game (that didn’t really turn out the way I wanted…) but it was a great
game nonetheless.
What made this game special
was the theme (helped in part by the miniatures) where the heroes would face
all manner of demonic and foul creatures with limited ammunition and weapons.
This game also allowed you to create your own missions, something that
allowed me to enjoy the game, even though I didn’t have many people to play
it with!
|
||
|
Number of
Players:
|
2 to 4
|
|
|
Recommended
Play Time
|
180
|
Minutes
|
|
BGG Rating:
|
6.9
|
/10.0
|
|
BGG Rank:
|
862
|
/91 000
|
|
Complexity
Rating
|
2.91
|
/5.00
|
|
#41 Asia Engulfed (2007)
|
||
 |
 |
|
|
Synopsis
|
||
|
After playing Axis and
Allies for a while I wanted something more from the WW2 grand strategy games.
I looked around and there was a lot of ‘chit’ games which were over 24hrs
long and you needed tweezers to move the cardboard counters around. These
games seemed too far of a stretch, particularly as I did not play Axis and
Allies very often.
So I found a game called
Europe Engulfed covering the entire European conflict with similar dice
rolling mechanics to Axis and Allies but adding more depth like weather,
logistics and political rules. It was a great game that also had a fog of war
mechanic (the units were blocks, you could see the number of your opponents
blocks but not their composition or strength.
Seeing how much I
enjoyed Europe Engulfed, when Asia Engulfed came out (covering the Pacific
Theatre) I had to get it. Asia Engulfed concentrates more on the naval
aspects of the war which was abstracted in Europe Engulfed. Asia Engulfed is
just as good as it’s sibling and can be paired up to create a truly epic
global conflict! Just be warned, its long, complex and has two rulebooks :O
|
||
|
Number of
Players:
|
2 to 3
|
|
|
Recommended
Play Time
|
480
|
Minutes
|
|
BGG Rating:
|
7.6
|
/10.0
|
|
BGG Rank:
|
2 148
|
/91 000
|
|
Complexity
Rating
|
3.79
|
/5.00
|
Comments
Post a Comment