Category Archives: Reviews

Magic The Gathering – Damn, I like it…

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Hi, my names Mike and I have a confession… I’m getting into Magic the Gathering.

It’s something I never thought I would have any interest in playing.  I’ve seen the flock of teenagers at my FLGS (Friendly Local Gaming Store) getting all excitable about their newly purchased booster packs and every time I thought “I’m too old for this shite”. When I was a kid the best bit about collecting cards was the fruity bubble gum that made all the cards smell like cheap perfume. Opening a deck box was a chance to partake in the ritual of lifting the lid just a little, sticking you nose in and taking a big sniff.

My cards of choice was the Garbage Pail kids and I was over the moon every time I saw Adam Bomb…

adam-bomb

All my feelings about MTG changed after my first couple of games with my group.

You see Christmas is always an interesting time for a gaming group because what do you buy gamers?  I’ve done the standard dice, dice bag, More dice, different set of dice, unusual dice, odd shaped dice and of course fighting fantasy books.  This year I beat my nephew to the punch and purchase everyone a Magic the Gathering intro deck to try out.  They were over the moon.

It seems that most have tried MTG out but don’t bring it up in during our casual gaming chat.  Tristan ran MTG events but fell out of love due to having to buy new decks for tournaments.  Nicky had a red introduction deck he’d picked up somewhere and my Rob my nephew had been trying to get into it for a while.

Damn, how am I going to beat this next year?….

Getting it on the table

We cracked open the packs and gave them a shuffle.  Nicky pulled out all his red cards and made a huge deck which instantly got my Nephew’s back up, there’s no way it would be balanced he kept saying… but I have to say it looked awesome, it was like a deck of DOOM towering over all our smaller decks.

So we got down to playing the game and its excellent.

Things I like:

  • Quick games.
  • Easy to learn.
  • Artwork is beautiful.
  • Deck building is fun.
  • Its customisable to your style of gaming.

Things I don’t like:

  • Cost – its expensive at almost £4 for a 15 card booster.
  • Rules – very simplistic rules included in the packs.

So, I’m hooked on Magic the Gathering and playing a green deck, though I’m thinking to switching to red to get some Goblins on the table. What can I say I love Goblins.

On a side note I lost to the deck of DOOM but pulled out a win in the second game.

Borderlands 2 – Multi-player, Smultiplayer

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I love Borderlands, a few years ago it was the game that I played continually.  I played it with my wife, my friends and completed it in single player mode.  Purchased all the DLCs, even the Claptrap one with the pizza and panties glitch (don’t ask).

Now I’m fully into Borderlands 2 and I’m enjoying the single player but multi-player I’m having issues with…

In the single player mode I’m playing the Commando, a natural continuation of playing Roland in the first game.  It’s fun and I love playing through the story missions.  Not sure I liked meeting the characters from the first one as in my head Roland should be out there kicking ass, just like I played him in the first game, not moping around his pad.

Anyway, multi-player mode just doesn’t do it for me in this game any more.  I’ve done the missions and now I can do it with friends… No thanks, I want to see what’s going to happen next, not go back to missions I’ve already played or join a mission where my character’s so low-level that I act as a drag factor.  Also if your friends have more free time to play the game you join their games and have no idea what’s going on but with massive spoilers for my single player game.

Maybe I’ve become too much of a casual player to enjoy story driven multi-player games.  Think I will stick to death-match games in the future.  Mass Effect 3 Multi-player here I come!

Death Angel – More like need an Angel

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With our Rouge Trader role-play session cancelled, due to the GM running out of prep time, it was time to hit the boardgames.  With most of my games in storage due to the impending move into a new house my selection was limited but I was able to get my hands on the following…

  • Death Angel
  • Wiz-War
  • Race for the Galaxy
  • Doom: the Board Game

Typically the game we decided to play was the smallest of the lot and Death Angel made it to the table.  Based in the Games Workshop 40K world this game has plenty of theme and tries to bring the Space Hulk board game feeling to a card game.

Now this box may be small but its packed with tears, frustration and the feeling that you are going to get you arse kicked. Being a co-operative game you think that all those 40K players in the group would help, but you would be sadly mistaken.  Genestealers  start to swamp your squad from turn one and the air fills with the sound of bolter guns going off every direction.

The aim is simple, keep killing the Genestealers until the one of their piles is exhausted then travel to the next location.  When you travel the piles are refreshed so there’s another group to slay.  Do this four time and complete the final location and you win… Simple huh?  Well no!

Genestealers continually attack your squad.  They in turn cannot fire every turn due to players not being able to play the same action card the following round.  Attacks and defence are decided by the roll of a dice just to add that element of luck, its chaos, total and utter chaos .  But then it’s also great fun to try to figure out what action you should choose next only to have it made redundant by another players action. Bugger!  It really does capture that feeling of being inside a massive abandoned spaceship with multitudes of aliens trying to make your innards… well outnerds.

It’s also easier to fit it in your pocket than the original Space Hulk board game…

Gears of War – First Impressions

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I thought seeing as I haven’t put up any posts about board games in a while I would give my first impressions of Gears of War the Board Game.  This first impression is only after one solo play but I just had to share my excitement about this game.

We all know that the third installment of the well-loved series Gears of War is on its way to the Xbox.  Being as I can’t get on my Xbox due to my other-half stealing it to play Harry “Bloody” Potter I thought I would invest in the board game instead.  I’ve been waiting a while for this game, it was actually announced around the same time that Gears of War 2 came out but then went into a development cycle that was almost as long as Duke Nuk’em Forever.  It looked like it had been killed off, dumped in a hole and would never see the light of day, but it kept on appearing on the coming soon page of the FFG’s website.

Then just as the third Xbox games about to hit the shelves we heard the news the board games would be at GenCon and would be released soon to FLGS. Yay! Pre-ordered and the waiting began.  Then this week I had the phone call…its was in.

So lets pop this baby open and see what we have in the box…

Components

What can I say about the bits that come in the box?… Oh yeah they are frigging brilliant quality and look great.  I’ve taken a few pictures of the miniatures and will put a gallery at the bottom to show what I mean.

Display of the miniatures that come with Gears of War the Board Game

The detail on these miniatures are enough to get any painter drooling. All the heroes are recognisable from the minis and the bad guys are just like they have been taken directly from the screen and dumped, lovingly, in the box.

The tokens are thick card and look like they will stand up to the battering of the many plays this game will get.  The play boards have also not warped like the ones in Mansions of Madness which is great.  Edit: Scratch that last statement the suns just came out and these things have started to bend. Damn it!  There is nothing more annoying than playing a game and the boards rock backward and forwards like an excitable two-year old on a seesaw.

The cards have some excellent artwork and is made of the same stock material used on all FFG games = brilliant.

Play

The game in play.Now as I have stated above I have only played this game once solo but I just wanted to say that this game is great to play.  The rules are well written and laid out in a easy to understand format and I was ready to play after one read through.

The bad guys are all controlled by the game so it’s actually a co-operative game and the players win or lose as a group.  The cover mechanic works extremely well and makes the game play experience feel very much like the Xbox game.  All the guns are here and there is even a mechanic for the bad guys to drop weapons.

This game is very much along the same lines as Doom the board game but has enough differences to make it a new game not a rehash.  Instead of set layouts for the quests and missions the layouts are randomly generated every time it is played, which will really add to the re-playability of the missions.  The AI deck controlling the bad guys gives the feeling that they are really working against you and kicked my ass last night with extreme vengeance.

Conclusion

This is a brilliant game and well worth purchasing.   Edit : If not a bit bent, Damn it! Also on a bit of a side note, I have started to see that a lot of games coming from Fantasy Flight are using their ‘printed on demand’ expansions model and this game has the same feel as Mansions of Madness in this respect.  I would expect that there are a few of these expansions in the works.

Look out for this game at your Friendly Local Games Shop today

Braggart! – Review

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Disclaimer – The copy of Braggart played was supplied free of charge by Games Lore LTD for review purposes.  At Drunken Goblin we will review products sent to us the same way as if it was purchased by ourselves.

Description

The box compaired to the size of a mouse

Imagine a old fashion Inn, then add a few heroes regaling the clientele with fantastic story’s of fighting dragons and saving damsels in distress.  Are they really telling the truth or are they just trying to tell the most fantastic boasts so they don’t look like a weakling?  Well with Braggart your the one making the boasts and setting other story’s straight.

Braggart is a card game released by Spiral Galaxy Games and supplied by Games Lore Ltd.
It supports 2 to 6 players aged 10+ and has a playing time of 30 – 45 minutes.

When Braggart arrived I was genially surprised.  Other card games, like Munchkin and Death Angel, usually have over sized boxes and can be a pain in the arse to carry around.  Not so with Braggart, the box is skin tight with just enough room to hold all the cards.  It fits nicely in the pocket or bag for easy transportation but if your going to take this game anywhere secure it with an elastic band as it has a tendency to open in transit.

Contents

Inside the box there is 120 cards split between:

6 X Summary Cards:
One for each player with a summary of how the rounds are played.

1 X My Round Card:
Designates who goes first in the round and changes from player to player according to how low their scored was in the last round.

92 X Boast Cards:
14 X Scene – Where the deed took place.
32 X Deed – What the player did.
32 X Foe – Who were you acting against.
14 X Result – What the outcome was from your deed.
11 X Ploy – How to screw the other players by stealing their cards or drawing more cards from the boast deck.
8 X Liar – Allows you to interrupt another players boast and swap out a boast card.
2 X Outrageous Liar – The same as the Liar card but allows you to swap out two cards

The rules are surprisingly simple and all fit on a single piece of paper.  This made a nice change after trying to understand the Mansions of Madness rulebook.  The rules are explained in an easy to follow format and was only made complicated when I tried to explain it to the rest of my family, I’m not very good at rule explanations as anyone in my game group will testify.

The cards are of a really nice quality and feel they would stand up to a good battering without purchasing card protectors.  The artwork on the cards match the fun feeling of the game and were continually commented on during play.

A selection of cards from Braggart

A selection of cards from Braggart

Play Time

So onto playing the game and it’s really simple:

Each player is dealt a starting hand of four cards from the boast deck.  One of the players starts with a “My Round” card which designates which player goes first and changes throughout the game at the end of each round.

Draw Phase

A number of cards matching the amount of players are drawn from the boast deck and turned face up in full view. Then, starting with the player holding the My Round card and going clockwise each player takes a card from this selection and adds it to their hand.

Players Actions

Then each player takes a turn.  During their turn players have the opportunity to either:

Go to the bar:

  • Draw the top three cards from the draw pile which ends their turn.

Make a boast:

  • Play any number of ploy cards, following the instructions as written on the card.
  • Play at least one Deed card and one Foe card.
  • They also have the option of adding a Scene and Result card to add points to the boast.
  • Other players can play Liar and Outrageous Liar cards:

Once everyone has had a turn the round ends and it proceeds to the scoring phase.

Scoring

Scoring takes place by adding together all the coin numbers on top of the played boast cards.  The player with the highest scoring boast places all their played cards into their scoring pile.  The other players are allowed to add one card from their boasts to their own scoring pile.

End of Round

The player with the lowest boast score that round then takes the My Round card and the next round begins.

End of Game

Rounds continues until the boast draw pile is depleted. Then at the end of that round each player adds together their boast cards in their score pile and the winner is the player with the highest score…Easy!

Overall

Braggart Box Art

Braggart Box Art

The Good

  • Nice artwork
  • Easily portable
  • Easy to learn
  • Humorous
  • Can get quite tactical with the Liar Cards
  • Can get into the role of being the boastful cad

The Bad

  • Luck of the draw with the cards
  • After a couple of games the humour can get stale

I liked Braggart and I’m glad that I had the opportunity to try a game that usually wouldn’t peek my interest. The game was fun and the humour on the cards really adds to the game.  It definitely fits into the “filler game” category as when we played the game a couple of times in a row the humor did start to fade and everyone began to lose interest.

I will be using this game in my Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay session as it fits in with the fantasy world. It will also raise their spirits before I crush them in the grim world of Warhammer. (Insert evil laughter)…

Mansions of Madness = Awesome!

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Times short at the moment so this will be a very quick post. I just wanted to share how brilliant the new board game from Fantasy Flight Games is…

Mansions of Madness is a frigging AWESOME game. If you’re into theme and love the works of H.P. Lovecraft you cannot go wrong buying this game. I played the game twice on Saturday with my nephew and it blew our minds, driving us to the very edge of our sanity.

In the first game the investigator was franticly searching for clues about their uncle’s death in the inherited estate. I played as the bad guy and was able to string the game out just long enough to get the win, resetting the game with the investigators having to battle the evil again the following night.

In the second game there were more investigators, to even the odds, but even then I was able to kill one and heap the insanity points on the other. In the end, due to a very luck shot from an entrenched investigator, the good guys were able to sneak the win.

It was so much fun and it will be on the gaming table again very soon.

…keep an eye open for a full review.

Deathwatch : Session Report – Part One

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For each week in March one of our players will taking over the role of DM and run a single 3 hour session to see what they can do with any system of their choice.  This was the first session and everybody was up for trying out the new Deathwatch system.  So when the time came Chef boldly volunteered for the first session and stepped behind the DM screen.

Deathwatch is the next power level in the Warhammer 40k role-play system based on the IP from Games Workshop.  The Fantasy Flight Games books started with the low level Dark Heresy which allowed the players to play lowly initiates in the Inquisition.  You are assigned missions and travel from planet to planet looking for corruption wherever it rears its head, which it does often.

The system then moved into the middle tier with Rogue Trader.  This system added ship-to-ship combat and the ability to trade in the huge expanses of space.  The new system allowed for a more open feel and moved away from the mission based story elements as Dark Heresy.

Deathwatch now moves into the higher level allowing players to don the power armour of a space marine and kick some Xenos ass.  But only if the dice rolls are right, which in this session seemed to be a problem for the players, damn those unlucky die.


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Starship Troopers – Do I Have To Fight It?

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Well from my last session of starship troopers rpg the guys seemed to have picked up the basics quite easily. Then this session we had another player turn up who missed the first session, so I thought to myself there’s four of them, that should make it a bit easier so lets give them a real mission they can work towards or not as they decided.

Operation : FARM LIFE

“Right apes this should be simple enough . We got a small group of colonists planetside that are right in the path of a bug swarm . We need you to go in there and pull them out (as I explained to the guys not literally cus that would be, silly didn’t stop them coming up with ideas tho, moving on ) Get them all grouped together for the viking to come and take them away.  But I forget ,this planet ain’t part of the UCF , and those ingrates got no love for troopers . keep an eye out.”

Much moaning from group about babysitting and why the hell are we helping people that don’t like us etc., but then onto the mission and once I start I cant stop….

So the guys travel down in a Viking and as they approach the landing site they see the small village through their viewing holes.  The building are like concrete prefab houses in the middle of a dessert,  the viking touches down and the guys exit out, the ship takes off and says to give them a call when their ready to evac.  So Newton (the newbie) decides the scout around the village.  The other  guys decide to start knocking on doors  and asking people to leave, well this is how it went .

Steve knocks on door :

“Who is it?”

“Troopers to help you leave.”

old man opens the door : “Oh, your the nice fellows they sent down to keep us safe.”

Steve : “Yes sir, will you come with me” (Steve rolls and gets a really good score on his DC)

Old man : “How about this I’ll come out and give a hand to round up the rest of the villagers.”

Steve : “Yes, that would be nice. Thank you”

Well this was a very good attempt from Steve, so how did the others get on……well here goes

Pigeon knocks on door

Villager : “Go away!“

Pidgeon : “OK !” just walks off

Next

Chris knocks on door

“Go away! We don’t want your help.”

Chris : “I’m here to help and I need you out the building so we can get you somewhere safe.” (throws his DC and fails)

Citizen : “Don’t care!”

Chris : “Well if ya don’t open up, ill have to break down the door.”

citizen : “Go on, try hard boy.”

Chris:  “Fine, bring up the grenades and I’ll blow the door in.” (this was a good solution for my group cus they don’t have grenades, but as the guys pointed out the citizens don’t know that)

Citizen : “OK! OK!, We are going out just don’t kill any of us.”

Well they got the job done but not quite the diplomatic route.  Newton, after scouting for a bit, decides to try a door

Newton knocks on door

Citizen : “Go away!”

Newton screams at the top of his voice : “Oh my god, the bugs are everywhere, they have just taking your next door neighbours and you got ten seconds or I’m leaving”

Citizens couldn’t run any faster out there door

Job done but now the citizens need a new home and change of underwear .

As this is going on pigeon decides to try his jet pack to get up on one of the neighbouring houses at the end of the street.  He takes a perception test and passes.  In the distance he spots three BUGS heading their way from the east.  He radios all the guys and informs them that bugs are on the way, but finds out not all the citizens have left their homes and 20 are missing. So are we ready for a dramatic fight to the death to save the citizens and not let the bugs thru?

Well, in my groups case the first thing they do is call for evac.  I said “What about the citizens still trying to get on the shuttle?”  they all just looked at me. OK! OK!  I got my answer but as fate happens their evac couldn’t land due to the amount of air traffic picking up the citizens. WHAT A SHAME, WA HA HA HA!

This is where it got interesting because they couldn’t run they had to fight.  So Pigeon, Newton and Steve take positions on the nearest building where the bugs are going to come in. Chris stood between the bugs and the citizens if it came to that.  So that’s the plan, all good, but I know my group.  Here goes nothing!  So everyone rolls initiative, the guys get really good rolls except one, my bugs go second to last.  The bugs are currently 400 meters away. Pigeon holds his turn until they are within 300m Steve does the same but at a distance of 200m. Chris is down with the citizens so cant see that far, then its the bugs go.  They run full pelt and when they close to within 300m Pigeon lines up and fires but the bullet bounces off the bugs armour.  So then the bugs reach the 200m mark and Steve shoots and gets a hit straight thru the armour.  So now the bugs are within 200m its Newtons turn. With another hit things are going well so far .

New round, Pigeon lines up…fires putting a bullet thru the bug ouch!  Steve and Newton both fire and miss oops!  Again Chris cant see anything but now the bugs can run which puts them right on the outskirts of the city. In the next round they they would be inside the town . The guys decide to go full auto on the bugs to see if they can really do some damage.  A nice couple of hits but nothing that’s really going to kill the bugs.  Now the bugs run in to town.  One runs to the rooftop Steve is on while the other two run towards the feast down the other end of the street, the only person in their way is CHRIS .

This round is where things got interesting.  Chris decides he doesn’t like bugs and jet packs up vertical and hovers there and unloads into the bugs running towards him.  This causes a couple of wounds HU RA.  Now there is no one in the way to stop the bugs getting the civilians but have no fear pigeon is here and jet packs in front of them shooting all the way causing another wound and then swings his rifle round to his back and pulls out his combat knife and pistol ready for the onslaught.  Newton comes screaming in on a trail of  fire and lands next to pigeon and fires but misses . They both look at each other and a understanding crosses between them THIS IS THE DUMBEST THING WE HAVE EVER DONE, KISS YA ASS GOODBYE. As this is happening Steve shoots at the bug looking lost on the other side of the building.  It was wondering where his meal went and Steve shoots him and wounds. The bug on the roof turns round and chases Steve to the other building, maybe this time he will get him the other two charge in and attack Pigeon and Newton but do no damage.

Pidgeon  stabs the bug , problem is his knife went in to far and he cant pull it out, its stuck.  DAMN but have no fear pigeon is here whilst  holding onto his knife he leaps over the bug and lands onto its back riding it like a cowboy, YEE HA .  He then fires his pistol point blank range into the bugs head and finally the bug slumps to the floor dead.  Chris decides if Pigeon can do it, so can I, so drops down and attempts to ride the bug while shooting all at the same time but well……he’s just not that good and misses, fires his weapon and shoots poor Newton in the shin and cracks his armours.  He then  falls flat on his face at the feet of Newton  OOPS! Well newton is thinking ow what the hell was that and then looks down at Chris at his feet with a smoking pistol in his hand.  With a sly smile and a wink in his eye he fires at the bug to distract it but bends down and as he was a car thief in his younger age he knows how to hot wire things, just cross these two wires, simple.  So he crosses two wires on the back of Chris’s jet pack and fires him off bumping along the ground heading for a house. Steve jet packs in the air and shoots the bug below him on the roof top and the bullet passes straight thru him , the bug doesn’t quite know what happened but his legs don’t work, then everything goes black and it dies. Well the last bug has just seen this tasty meal fly off without even getting a nibble so chases Chris.

So after dismounting his ride pigeon decides to shoot the bug chasing Chris and wounds, Newton does the same and wounds (bugs nearly dead) so Chris decides flying at a rate of knots across the ground with your face eating dirt ain’t nice so tries to get his legs under himself to push off the ground . But fails so he pushes and starts to roll, then takes off and flys straight thru a window and hits a wall and slumps to the ground moaning .

Steve lines up aims and fires at the last bug and hits clean thru the nerve point and the bugs falls over and skids until it hits the wall of the building that Chris is in, it then dies, what a way to go. Chris at this moment isn’t feeling to well then he hears a voice its saying ” Rocket come in can you hear me Rocket ” Chris releases that’s Newtons voice and responds with ” What what did you just call me ?” Newton says ” Well Rocket you flew just like one so you deserve it, HA HA HA ”

AS the guys are HU RAin and generally laughing at Chrisy’s new nickname Rocket I make Steve take a perception test and as he turns his head round he sees another two bugs heading in OH-CRAP.

There’s Always Room For More Dice

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The Dice Shop WebsiteOne of my recent purchases was the brilliant looking roleplay boxset Gamma World.

One of the things I was not so happy about was the complete lack of dice in the box. REALLY?……You couldn’t find space in that massive box for a set of dice? Really?  Even in the new D&D red box you could find space and that was almost half the price……rant over until I review the game.

So I was on a quest to find a new set of dice, but to make thing a little interesting I decided to try and get a set of dice that fit in with the look and feel of Gamma World.

Step up to the plate The Dice Shop website.  I had heard about these guys from their activity on Twitter, so I quickly nipped over to their on-line shop to check them out.  What you are presented with is a brilliant looking website with so many dice that I was in fear for my bank account.

Green Dice SelectionAfter what can only be described as a quick trip to Nerd Valhalla I was able to select a set of bright green toxic looking dice and a dice bag with a toxic warning sign printed on the front.  Job done!

Delivery was cheap and the dice were sent Royal Mail Second Class.  When they arrived they were well protected and there was also a note offer 10% off my next purchase, bargain!

I cant recommend these guys enough and if you are also on the hunt for roleplay accessories like battle-mats, dice bags, dice towers or counters you should give them a try, you wont be disappointed.

Now I’m going to use the 10% discount, battle mat here I come……

You can also follow these guys on Facebook and Twitter.  Visit the website at www.thediceshoponline.com.