Tuesday, August 25, 2015

YOU PLAY NOW! Risk Legacy


NOTE: What's done can never be undone. This is the ominous message on the sticker that seals every game of Risk Legacy. It is a warning, but also a promise of an amazing experience.


When I was in high school, me and my friends used to play weekend long sessions of Risk. We would put together two boards and try to assault this double world. Invariably by Saturday night, I would lose and spend the rest of Sunday waiting for the game to end. I never played another game of Risk again... until I heard about Risk Legacy.

 

While the heart of the game is the same - use troops to conquer the world, that's where the resemblance ends. The troops are all different and unique - there are mechs and Mad Max-esque troops on dune buggies and even barbarians who ride badgers. These troops can be upgraded with abilities and advantages every time you play.
In fact, unlike most board games, Risk Legacy is meant to be played about 12 - 15 times to get the whole experience... which starts when everyone who plays signs the board. Write on a game board!? Sacrilege! Every time a game is played, the winner writes on the board. The player with the most signatures on the board gets advantages at the start of the next game.
 
 
The designer Rob Davieau had a brilliant realization that players bring history to the table and yet games never reflect this truth. Risk Legacy does. Winners and losers, grudges and rivalries all help form the game as player add permanent stickers to the board, change rules in the rule book, even tear up cards. Seeing a life-long gamer tear up a card is worth the price of admission alone.
 
 
 The greatest innovation is the ramping of the game. There are several envelopes that are not opened until certain game conditions are met - much like achievements in video games. Once these are opened, new rules are added, factions change and the game play morphs in unpredictable ways.
 

 Risk Legacy is a masterwork and no matter what your history with Risk has been in the past, should be played. All games should try to be like Risk Legacy, even if a little bit.

1-2 hours to play (per session)
66.97 on Amazon.com

Monday, August 24, 2015

YOU PLAY THIS! Imperial Assault

Scott says YOU PLAY THIS!

If you've ever played Fantasy Flight's fantasy adventure game Descent, then you'll have no trouble with Star Wars Imperial Assault.


Intrepid Rebel heroes battle against the ceaseless forces of the Empire in this action strategy game. Can be scaled from a simple skirmish game to a complex multi-session campaign.

 

Includes a two-player skirmish battle game too! Lots of great miniatures available with more on the way.

 

$64.99 on Amazon.com
Takes 2 to 4 hours to play

Sunday, August 23, 2015

YOU PLAY THIS! Guillotine

Scott says YOU PLAY THIS!


GUILLOTINE. A mean-spirited and hilarious card game where you screw with your fellow players to chop the most heads off of French aristocrats.


Takes about 15 - 30 minutes to play...
$11.99 on Amazon.com


https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/116/guillotine

YOU PLAY THIS! Formula D

Scott says YOU PLAY THIS!


Formula D is the best roll and move game I've ever played and it has the best use for polyhedronal die since D&D. Check out these awesome little shifter that you use with the dice!


I don't even like auto racing and I love this game. (Although I've been thinking about reskinning it as the Star Wars Pod Race)


There are tons of expansion race tracks available too.

Plays in an hour. ...
$38.99 @ amazon.com


https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37904/formula-d
 

YOU PLAY THIS! Betrayal At House on the Hill

I've had a life-long love affair with boardgames, but the recent boom in board gaming (thanks to the internet, Kickstarter and the recession) has fired my obsession into hyper-space.

To share my obsession, I've been posting recommendations on Facebook. But why should Facebook have all of the fun?


Scott says YOU PLAY THIS!
Betrayal at House on the Hill. You are ghost investigators exploring a haunted house. What is it haunted by? One of FIFTY different endings where one of your companions becomes the betrayer.


2 hours to play. $34.45 on amazon.com

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10547/betrayal-house-hill