#tapum

[turuin]

Se dovete leggere una graphic novel, che sia questa. Se ce la fate a trattenere le lacrime.

[emanuelmourafado-blog]

Hoje Tapum! #emanuelmoura #fado #fadohumoristico #tapum #fadomalcriado #studio #recording https://www.instagram.com/p/B3b3jicn6Cg/?igshid=1xwk7g09nt92n

[paolasilviadolciposts-blog]

#crash #tapum 🚨💩

[paolasilviadolciposts-blog]

#crashed #tapum 🚨💩

[hexdicefire]

Review of the day: The Grizzled | Cool mini or not

Today we’re going to take a look at a small cooperative cardgame for 2 to 5 players called The Grizzled, produced by Cool Mini or Not. Although the theme of the game is the First World War seen from the eyes of entrenched french soldiers, this is not a wargame nor a game in which you will fire a single shot against an enemy.  I would say this is a pacifist game, with a good historical flavour, about friendship and fear of dying. Isn’t it strange for a game? Let’s look at it! The Box

The Grizzled come in a small package, as big as a compact disc but a bit thicker than a Rowling’s book, painted with cartoonesque soldiers and a desolated background. The art is really nice as you can see and it reminded me of old Strurmtruppen comics.  The box is printed also on the inside and it contains a deck of cards, some cardboard tokens and a cardboard summation of the rules, useful for new players. The deck contains characters cards, the Statue and the Peace card, and the core deck of the game. Quality is good and the art, as said before, remains fine. The tokens are really thick and resistant and are easy to punch out and sort in plastic bags. 

The Game

It’s really not simple to win this little game, I ensure you.  Despite of the evocative images on the cards, this is kind of an hardcore game. In every match the players choose their character card, each with a unique Good Luck Charm icon and a soldier represented on. Then one player is given the Squad Leader Token (he will be the first player and the only one who’s allowed to play the Speech token as an action) and he decides how hard will be that round for the cooperating team.  After the setup two decks will be on the table: one is the Morale Drop Deck and the other one is the Mission deck. The first one represents the psycological loss of hope and depression in the trenches and also the dangers of war. The other one is the deck from which the Squad Leader draws the mission cards for his team. Once the first deck runs out of cards the players will lose the game; once the second deck runs out of cards and the players have no cards in their hand, they’ll win.  What’s a Mission? The Squad Leader always decides how hard it is the current mission by choosing its Intensity (the number of cards he’ll have to deal to each player).  Then, the players will take turns by playing a card from their hand or choosing to retreat from the Mission. If a player decides to play a card he must place it in the middle of the table so everyone can see the symbols on it. There can be three type of symbols on the mission cards: a bullet, a gas mask and whistle. On the card background there can be also one of these four weather conditions: rain, snow, night and day. Sometimes there’s a mix of symbols and weather conditions which could make a card really dangerous once played.  The player must never play a card if that card contains a symbol or a weather condition already on the table in two copies. Three symbols or three weather conditions on the table lead to the mission’s failure. Once a player decides to pass and retreat he must also choose secretly one of his Support token (Left or Right to focus support one the player sitting his left or his right) and place it in front of him. There are also two other possible actions : using a Good Luck Charm, which consists in player flipping his character’s card and removing from the table a card which contains his Good Luck Charm symbol/weather condition; making a Speech, which is allowed only when a player is the Squad Leader and consists in that player nominating a symbol/weather condition and the other player discarding from their hand all the cards containing the symbol/weather condition. A player may also have in his hand some cards with a Zap on it and no symbols/weather contions. These cards contains a text with a negative event that once played will affect the player who played them. If a player has 4 or more cards with a Zap on it the Mission fails. A mission is always successful if all the players have Retreated or if they played all the cards in their hands. In the Support phase, which follows the end of the mission, players reveal their Support tokens and pass them to the left or right. The player who receives most of them is the one who can perform one of these two actions: flip face up his character’s card or remove two Zap cards. If the mission has failed they can remove only a Zap card. The last step is the Morale drop when the players sum up the number of cards remained in their hands and add that number of cards from the Monument pile to the Mission/Peace pile. If doing this the Monument card placed at the bottom of the Monument deck is revealed, then the players lose the game. If after the Support phase, players have no remaining cards in hands and the Peace card is visible in the Mission/Peace deck, then the players win.

What I think about “The Grizzled”

I’ve played this game often with different gaming groups and received different opinions: someone hates it cause it is cooperative, someone thinks it is too hard to win, someone loves it for its wonderful graphics and interactivity and someone thinks it’s really a sad game for the historical background. I admit that once I discovered that the characters were based on real soldiers and that those soldiers have died in trenches for their nation I felt a little sadness in me. Apart from that particular moment, I always enjoyed the tense and challenging play this game gives. You can’t make it alone, that’s the message behind it. You can’t just go your own way, you should help your friends and believe in them to overcome the war. This game really focuses on values like friendship, trustfulness, courage, sacrifice. It educates the player while he’s enjoying his time playing. It is really a game worth more than the materials in it for its invisible components. I reccommend it to all the players and gaming groups but expecially to the families, cause it can be a good educational tool other than a card game. The price is really good, the design and art are amazing, the plays are always diffent. Definitely a good title. Thanks for reading, HexDiceFire