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Monthly Archives: August 2017

Alibi


Clue is the traditional “whodunit” game. I know we played that game a lot when I was growing up, and I still have our old beat up copy. At some point, though, you might feel like you’ve outgrown Clue. You still like the concept, but the execution has become boring. Enter Alibi.

Alibi: The Whodunit Card Game is more complex than Clue. Not only do you have to figure out who, what, and where, but you also need to determine when and why (the motive). Each player gets a score sheet which you want to keep hidden from other players. The first time we played this game, we used other game boxes to build little forts around our score sheets, but a piece of paper over the top is sufficient (Editor’s note: though not as interesting). The score sheets help you to keep track of the clues and eliminate options. Despite this, determining the who, what, when, where, and why is still challenging.

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Playing the Game Wrong

More and more often we’ve been discovering that we’ve been playing some of our games wrong.

Well, maybe not wrong, but it seems like some rules somehow slip by us. Sometimes we purposely ignore certain rules. With co-op games, we always play with our cards face up on the table. It just makes it easier to strategize. Other times it’s just that we messed up.

Some of our mistakes we discovered because of a BoardGameGeek thread. Others were discovered after rereading the rules again.

With 7 Wonders, we didn’t realize you couldn’t play multiple copies of the same card. No one ever questioned it, so we never looked at the rules for clarification.

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Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: Angel in the Tower

This is the play-by-play version of the previously posted story mode.

If the Shadow Clock location is still open at the end of a turn and no character is there, discard the top card of the Blessings deck.

  • Seoni – Rin figurine
  • Seelah – Saber figurine

Locations:

  • Temple- Seoni start
  • Shadow Clock
  • Shrine to Lamashtu – Seelah Start
  • City Gate

Seelah opening hand:

  1. Magic Shield (favored card type)
  2. Spiked Chain
  3. Longsword +1
  4. Cure

Seoni starting hand:

  1. Frost Ray (favored card type)
  2. Force Missile
  3. Acolyte
  4. Blessing of Pharasma
  5. Sage’s Journal
  6. Blessing of Irori

Seoni 1st turn

Encountered Scimitar – Strength 7

Not possible

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Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: Angel in the Tower (story)

The interrogation of Ironbirar led the sheriff to ask Seoni and Seelah to investigate an “angel” in the Shadow Clock. He also warned them to keep on guard for faceless stalkers describing them as clay-like creatures possibly capable of shapeshifting.

A little wary of inspecting the Shadow Clock without more information, Seoni decided take her acolyte to the temple while Seelah checked out the Shrine to Lamashtu.

“Something seems to have happened here,” Seoni remarked as they passed yet another scimitar.

“It doesn’t look like it turned out well for whomever owned those weapons,” Amy added.

Seoni nodded in agreement as she examined a spyglass. It seemed to be intact which made it as useful acquisition. “Let’s see what else we can find.”

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Castle Panic: Engines of War

We’re big fans of Castle Panic. We already had the expansions Wizard’s Tower and Dark Titan, so when we heard about Engines of War, we knew we had to have it as well. It took awhile for us to find it (as it was out of stock on Amazon for quite a while), so we were even more excited when we were finally able to buy it.

Engines of War adds some new monsters and tokens, a Keep for the center of your castle, and then, well, engines of war to both sides. The monsters get things like a Battering Ram and an Encampment while the players get things like a Catapult and Traps. One of the new monsters is the Breathtaker which keeps players from trading cards! We really didn’t like that one.

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Terraforming Mars

Terraforming Mars is a recent (2016) game developed by Fryxgames which is a family run gaming company (“FryxGames consists of 4 brothers out of a family of 10 brothers, 6 sisters, and 2 game-passionate parents.“). I first heard about it when it was nominated for some 2016 Golden Geek Awards (Game of the Year, Strategy Board Game, and Solo Board Game). It was later nominated for even more awards (2016 Swiss Gamers Award, 2017 Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming, 2017 Jogo do Ano, and 2017 Kennerspiel des Jahres). Given all the hubbub, I decided to take a look.

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Tsuro of the Seas

Tsuro is a tile placement game. This particular version also includes sea monsters (Daikaiju), but we have yet to play with those. Everyone picks a ship and gets 3 Wake Tiles. Starting with the oldest player, everyone places their ships on the start markers around the board. Then once again beginning with the oldest player, you place a Wake Tile, move your ship along the path (or wake), and draw a new tile. The goal is to not be eliminated by having your ship sent off the edge of the board.

When placing tiles you can’t:

  • Purposefully send your ship off the board unless it’s your only move (this tends to happen a lot in the end game)
  • Set your ship on an endless loop unless it’s your only move – this does eliminate you from the game
  • Place a tile that causes you and another player to travel in the same direction on the same path

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Terra Mystica: Fire & Ice

Terra Mystica was already a pretty exciting game for us. Then I got the Fire & Ice expansion for my birthday.

It includes a new board – which includes a reminder about the end game conversion of coins into Victory points – new Factions (with boards, Terrain tiles, and buildings), Final Scoring Tiles, Faction Tokens, and a Turn Order Board.

We haven’t used all the new features of the expansion. For example, the Turn Order Board changes the order of turns every round. Whoever turns in their Bonus Tile goes first (as with the base game), then whoever turns in second goes second, and so on. We haven’t had the chance to play the expansion with more than 2 players, so there’s no reason to use this. This means we also haven’t needed the Faction Tokens which are placed on the Turn Order Board.

We have played with 4 of the 6 new Factions, though: Ice Maidens, Shapeshifters, Yetis, and Riverwalkers. The Ice Maidens, Yetis, and Shapeshifters get a ring to place on the starting Terrain of their choice (unless that Terrain is already taken). After they make their choice, no subsequent player can choose the race with that home territory.

The first game Professor was the Ice Maidens and I was the Shapeshifters. The second game Professor was Yetis and I was Riverwalkers.

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Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: The Cult Exposed

This is the play-by-play version of the previously posted story mode.

If you acquire a spell, bury a card.

  • Seoni – Rin figurine
  • Seelah – Saber figurine

Locations:

  • Academy- Seoni start
  • Temple
  • Mill
  • City Gate – Seelah Start

Seelah opening hand:

  1. Chain Mail (favored card type)
  2. Blessing of the Gods
  3. Standard Bearer
  4. Magic Shield

Seoni starting hand:

  1. Lightning Bolt (favored card type)
  2. Shalelu Andosana
  3. Scorching Ray
  4. Blessing of Pharasma
  5. Sage’s Journal
  6. Masterwork Tools

Seelah 1st turn

Encountered Dog – Wisdom 10

d8, rolled 2

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Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: The Cult Exposed (story)

When the Sheriff’s men finished searching Foxglove Manor, they returned with evidence that the Skinsaw Man was part of a cult of Skinsaw Men from Magnimar. Though they were hoping for a break, Seoni and Seelah agreed to investigate.

At least their time on the road to Magnimar was uneventful.

Playing to their strengths, Seoni along with Shalelu Andosana set out for the local academy while Seelah and her standard bearer went to see what information the guards had at the city gate.

Seelah tried to hide her disappointment that the dog they found at the city gate wouldn’t let her pet it. Her standard bearer didn’t seem to notice, though she seemed disappointed that Seelah hadn’t picked up the set of darts. Ranged weapons just weren’t for a paladin.

It seemed like they’d only just arrived and began asking questions when they encountered Justice Ironbriar. He looked alarmed by Seelah’s presence, but she was more alarmed when he ordered a mercenary to attack her.

She easily defeated the mercenary, and demanded to know why Ironbriar had attacked her. He refused to answer and managed to slip from her grasp, so she could only assume he was somehow tangled up in this whole cult mess.

“Now what?” her standard bearer asked.

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