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Tag Archives: Expansions

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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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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Sentinels of the Multiverse plus expansions

This is the sixth in a seven part series on superhero games. In this entry I’ll discuss Sentinels of the Multiverse plus expansions.

Sentinels is another favorite of ours, and once again we have a lot of expansions:

  1. Rook City
  2. Infernal Relics
  3. Shattered Timelines
  4. Wrath of the Cosmos
  5. Vengeance
  6. Villains of the Multiverse

We also have several mini-expansions: Celestial Tribunal, Final Wasteland, Omnitron IV, Silver Gulch, Guise, Scholar, Unity, Ambuscade, Checkpoint, Miss Information, and Wager Master.

In this card game you choose a Hero and you’ll play with that deck throughout the game. We usually play a two player game, so we each choose two decks. You also choose a Villain Deck and Environment Deck. The Villain goes first, then the Heroes, and finally the Environment. As you turn over or play cards, you follow the instructions on the card.
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Legendary Plus Expansions

This is the fifth in a seven part series on superhero games. In this entry, I’ll discuss Legendary plus a bunch of its expansions.

Legendary is our favorite deck building game, which explains why we have so many expansions:

  1. Captain America 75th Anniversary
  2. Dark City
  3. Fantastic Four
  4. Guardians of the Galaxy
  5. Paint the Town Red
  6. Secret Wars 1

Professor and I play this game quite a bit, so I’ll just explain the 2 player set up. You choose 5 Heroes (each has a 14 card deck) and shuffle them together to create the 70 card Hero Deck. Each Hero has at least one icon on the card indicating the Hero Type. This is important to look at when you’re choosing your Heroes because if Iron Man is the only Tech Type Hero you have, it’s going to be difficult to use some of his special abilities. Also, some Villains and Masterminds attack you unless you have a certain class of Hero or a Hero on a certain team (like Avengers).

You choose your Mastermind and Scheme, which will tell you what has to be in your Villain Deck (Villain Groups, Henchmen Groups, Bystanders, Scheme Twists, and Master Strikes). The Mastermind plus its 4 Mastermind Tactic cards and the Scheme card go in their indicated locations on the board. The rest of the “villain” cards are shuffled together to create the Villain Deck. There’s also places on the board for the rest of the Bystanders, Wounds (30 in the base), and SHIELD Officer Maria Hill (30). Each player gets a 12 card starting deck (8 SHIELD Agents and 4 SHIELD Troopers).

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Heroes of Metro City with Sidekicks and Storylines

This is the fourth in a seven part series on superhero games. This time it’s about Heroes of Metro City and the expansion Sidekicks and Storylines.

We’ve written about this game in a previous post.

This is another deck building game, but it isn’t tied to an existing superhero universe (like DC or Marvel). You’re “creating” your superhero. To start, you get to name your hero. Each player’s board has a place to write this in using a dry erase marker. Sometimes Energy Cards give an extra boost to characters with certain elements to their names (gender, animal, etc.), so you want to pick those before deciding on a name.

Each player is allotted a certain number of points to spend on cards at the beginning of the game to start building a deck. The fewer the points, the harder the game is going to be, but we’ll get to that. Some cards give you specific powers, some energy, and some give your character a “story” (hence the expansion name).

The goal is to defeat the Archenemy, but there are also Minions and Villains to deal with. Each of these has an attack that can trigger when you roll the dice. If the dice are always trying to kill you, this will be a rough game. If you’re really lucky at rolling dice, you just might save Metro City.

The premise of the game sounds awesome. I get to create my own superhero and fight bad guys.

The execution…
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Alhambra The Big Box

This is another one of our favorite games. We have the Alhambra Big Box which has the base game plus the first five expansions (The Vizier’s Favour, The City Gates, The Thief’s Turn, The Treasure Chamber, and Power of the Sultan). We recently acquired The Falconers expansion.

Only once have we played with all the components of the Big Box; it took us six hours to play! There are just too many choices and too many things to keep track of, so this time around we decided to select just a few:
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7 Wonders: Cities, Leaders, Wonder Pack, and Babel: Age III

Setup details available in the first post.
Third Age:

This was when we realized that we had messed up and discarded the last leader instead of passing it on.  Oops!  My final Leader let me play a card from the discard pile for free.  I was hoping for a green card (science symbol), but Professor had already played a card from the discard pile and took the only green card.  I was disappointed that my starting hand didn’t have any green cards, and Professor indicated that he had at least one.  He also pointed out that he would be passing his cards to me.  I took this to mean that he was going to be nice to me (his wife), by passing me a green card.  Instead, he played one, participated in the Great Work, and passed me a hand with no green cards.  I only held it against him until I was able to participate in the Great Work.

  • Babel Tiles: None
  • Great Work: Archives [SUCCESS]
    • Must play a green card and pay 4 gold
    • Participants:
      • President Gamer
      • Professor (x2)
      • Space Cat (x2)
      • Chubby Unicorn
    • Reward: an extra science symbol
    • Penalty: loss of all your blue cards
  • Resolution of Military Conflicts:
    • Clumsy Ninja – Victories over Shutter and Professor
    • Shutter – Defeated by Clumsy Ninja; Victory over President Gamer
    • President Gamer – Victory over Space Cat; Defeated by Shutter
    • Space Cat – Defeated by President Gamer and Professor
    • Professor – Victory over Space Cat; Defeated by Clumsy Ninja
    • Chubby Unicorn – Protected by Diplomacy Token

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7 Wonders: Cities, Leaders, Wonder Pack, and Babel: The Final Year

Setup details available in the first post.
Space Cat looked out over her Gardens. Stage two was complete, and they would begin stage three shortly. President Gamer had already finished his Temple, and Professor had just finished his Mausoleum by using resources the others used to hire Leaders. Space Cat hoped Cleopatra would be worth the gold she’d spent to hire her.
Her spies had reported that Clumsy Ninja had hired Nefertiti; Solomon had brought enough resources to Byzantium to build a structure for Chubby Unicorn, and Caesar was increasing the military forces in Rhodos. Space Cat hoped this meant President Gamer, who’d hired Nebuchadnezzar, would turn his attentions to Shutter in Rhodos, since Space Cat’s Babylon still didn’t have a military. If she wanted to complete her Gardens, which she had every intention of doing, she couldn’t spare any resources on armies. It was time to get to work.

“Just my luck,” Clumsy Ninja groaned as she looked over the details of the next Great Work.
Declaration to all cities:
The final Great Work to be undertaken by our collective cities shall be the Archives
Each city wishing to participate must build a Scientific Structure
Fee: 400 Gold
Reward: Resources to complete another Scientific Structure
Even though she’d wanted to participate in the last Great Work, she was finding herself hampered by her inability to get glass. Her own glass resources had been used to pay reparations when the first Great Work failed, and neither Rhodos nor Byzantium had any glass for her to buy.
Though her army was nothing to laugh at, Alexandria didn’t have any Scientific Structures. Finding the resources and location for one now would prove more difficult. Plus she had only completed stage one of her wonder and pressure to continue construction was mounting.

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7 Wonders: Cities, Leaders, Wonder Pack, and Babel: Age II

Setup details available in the first post.
Second Age:

  • Babel Tiles:
    • All single resource brown cards now have an infinite amount of that resource
    • Brick, stone, wood, and ore cost one less
    • Playing a purple card earns you five gold
  • Great Work: River Port [SUCCESS]
    • Participants must play a yellow card, pay one gold and a loom
    • Reward: 6 gold
      • Professor (x2)
      • Chubby Unicorn
      • Shutter
      • President Gamer
      • Space Cat
    • Penalty: Lose all your gold
  • Resolution of Military Conflicts:
    • Clumsy Ninja – Victories over Chubby Unicorn and Shutter
    • Shutter – Defeated by President Gamer and Clumsy Ninja
    • President Gamer – Victories over Shutter and Space Cat
    • Space Cat – Defeated by President Gamer and Professor
    • Professor – Victories over Space Cat and Chubby Unicorn
    • Chubby Unicorn – Defeated by Clumsy Ninja and Professor

Tower of Babel and Great Work

7 Wonders: Cities, Leaders, Wonder Pack, and Babel: The Second Year

Setup details available in the first post.
In a fit of frustration, Space Cat crumpled the report. Her Leader, Berenice, would bring in a bit of extra income, but, as a lover of science, she coveted Professor’s Leader, Aristotle. Babylon already boasted a few Scientific Structures, and Space Cat planned to build more. She smoothed out the report once more and read over the rest of the information.

  • President Gamer hired Hannibal
  • Shutter hired Amytis
  • Clumsy Ninja hired Semiramis

It seemed Chubby Unicorn declined to hire a leader, and Space Cat wondered if Byzantium was suffering from cash flow issues. Since they weren’t neighboring cities, it was unlikely to have much of an impact on Babylon.

“Declaration to all cities,” the town crier of Alexandria read from a scroll. “The second Great Work to be undertaken by our collective cities shall be the River Port.”
Clumsy Ninja looked down at an identical scroll in her hands and read along:
Each city wishing to participate must be able to supply loom and build a Commercial Structure.
Fee: 100 Gold
Reward: 600 Gold
“Hmm, that might actually be possible,” she murmured.
Alexandria already had a loom supply and enough money, now Clumsy Ninja just needed to find the right Commercial Structure for her city.

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