The Gaming Adventures of Yet Another Gaming Couple

Competitve lovers of all things board games.  A digital record of his losses and our reviews.  BGG: anothergamingcouple

[yetanothergamingcouple]

Life Update

Hey Meeples!

We thought we should explain why we’ve been less active over the last 8-9 months. Some of you know that we bought a house. We put an offer in on a lovely bungalow in mid-June 2020 but there was a lot of complications regarding the solar panels. We were not able to get the keys until the end of November, so it was a lot of hard work on the weekends and after work to get moved in before Christmas. We officially moved in on 10th December with all, but the office completed. We had an amazing Christmas in our new home and were blessed with love and gifts (a few being board game related).

During this time, we were also planning a secret wedding that most of our family and friends did not know about. Let me tell you ordering a wedding dress from a bridal shop that you have not been able to try on is stressful! We had planned to get married on the 5th November but thanks to the 2nd national lockdown in England we had to choose between postponing the wedding for an undetermined amount of time or have a frantic 17 hours to rearrange everything to get married on the 3rd November. Thankfully, we managed to rearrange everything, and we both have lovely accommodating bosses that let us start our annual leave early. We were lucky as we had always planned on it just being us and our parents at the ceremony and then out for a meal. So it was everything we wanted on the day…minus me getting tongue-tied and forgetting the words. We did unfortunately have to cancel the surprise wedding reception.

Throughout all the above I (Kirsty) had been struggling with my physical and mental health. I had to go to the hospital for several scans and tests. I won’t bore you with all the details, but I was diagnosed with chronic migraines and glaucoma. I’m still getting poked and prodded for other issues that we cannot work out root cause is. In addition, I’m autistic and there has been a lot of short notice changes I’ve had to deal with process. That is not my strongest suit, and it has really taken its toll on my mental health. Andy has been my rock and kept me going. We have used the last 8-9 months to recharge and are to start posting reviews again very soon. If you have stuck with us while we have have been quiet, thank you. It means a lot to us.

[yetanothergamingcouple]

24 Hour Gaming Event

Better late than never. Here is our piece on the 24-hour gaming event we went to last September. There will be a post in the next couple of days explaining our silence but for now please enjoy our account of the event.

The awesome Rachel and James over at Bake Battle & Roll organised a mammoth 24-hour gaming event in aid of Sheffield Children’s Hospital. The event kicked off on Saturday 12th September 2020 at 14:00. Katie (occasional guest reviewer) and Kirsty’s mothership joined us for the first 2-hours, and we kicked it off with a couple of games of Side Effect. Katie won both games and the mothership was completely confused by it.

Next we tried a new game to us all, Chronicles of Crimes. Kirsty had been eyeing it up for a while and was excited to try it but was left a bit disappointed. The premise is good, but it was a bit awkward and clunky to play with 4 of us as we had to keep passing Kirsty’s phone around us all.

Kirsty forced the group to play one of her new games, Ghosts Love Candy, we didn’t quite play it right but Andy was surprised at how decent the game was. It’s a fun card drafting game with a cutesy spooky vibe. Kirsty absolutely destroyed the rest of us and won by 10 points.

The last game we played with Katie and the mothership was Cards Against Humanity. Katie had been wanting to play this for years but since she only turned 16 this year the answer has always been nooooo…until now! She was thoroughly disappointed in her crap cards and had to skip a turn to change her hand. As their time was coming to an end we decided to play to 5. It was a close game with us all having 4 wins, but Kirsty managed to steal the tie-breaker game…with rock, paper, scissors.

Kirsty’s mothership and Katie then said goodbye and we were left to fend for ourselves. Kirsty has had her eye on Arkham Horror which is a very heavy/complex board game and a fellow gamer, Chris, became very interested in playing with us and offered to help out. He showed us the basic game mechanic and rolls and we got stuck in to fighting the monsters and teleporting to the Netherworld. Between the three of us we beat the game and a great time was had by all. It’s definitely one that we’d like to buy, but we feel it’d be better with more players.

After such an intense game we felt like something lighter, so we broke out Fluttering Souls and took it easy for a while. It’s a light card drafting game that’s based on the Japanese legend of The White Butterfly. This is one of the games we own and brought with us. Andy won all of the games this time.

After a quick snack another player, Josh, came and asked to join us. Josh chose Side Effect, another game from our collection we brought with us, and we explained the rules to him quickly. As an avid board gamer, Josh picked up the rules easily and won many of the games we had together.

Next up was Everdell. This is a beautiful game with very tactile pieces and a large cardboard tree, which the Meeples of Bake Battle and Roll, James and Rachel, keep on display in a glass cabinet rather than deconstruct it after each play and stored in the game box. We setup the board and managed to read the rules but as this was a new game to both of us and a game of Monster of the Week was due to start we packed it away. We did intend on coming back and playing it later, but Monster of the Week ran over, and we never managed to go back to it.

Neither of us had heard of Monster of the Week let alone played it but it turned out to be a simpler Dungeons & Dragons with simple character creation and rolling. The Keeper (read as DM in Dungeons & Dragons) was Chris and we were playing as ghost detectives a la Scooby Doo. Andy was a street thug/gangster and Kirsty’s character was a mundane. Chris was an excellent Keeper and let us get away with lots of silliness in the name of fun. We gave the NPCs silly names like Mrs. Mister Brown (a drama teacher) and Jason Barson (The bartender’s son). Andy dealt the final blow to the boss ghost with a holy shotgun and we all cheered. Subsequently we have purchased the game book for this and hope to run our own campaigns with our friends.

After saving the world from evil-doers Andy headed over to the Switch to play Mario Kart while Kirsty played Dungeon Mayhem Monster Madness with the James, Rachel, Chris and Josh. James and Rachel had previously played the base game Dungeon Mayhem before so were familiar with the rules and both Chris and Josh picked them up quickly. Josh was the first to be knocked out quickly followed by Chris. It was a close as to who would win, James knocked out Rachel and then Kirsty knocked James out but there was only 2 HP in it.

Kirsty was very much peopled out by this point and decided to have some solo time while Andy played Dungeons and Dragons. This was a team battle royal. All players fighting against progressively harder monsters using pre-created characters. Andy chose a wizard and spent most of the time stood still casting spells galore. Some players were upset that there was no levelling in the event, but we had lots of fun. Everyone was getting pretty tired and James was struggling to run the game so we called it a day.

While Andy was still playing Dungeons and Dragons and once Kirsty had recovered a little she played a couple of games of Rhino Hero. It’s a relatively simple game premise but a lot of fun, especially when you are able to box other players in. You choose a superhero and build platforms with the aim of moving up to the top. You have to roll the dice to see if you move or down, and if so how many levels, or stay where you are. If you are on the same level as another superhero you have to battle to determine who remains there and who moves down. An added complication is the need to hang monkeys from some of the platforms. They are tricky to attach and often fall off when adding new platforms.

We had a small break with some food and coffees and was invited to a game of Talisman. A large game which took a while to play. Players have to work their way from the outside of the game towards the centre. Fighting monsters and trying to find a talisman in order to progress. There were a few laughs and people being turned into toads which raised a lot of laughs. Kirsty fought off all the opposition to claim the victory and we all concluded it was a fun game but not a good game.

Kirsty was very excited to see Bake Battle and Roll had Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas board game in. It’s a very basic game that leaves a lot to be desired. We decided to pack it away mid-game in favour of a bacon sandwich. It had so much potential, but it just fell short.

After a quick run to a nearby café to grab some bacon and egg sandwiches Andy invited Chris to play Space Crusade. He’d been excited about it since the start and didn’t want to disappoint him. This was a quick run of the mission Seek and Destroy and some rule bending to make the game fun. The game ended in a firefight between the Dreadnought, Chris’ Commander, and his plasma gun Marine. With the Dreadnought closing in on him, Chris managed to destroy his enemy and claim the victory. Andy was happy to have killed some of Chris’ Marines and shows that the alien player can win too.

While Andy was playing Space Crusade, Kirsty played Disney Colour Brain with Rachel and Em. You have eleven cards in your hand and one or a combination of cards will answer the question. Getting it right is only half of the battle to scoring a point you need the other players/teams to get it wrong to walk off with the points. It was simple and mind-numbingly easy to grasp but highlighted Kirsty’s need to watch more Disney-Pixar films. Kirsty just managed to scrape a win before moving on to a game of Red Panda. The aim of the game is to get rid of all your cards or be the last player standing. The graphics are super cute and colourful. It’s very much a luck-based game and although it’s clearly a game aimed at children and families it’s a nice filler game for adults.

As exhaustion was finally settling in we opted to play games we were familiar with and cracked out Side Effects again. We played two games with each of us claiming a victory before moving on to Fluxx. It’s been a while since we played the physical copy of Fluxx as we’ve got into the habit of playing it on our phones. Neither one of us can recall just how many games of Fluxx we played nor even who won. Sleep deprivation really took out Kirsty’s competitive nature. After Fluxx we went back to Fluttering Souls, once again neither one of us remembers who won.

We decided we’d see if we could use sleep deprivation to our advantage and tap into some psychic ability to play The Mind. Andy didn’t have high hopes for success and Kirsty was unsure she could count to 2 let alone 100 but we still tried. We’re still unsure what dark magic was afoot but somehow, we managed to reach and complete level 12 with 2 lives remaining. It was as if we were thinking as one.

Being on a high from the win of The Mind we thought we could successfully take on Forbidden Dessert. Oh how wrong were we. We started well, got everything set up and a strategy of who was going where. That quickly went downhill as Andy started to move Kirsty’s pawn and Kirsty kept getting confused by which way the wind blew. All in all it was a disaster and we soon realised we weren’t in a fit state to play Forbidden Dessert so we packed it away.

Andy was a little amazed that Kirsty had never played Dobble before and decided it was due time she did. We played all 5 variants of Dobble in the rule book before Chris wondered over to join us. We played 3 more games of Dobble with Chris before moving on to our final game of the 24-hour event, Sushi Go! Chris hadn’t play Sushi Go! before so we invited him to join us. Andy quickly explained the rules and our final game was underway. Chris picked the rules up well and if not for having the least amount of puddings would have come in 2nd, Andy thought he had the most with 3 but unfortunately for him Kirsty had been squirreling them away and had 4. Andy did manage to win this game though by 3 points.

The 24-hour gaming event was brought to an end with the raffle draw. Between us we came away with a £30 voucher for Punch Menswear in Doncaster, Men’s hair products from Anarchy Hair Salon,

2 Reaper miniatures and 2 hand-made cotton cloths. Kirsty did also win a Big Potato plushie but gave it to the raffle drawer as he seemed disappointed his dad didn’t win it.

It took Andy a couple of days to recover and get his sleep pattern back to normal and Kirsty was just about recovered a week later. It was a fantastic experience with some truly amazing people and games. We would definitely be up for repeating the experience…Kirsty would just need to book a week off work to recover.

A huge thank you to everyone that donated and sent messages of encouragement. When Rachel and James first started they wanted to raise £1000, between donations, sponsorship and raffle tickets they’ve managed to raise £2245. A massive congratulations to both of them for organising such an amazing and successful event.

[yetanothergamingcouple]

Ramen Fury

The race is on to be the quickest and slurpiest player in the furiously fast game of Ramen Fury.  Ramen Fury was published by Mixlore in 2019 and it’s a 2-5 player competitive game, with an age rating of 8 years and up.

The packaging for Ramen Fury is quirky and eye-catching.  It’s styled to look like a ramen packet with its bright glossy red plastic exterior packaging and the interior cardboard box printed to look like noodles.  The brightness of the packaging continues on the cards.  The cards have a high gloss finish which makes them a bit slippery. The cards’ illustration makes them easy to distinguish whether it’s a sauce or ingredient card.  The spoon tokens are made from carboard and seem solid in quality.  There’s no negatives to either the quality or illustration, however there’s nothing particularly outstanding about them either.   

Ramen Fury’s game rules are quite simple, players must make and eat 3 bowls of ramen. To make your bowls of ramen you need a flavour card which dictates what ingredients you need to earn points (beef flavour gives points for unique proteins whereas chicken ramen gives points for paired proteins. Each bowl can contain up to 5 ingredient/garnish cards but waiting to eat your ramen and hanging around for more points leaves you open to sabotage by your opponents. Each player starts the game with 2 spoons, 3 cards and 3 empty ramen bowl cards.  Then 4 cards dealt are dealt face up to make the pantry. The remaining cards are face down and are the ingredient deck.

Players take turns performing 2 actions from a choice of 6. A prep action allows a player to place an ingredient or flavour card into an uneaten bowl of ramen. This can be your opponents bowl if desired. Each bowl can only contain one flavour. A draw action allows you to draw a face up card from the pantry. This is added to your hand and the space restocked from the ingredient deck. A spoon action uses one of the players spoons and allows you to take the top ingredient from any players uneaten bowls of ramen (including your own) and place it into any uneaten bowl of ramen (even your own) or into your hand. The restock action discards all the cards in the pantry, then 4 new cards are drawn and added to the pantry. This can be handy if none of the cards are useful to you or the cards in the pantry will help the next player so discarding them can thwart plans they may have.  The other two actions are Eat and Empty. Eat actions stop you being able to add or remove ingredients to your ramen and the bowl will count when scoring. Uneaten ramen doesn’t score any points at the end of the game. When someone eats their last bowl then there is one final round of play and the game ends. Empty actions remove all ingredient and flavour cards and allows a player to start again. You can only empty your own ramen bowls.

There is a lot of skill in Ramen Fury although luck is an aspect. Players can sabotage ramen with chilies (if they are not a chili ramen flavour) and cause them to require the use of spoons or empty their bowl to avoid a -1 point penalty per chilli. Sabotaging opponent’s bowls whilst stocking your own with ingredients is the aim of the game.

Ramen Fury’s suggested play time is 30 minutes and we recorded 12 minutes for our playthrough.  Although today’s time was considerably under the suggested play time it is easy to see why it could take 30 minutes, particularly with 3-5 player.  With the exception of once, neither of use tried to sabotage the others Ramen bowls and neither of us had a need to use our spoons, this helped to contribute to a quick game.  Another contributing factor to the quickness was that neither of us had the same flavour card which meant we needed different ingredients to score big. Andy felt the 12-minute play time was just right, while Kirsty felt it was a little short.  In theory the game has a lot of replay value due to the randomness of card draws but we feel it’s a game that we could only play a little more often than now and then.  For us that means every 2 to 3 gaming sessions.

Overall Ramen Fury is a competitive, fun, quick and light game.  It’s small enough to take on train journeys or coffee dates.  It’s a great game to have in your collection for when you want a fun and quick game.  We both really like Ramen Fury and give it 8/10.  Obviously Kirsty won, although it was only by 3 points.

[yetanothergamingcouple]

Forbidden Sky

We’re taking our gaming to new heights today as we review Forbidden Sky. It’s the third instalment in the Forbidden series.  Forbidden Sky was published by Gameswright in 2018.  It’s a 2-5 player co-operative game, with an age rating of 10 years and up.

The game illustrations are okay.  Kirsty likes the box art and thinks the colour choices are complimentary. Andy thinks it’s a bit basic but fine considering it is a metal walkway with clouds.  The game pieces and cards are solid and well made, the rocket has a substantial amount detail and the sound effects are nifty.  As we have stated in previous Forbidden reviews we choose not to place the storm level card in the holder or attach the markers to the cards as we feel this would damage and degrade the cards over time. The quality of the cards and game pieces are what we have come to expect from the Forbidden series.

If you are familiar with the rules from either Forbidden Island or Forbidden Desert, particularly Desert, the rules are simple to pick up as the discussion and planning mechanic is the same. Forbidden Sky can be quite punishing and leaves little room for learning by error which we both found frustrating but the rules themselves are simple. You have to follow the blueprint (which gives the minimum components needed) and create a circuit. Once the circuit is complete, all players must be on the launchpad to win. If anyone is ‘left behind’ you lose the game.  Each turn a player can perform 4 actions before drawing storm cards. The actions are move, explore (place a tile from your hand), scout (draw a tile from the pile) and wire/unwire. There are copper coloured markings on the tiles which represent wires. At least one wire on the tile must align with a wire on an existing tile for it to be placed. In addition to this rule tiles can only be placed in an empty space adjacent to the player.  Other markings on the tiles include faraday cages, which protects against electrocution. There are also teleporters which can be used for one action to move to another teleporter.

SEach player has a life meter and a rope meter. The life meter is reduced when lightning strikes and electrocutes them. This involves a lot of line tracing to see which tiles are electrified and which players need to take damage. If a player is on a tile with a faraday cage symbol they are protected from electrocution. A players’ rope is diminished when they are blown off of the edge of the game during “high winds”. Should a player’s life or rope meter reach zero then the player dies, and the game is lost. Additionally the game can be lost if too many “storm intensifies” cards are drawn, and the level of the storm gets too high.

There is a small element of luck in Forbidden Sky, but the majority of the gameplay is skill based. The random nature of the tiles being drawn affects the game but placing them (the “explore” action) directly influences where the capacitors, lightning rods and other features will be located in the game. A poorly placed tile can place a capacitor where it is not desired and could make the players unable to be victorious. Players must plan placement of tiles as well as when to wire capacitors and the launchpad together to make an electrical circuit to match the blueprint.

There are items to help the players like jetpacks and storm predications (allows you to look through the pack to make the storm act more favourably) and medi-packs. These can be vital in assisting the players to reach their goal.

Forbidden Sky’s suggested playtime is 60 minutes and we recorded a time of 40 minutes for this playthrough.  We feel the reason for us completing the game significantly under the suggested playtime is 1) Andy set the storm counter to one when we began playing instead of 2 like it was meant to be, and 2) we learnt, from the first time we played, it’s better to keep everything close and smushed together near to the starting point of the game.  We’ve found this increased our chance of success.  In theory it has a high replay value due to the varied character abilities, random card and tile draws, as well as the relatively random placement of tiles.  For us personally we don’t think we’ll play it more than a handful of times a year, if that.

Being big fans of the previous two Forbidden games we had high hopes for Forbidden Sky.  Unfortunately we just weren’t wowed.  It’s not a bad game and it certainly has replay value.  It just doesn’t tickle our fancy like Forbidden Island or Forbidden Desert, neither one of us has wanted to play another game of it upon completion, unlike its predecessors.  For that reason we both give Forbidden Sky an overall rating of 6/10.

[yetanothergamingcouple]

Forbidden Desert

A perilous journey across the dry desert, will we survive or will perish in the blistering Sun?  Today we’re reviewing Forbidden Desert.  It’s the second instalment in the Forbidden series and was published by Gameswright in 2013.  It’s a 2-5 player co-operative game, with an age rating of 10 years and up.

The artwork and illustration on the desert tiles are okay.  They’re nice and consistent for the game series but not particularly special or wowing.  The flying machine model and flying machine parts are nicely detailed and easily identifiable.  With the exception of the propeller, which feels a little flimsy, all the flying machine parts are solid with the engine being particularly weighty due to the fact it is made from metal. We really like the fact that the pawns are wooden and as always we’d have loved to have seen more of the game pieces, such as the flying machine made from wood.

We’re a little disappointed in the quality of the other game components, such as the sand markers and city tiles. Although we’ve only had the game for 3 months the corners are peeling on several city tiles as well as the sand markers. The cards feel nice and don’t cling to one another.  They have a nice feel and shine to them without being too glossy.  We chose not to use the sand storm meter stand or meter clips as using them would cause damage to the sand storm meter and adventurer cards, instead we use gems to track our adventures water and sand storm level.  As we currently move our games between two houses, we really appreciate the game box being made from metal.  This ensures there’s no damage to the game.

The rules to Forbidden Desert are simple enough to grasp and work with. Players take 4 actions per turn then draw an appropriate number of cards for the storm. The actions are similar to the other games in the Forbidden series:

· Move – Players can move their pawn to an adjacent tile.

· Dig – Players can remove sand markers that have collected over the course of the game.

· Excavate – Players can flip the tile to reveal its contents

· Pick Up Part – Taking a found flying machine part, this uses 1 action.

Adventurers have unique abilities which allows them to move differently, ignore certain constraints or do actions twice for 1 action point. For example the Explorer can move, clear sand and use dune blasters diagonally; whereas the Water Carrier player can revisit wells to replenish water repeatedly and can share water with other players.

Digging is a vital action as it removes sand from the game. If there are no more sand tiles then the game is lost so it is advantageous to keep the amount of sand on the board as low as possible. Locations with 2 sand tile or more are impassable to players (except the Climber character) and must be dug out to be traversed and excavated. Tiles with no sand on can be excavated and flipped over to reveal a city, water well or flying machine part clue. There are 2 clues needed to find each flying machine part. One is West to East in direction and the other is North to South. Where these 2 cross is the location where the flying machine part can be found.

Players may also gain gear when a location is excavated, and this is shown with a cog symbol on the tile. The gear which can be acquired can mean the difference between survival and death, some of the useful gear available is jet packs (move to any tile), and dune blasters (these allow clearing all sand around the player). There is no hand limit and most of the gear can be used at any time without using any action points.

There are 3 tiles are marked with a water droplet. Adventures on the water tile at the time it is excavated will receive 2 water from a well but then no more (except the Water Carrier player). Players should be aware that one of these water tiles is a mirage and gives no water when excavated. Also hidden and needing excavating is  a launch pad tile and where the flying machine is constructed, to win the game the launch pad needs to be excavated.

Once the player has taken their 4 actions, the cards to move the storm are drawn. The storm moves as shown by the cards which moves the tiles around. Moved tiles also get a sand marker added to them. The storm pile also contains two other cards which are “sun beats down” where players will lose 1 water point unless they are in the tunnels or protected by a solar shield. In our play through we had all 4 of these cards in quick succession which killed Andy’s adventurer and resulted in an immediate loss of the game. The other card in the storm pile is the “storm intensifies” which move the storm marker up one space. If this goes too high then the game is lost. The storm marker tells players how many cards to draw from the storm pile.

We feel the complexity of Forbidden Desert is quite low due to the number of actions a player can complete and the simplicity of the storm cards. There’s typically a lot of discussion surrounding player actions, but the premise of the game is simple enough. There is a lot of luck in this game, the location of the flying machine parts is random as is the movement of the storm. The skill element of the game is in communicating with the other player(s) regarding strategy, tactics and when to use skills and equipment. Plans can be thwarted if the storm moves and tiles are no longer located where needed.

Forbidden Desert’s suggested play time is 45 minutes, for this particular playthrough we clocked 15 minutes of play time.  The reason we had such a short playthrough was Andy ran out of water and succumb to thirst (an added kick-in the teeth for him was he was stood on a water tile ready for Kirsty to flip it on her next turn).  On previous playthroughs our playthroughs typically last 30-50 minutes, on occasions this can feel a little too long, but we think it’s more about our own game play style than game design.  Similarly with Forbidden Island you’re still an active planning participant between your turns due to the game being co-operative.  

Due to the random nature of the city tile layout each game is different which adds a tremendous amount of replay value.  There are several other factors which contribute to Forbidden Deserts replay value such as the blind selection of an adventurer as well as the random draw from of storm and equipment cards.  Another way the game has replay value is you can alter the difficulty at the start of the game by setting the sand storm meter level higher or lower.  All of these factors mean no two games are ever the same.  It’s not uncommon for us to play 2 or 3 games of Forbidden Desert in a row due to the freshness each new game brings.

Forbidden Desert is without a doubt our favourite game from the Forbidden series.  It’s simple enough a novice can pick up the rules within a few minutes yet presents enough of a challenge for more seasoned gamers to keep them interested.  Purely based on gameplay this game is easily an 8 but the quality and durability of some of the game components lets it down. For that reason Kirsty gives it a reluctant and possibly harsh 7/10, while Andy gives it a rating of 8/10.  We both agree it is a must have for co-operative game fans.

[yetanothergamingcouple]

Trash Panda

What’s that noise coming from the trash?  Is it a monster?  No it’s a raucous raccoon!  Today we’re reviewing Trash Panda which was published by Gamewright in 2018.  It’s a 2-4 player competitive game, with an age rating of 8 years and up.

Trash Panda’s art style is bold, colourful, and cute.  At first glance it can be easy to be dismiss the art style as basic but give it another, closer, look and you’ll notice small details that give the game more visual depth.  The dice is nicely weighted and solid while the symbols are clear and bright.  We greatly approve of the tokens as they are made of wood and are extremely durable.  The only token that has some wear to it is the Recycle token, but it is still easy to identify it.

The game rules are very simple. You roll the dice and collect the corresponding token from the pile. You can choose when to stop rolling and at which point you resolve the token actions. If you roll a duplicate for a token you’ve already claimed your turn ends and passes to the next person. The 6 tokens are:

· Trash Cans: Take 2 cards from the draw pile (The trash can) and add them to your hand ready for use (there is no hand limit).

· Trees: Take 2 cards from your hand and place them in your stash. These count as points

· Trash Can/Tree: Players can choose to take 1 card from the trash can or stash 1 card.

· Raccoon Paws and Bag:  Take 1 card from a player and add it to your hand. This can be blocked by the player being stolen from using either Kitteh or Doggo cards.

· Raccoon Eye Mask: The player takes the top card from the trash can and shows the other players. They can then stash that card as many times as they like but the player showing the card draws a card for each card stashed.

· Recycling: This can be swapped for any other token. If you have 5 tokens already you may as well stop as there is no token to swap for.

You can use cards from your hand to influence yours and other players turn. Blammo cards allow you to ignore your last roll and keep rolling, this is particularly handy for a duplicated roll. Nanners cards allow you to ignore your last roll and stop rolling. Some of the other cards allow you to resolve a token twice and make another player keep rolling when they want to stop.  By playing cards it means mean you cannot stash them to score points.

Players need to stash as many cards as possible for cards to count. Any cards in the players hand when there are no more cards in the trash pile don’t count when adding up points. The only cards that contributes to the final score are those which have been stashed.  When counting points at the end of the game some cards give points for having the 2nd and 3rd most cards. Stashed Blammo cards always count for 1 point per card, there is no 1st, 2nd or 3rd point system for them. Kitteh and Doggo cards are not stashable and don’t contribute to players final scores. The scores are clearly shown on each card for clarification. The player with the most points wins.

 The dice and shuffling of the decks means there is a lot of luck in Trash Panda. Often players will bust out and roll a duplicate when the token has already been taken. This is entirely random and keeps each game unique and fun. Resolving tokens twice or forcing players to keep rolling when they want to stop can be a good tactical move, but means you can’t stash the card. A player with a lot of cards could resolve the stash 2 token twice to stash 4 cards and improve their chances of a better score at the end of the game. Choosing the point at which to stop rolling is also important. Get too greedy and you could end up with nothing happening on your turn. It’s all a big gamble.

The suggested playtime for Trash Panda is 20 minutes.  For this game our play time was 15 minutes and we both felt that this was the right length of time.  We have had games that have lasted 5 minutes and others that lasted nearly 30 minutes. We think the scope for such different play times come from the luck of the dice and how frequently you go bust, as this impacts how quickly you go through the trash pile.  Despite the fact the game’s replay value is high due to the random draw of cards and the dice rolls,  Andy feels this is a game he could only play now and then.  Whereas Kirsty could quite happily play it several times a week.

Trash Panda is a great game to play at home and on the go.  It fits really well on a coffee or train table, although we’d recommend using the box lid to roll the dice in or you might spend most of the game on your knees looking for an escaped dice.  It’s also a brilliant family game and although the age rating is 8 years old and up we have previously played it with our 5-year-old great-niece who was able to play with a little to no guidance after a few turns.  A slight annoyance with the game comes at the end when tallying up your score, as you typically have groupings of the same card meaning there needs to be some hefty shuffling done.  Overall we both enjoy and rate Trash Panda highly.  It’s a versatile game in the fact that it’s easy to play with children but it’s still fun and provides challenges for adult and more experienced gamers.  For this reason we both give Trash Panda an 8/10 rating…and just in case anyone wants to know, Kirsty won by 4 points – blammo for the win.

[yetanothergamingcouple]

Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs

Today we’re reviewing Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs.  It was published by Waddingtons Game Ltd in 1985. It’s a 2-4 player competitive game, with an age rating of 8 years and up.  Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs is a favourite from Andy’s childhood.

Andy bought this copy from eBay in April and as you can see by the tape holding the box together it’s been well played.  Although there’s a lot of wear to the game box there’s minimal wear to the game itself.  There’s some wear to the bullets, temple and fold creases on the board.  All of the dinosaurs, dinosaur cards, and adventurers are intact, as is the pterodactyl nest, volcano and volcano pieces. Despite the game being 35 years old the board and game pieces remain vibrant in colour.

The rules are incredibly simple and easy to pick up.  Kirsty learns rules easier through playing a game than reading rules however a quick skim of the rules and she knew how to play.  Despite the rules being clear and easy to understand Andy realised during this playthrough he has always played the gun and volcano rule wrong in previous games 🤦‍♂️

Luck is a factor in many board games and Lost Valley of The Dinosaurs also has a luck element. The number of spaces that the dinosaurs are moved is determined by cards drawn after the players have moved their chosen adventurer. The directions the dinosaurs move is chosen by the player whose turn it is. This can lead to a nearly drunk like movement as players move the dinosaurs nearer the other players and away from their own players. Often players are simply taken back to the dinosaur lair but occasionally they are eaten. If players are captured by the swamp monster they are always eaten. The deck also dictates the volcano explosions and if the pterodactyl swoops which makes each game varied. Players need to use skill and cunning to choose when to use ammo and which direction to move in order to avoid the dinosaurs and possible death.

There was no suggested play time on the box, so Kirsty did a quick Google search and consulted Board Game Geek and discovered the suggested play time to be 30 minutes.  We clocked in at 31 minutes and this felt like a good length of time.  Kirsty imagines that the time between turns could be a bit long if playing with 3 or 4 players, then again she does have a shortish attention span.  Although we both enjoy playing Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs we feel that it’s a game we would only play now and then.  It’s a bit of a pain to set the temple up and it’s a simple case of run there and back while avoiding the bumbling dinosaurs. 

Kirsty continued her winning streak and won this game by getting 3 coins while Andy got 0.

This is a fun game with some replay value. With more players, we feel this would increase enjoyment. There is scope for a player who exclusively controls the dinosaurs using the dinosaur cards with many players, but this isn’t an official rule. The game pieces are solid (except the temple which was flimsy even back in the day) and the game still holds up despite its advanced years. Overall we both give this game 6 /10.

[yetanothergamingcouple]

Forbidden Island

Today we’re reviewing Forbidden Island and we have a special guest reviewer, Katie, with us for this one . It’s the first instalment in the Forbidden series and was published by Gameswright in 2010. It’s a 2-4 player co-operative game, with an age rating of 10 years and up.

All three of us like the artwork and think the island tiles are well illustrated. Katie thought the mythical/fantasy vibe on the island tiles were cool. The treasure pieces are detailed and bold in colour. They are easily identifiable and well-made, they do however have joining seams running all along them. This does not impact game play and they can remain upright without any issues. As we have previously stated we prefer game pieces to be made from wood as we find it more aesthetically pleasing and eco-friendly than plastic/resin. We chose to use a gem to mark the water level as opposed to the plastic slider clip as this would cause damage to the cardboard water level meter. Speaking of the water level meter since we purchased the game in December 2019 the water level meter has begun to bend slightly but at this time it doesn’t impact the game. As we currently move our games between two houses as well as friends, we really appreciate the game box being made from metal.  This ensures there’s no damage to the game.

The rules for Forbidden Island are rather simple in practice, you perform 3 actions, draw 2 treasure cards, and play the required amount of flood cards. It can as Katie expressed sound confusing when you first hear/read the rules but it’s easier to understand when playing.  

Luck is a significant factor in Forbidden Island. The order of which the cards come out of the item and storm decks can significantly alter a game. The random placement of the island tiles also can affect game play. Completely sunken tiles can cause an issue but are less troublesome in other places like at the edges. This adds an air of excitement to the game and keeps players on their toes.

If players can navigate this and discuss actions, card uses and card exchanges effectively then this will increase the chance of success. This can be as simple as who is gathering which type of treasure card or who needs to go shore-up a heavily flooded area to prevent issues later. Larger groups will include a lot more discussion and planning as more actions and cards must be managed. Plans may also need to be re-evaluated if the game changes unexpectedly and thwarts the player's plans and efforts.

We managed to escape the island with a few strategic helicopter and sandbag cards being used. Although we won we did lose seven island tiles throughout the course of the game.

Forbidden Island’s suggested play time is 30 minutes and when we played it came in at 32 minutes. All three of us agreed that it felt like the right length of time. With the game being co-operative you’re still an active planning participant between your turns.  This game has a substantial amount of replay value. The obvious place it’s replay value comes from is the drawing of treasure cards and flood cards but the biggest asset for replay is the island tiles random layout each game.  Another way the game has replay value is you can alter the difficulty at the start of the game by setting the water level meter higher or lower.  This means no two games are ever the same. Both Katie and Kirsty feel that they would need a break before playing again but Andy could happily dive straight back in for a second game.

Forbidden Island was a game that we picked up by chance and are not disappointed with the spontaneous purchase. For us it’s a must have co-operative game. Katie found the game fun and engaging but felt she could be a little more challenged (we will make sure to play on a harder difficulty next time ). Katie gives Forbidden Island 7/10 as it challenges her problem-solving skills, and you won’t play the same game twice. Kirsty also rates it 7/10 for similar reasons, while Andy gives it 8/10.

[yetanothergamingcouple]

Fluxx & Fluxx Dice

Today we’re reviewing Fluxx and Fluxx Dice. First we’ll look at Fluxx. It was first published by Looney Labs in 1997, however we’re reviewing the 2014 edition.  It’s a 2-6 player competitive card game, with an age rating of 8 years and up.

The artwork on the cards is clear, and the items are easily recognisable. In case of any confusion, they are also annotated with text. This helps with abstract cards like “Dreams” and “The Party” but once familiar with the images, the cards can be recognised with a glance. The cards are sturdy and solid with a non-slippery finish. We have used our set numerous times and the cards have remained unaffected, although the box has a little wear and tear damage.

In our opinion, Fluxx is best learned as you play rather than spending a lot of time trying to understand the game mechanics from reading the rule sheet. There is a useful FAQ on the back, we’ve used this maybe a handful of times. The beginning of each game starts very simply. Each player has 3 cards. They draw a card and play a card.  The rules will evolve and the goal for winning the game will change multiple times. New rules and goals are drawn and played from the main draw pile, however there are some action cards that let you draw cards from the discard pile.

Some rules allow players to draw or play more cards, but the rules must always be obeyed. Action cards allow players to perform different moves like take cards from players or rotate hands. Some of the rule cards can restrict how many cards a player can hold as well as how many keepers they can have in play.

The usual way to win a game of Fluxx is by having keeper cards. These are usually things like chocolate, bread, toasters, a TV, and other commonly known objects. You match these together to form the goal(s) in play. If you have the toaster and the TV keepers in play and then play “The Appliances” goal you win the game.

There is an immense amount of luck in Fluxx due to the random nature of the main card stack, however playing certain cards at the right time can affect the game and make your position more favourable (stealing a keeper to complete the goal is a particular favourite move of Andy’s).

(Here is Kirsty winning)

The game play time can vary wildly depending on how the cards are drawn.  For today’s review our playtime clocked in at 10 minutes.  With Kirsty being the victor for this round.  The game will lengthen with more players and time between turns will be longer which means that cards that you desire may be revealed when it isn't your turn. The unlimited replay value comes from the shuffling of the deck. This ensures that every game is different. Playing with different numbers of people will also give a different game as well.

In addition to this edition of Fluxx there are also different themes. For example there is a Chemistry Fluxx, Star Trek Fluxx, Doctor Who Fluxx, and many, many more, the list goes on.

This is a great game with tons of replay value and very portable (except when the rules get out of hand). It’s one we play again and again, and the themes keep it fresh and exciting.  We slightly disagree on the rating but that’s purely because Kirsty prefers Monster Fluxx to the original.  Overall Andy gives it 9/10 and Kirsty rates it as 8/10.

Now we move on to Fluxx Dice.  Fluxx Dice was published by Looney Labs in 2015 and has an age rating of 8 years and up. It’s an expansion which can be played with any version of Fluxx, but we tried it out with the original.

Fluxx Dice adds an additional 5 cards and 2 dice to the game.  The 5 cards comprise of a new keeper, a rule, a creeper, an action, and a meta rule. The artwork and quality of the cards are in keeping with the original Fluxx.  A nice distinguishing factor is the expansion cards have a different font to existing Fluxx games.  There is 1 black dice which dictates how many cards you draw.  While the white dice indicates how many cards to play. Although the dice are large and chunky in size they are lightweight.

Just as in previous Fluxx games we feel it is better to just dive in and learn as you play.  A variation on previous games is the Meta Rule card means that if everyone agrees the game begins with the Dice Override card in play.  All the other expansion cards are then shuffled into the playing deck and the game can begin.  The dice add a slight variation to the rules as they replace the draw and play rule cards.  However if you draw a draw/play rule card you can opt to overrule the dice and for one turn draw/play the number on the rule card.  If the Rule Reset card is played the Dice Override card is removed from play and placed in the discard pile, if at a later point in the game it is played the player to play it then immediately rolls the dice to determine their new draw and play for that turn.

Fluxx Dice relies heavily on luck.  Like with other Fluxx games this is partly due to the random drawing of card but more so due the dice factor.  Meaning you never know how many cards to draw and play until you’ve started your turn.

As with all Fluxx games the play time wildly varies depending on the number of players and the draw of cards.  Our playtime was 15 minutes for a 2-player game, this felt just right in length.  It also has a high replay value and adds additional replay value to existing Fluxx games due to the changing of each players draw and play turn.

Overall it is a fun and must have addition to lovers of Fluxx.  It’s quick and easy to pick up the rule variation. We both rate Fluxx Dice 9/10 due the flexibility to add it to all of the Fluxx series.

[yetanothergamingcouple]

Dungeon Mayhem - Monster Madness

Today we’re reviewing the 2nd expansion of Dungeon Mayhem - Monster Madness. Dungeon Mayhem is part of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise.  Monster Madness was published by Wizards of the Coast in February 2020.  The expansion can be played as a stand-alone game but is also fully playable with all Dungeon Mayhem decks.  It’s a 2-6 player competitive game, with an age rating of 8 years and up.

The art style is bold and eye-catching.  Each characters’ unique personality is portrayed well.  Character decks are filled with humour which is tied to each characters’ persona and skills. Along the edge of the inner box you will notice grey sketch-line illustrations of the characters, not only from Monster Madness but the core game and 1st expansion.  Both of us really like this touch.

Within the box there is 12 divided spaces to store each characters’ deck separately along with a token box to store hit point tokens and trackers. The box has space to store players decks from all of the previous Dungeon Mayhem games as well as the Monster Madness decks.    A nice detail that is easy to miss on the reverse of the character dividers, is the artwork depicting the posterior of the characters.

Generally speaking the quality of the game components are good.  The cards are sturdy, and the pictures and text are printed clearly.  The dividers are fairly solid but could easily be damaged with carelessness.  Upon opening the game for the first time you will be required to punch out the tokens from a pre-cut sheet.  Take your time and do so carefully as the paper can easily come away from the cardboard base if you punch too quickly.  It’s also worth noting if you value “perfect” aesthetics, all of the tokens we punched out have joint marks on them, this however this doesn’t impact game-play at all.

The game rules are relatively easy to understand and once you have the basics to start a game the rest will follower.  Players start with 3 cards and the youngest player goes first. There are 4 basic moves: heal (heart), defence (shields), attack (swords) and another turn (lightning bolt) which can stack. Heal icons heal the player for 1 health point. Defence cards are laid on the table and have a number of hit points shown by the number of shields printed on the card. The point tokens can be used to cover these up as they are hit and moved to the discard pile once defeated. Attack cards will first attack any defence cards in play and then attack the player’s hit points. Once a player hits zero health points the player is knocked-out/defeated. Other icons on the playing cards relate to characters’ unique mighty powers and make the game-play fun. Hoots McGroots, for example, has a card that asks players to dance which lets them and him pull an extra card. One of the many mighty power cards allows the trading of hands (a total dick move and one Andy likes to use…a lot). In a 5-6 player game the players can only “target” the opponents to the left and right of them. This is called the “zone of influence”. Mighty power cards can target any player even if they have an attack symbol on them.  Speaking of 5-6 player game upon defeat you become a vengeful ghost.  A vengeful ghost can no longer draw or play cards however they can attack any player for 1 damage as long as they have more than 1 HP.

Monster Madness requires some skill in regard to what order to play cards but ultimately it is heavily reliant on luck.  The suggested play time on the box is 15 minutes. We played 3 games and found this to be a generous suggestion for a 2-player game.  On our 1st play-through we clocked in around 15 minutes, this is unusually long for a 2-player game and also the very 1st time one of us made it through a player deck.  Our 2nd play-through was 4 minutes and our 3rd play-through was 7 minutes.  

We have played with 4-players in the past and 15 minutes is about right, once everyone was familiar with the rules.  Due to the quantity of characters and random nature of card draws this game has a high replay value and one that maintains enjoyment over repeated plays.

Overall we both really enjoy playing Monster Madness, as did our friends who played it with us previously.  It’s a fun filled quick paced game with a smattering of comedy. Although you require little table space to play, the Monster Madness box is a little too big for gaming on the go, unless you have a very large handbag or backpack.  

The art style and quick game pace appeals to us both and for that reason we are giving Dungeon Mayhem – Monster Madness an overall rating of 8/10.  

[yetanothergamingcouple]

Pandemic Hot Zone North America

Happy Bank holiday Monday from the UK.  Today we’re reviewing the highly anticipated Pandemic Hot Zone North America.  The game, released only a week ago, was published by Z-Man games.  It’s a 2-4 player co-operative game, with an age rating of 8 years and up.

If you’ve played the first Pandemic game then you’ll be familiar with the art style. Hot Zone North America keeps with the same style and its overall appearance is nice but ultimately unexciting.  Saying that, Andy was excited about the blueness of the box and board “because blue” (insert Kirsty eye-rolling).

The game board and cards are sturdy and printed clearly.  Depending on the lighting it can be difficult to see the connecting line between Dallas and Atlanta as it’s on the fold of the board.  Despite the game being new there was some slight but noticeable scratches on both the infection and outbreak marker.  In addition there was also slight wearing to the print on the outbreak marker.  The cure vials and infection and outbreak markers have seams along the side. The player pawns have seams at the base however this does not impact play.  Our personal preference would be for game pieces to be made from wood. This combats seams and is environmentally friendly.

The rules seemed straight forward and easy to understand but this may be due to familiarity with the Pandemic game style. The rules follow the same pattern as the original Pandemic with some new additions such as crisis cards. On the topic of crisis cards, the wording was at times confusing and required multiple reads of the text and discussion to determine what was being instructed. Unlike the first instalment of the Pandemic series, to win players are not required to eradicate diseases but simply find all 3 cures.  There are 3 ways in which players can lose.  The first is to run out of player cards, something which very nearly happened to us.  On our second play-through we found the third cure with 2 player cards remaining, talk about a close call.  The second way to lose is to experience 4 outbreaks and thirdly is to run out of any type of disease cubes.  Again this nearly happened to us but thanks to Andy pulling the event card “remote treatment” we were able to remove 2 disease cubes to save our asses.

As shown above, the game has elements of luck and skill. Planning is a key part of a winning strategy and players will discuss movements and item uses before committing changes to the board if they are to discover the cures and win. In a 2-player game we found we were planning moves one or two turns ahead.  We anticipate a more extensive planning phase in a 3 or 4-player game. During game-play we felt that the Medic’s secondary skill was overpowered and made the game far too easy. This may differ in a 3 or 4 player game. We plan to test this when social distancing permits. The luck factor in the game comes from the infection and player decks, particularly the crisis cards.

The suggested play time is 30 minutes.   On our first play-through, we clocked in at 45 minutes as we referenced the rules and had quite in-depth discussions regarding the wording of the crisis cards.  Once this was clarified, a second play-through was completed in 20 minutes.  We envisage the replay value to be unlimited due to the random nature of the infection and player decks.  These are shuffled at the start of each game and on occasion throughout game-play.  There is also some variety to be had by playing as a different class or with a different group of friends.

Pandemic Hot Zone North America is compact in size with quick game play.  The board will easily fit onto a train table or a small coffee shop table, making it perfect for gaming on the go.  Andy is a big lover of the first Pandemic game and originally rated this 8/10 but adjusted it as he felt he was being influenced by his bias. For Kirsty, she felt having 7 crisis cards in a 2-player game was 1 too many but ultimately the game remained fun.

Overall we both rate it 7/10 and recommend it to both new players and lovers of the Pandemic franchise.

[yetanothergamingcouple]

Hi we’re Andy and Kirsty.  We enjoy a variety of board games. We’ll use this space to share and document our journey through various board games and our views on them.