SPECIAL: Top 10 Board Games 2013

I know I know, it's February!! It's taken me a while to write up a top ten list for 2013, something that I've been meaning to do for a while. The main reason it's taken so long is two-fold: firstly, availability in the UK of some of these games has been abysmal and I had to wait a looong time after the US release for them to arrive with me. Secondly, it's taken me a while to play through all of them, and there are a few that I've only played once (yet still included them in this list because I'm a hack!) due to time constraints. Nevertheless, here it is, the best games that were released last year and that I've played/own - this means that there are some omissions such as Steam Park or Kemet that could sneak there way into this list if I ever play them, and some games like Nations that I don't own, but have played and found them disappointing/lacking in some way.
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10: Mascarade
This is a highly social bluffing and deduction game by one of my favourite designers (Bruno Fiadutti). It's divided opinion somewhat, and your enjoyment will depend on how much you like chaos in your board games, but it's a lot of fun. It' also one of those rare games able to host a lot of players, I believe up to thirteen! A great alternative to Shadow Hunters.

09: OGRE Designers Edition
A bit of an odd entry (apologies) as the game of Ogre itself was released in the 1970's! 2013 saw the release of the 'Designers Edition', possibly the largest board game you will ever own, yet it's a 45min light tactical wargame and is extremely simple to play. While it's "2013" credentials may be in dispute, there's no doubt it is a great, fun and light, game and well worth picking up.

08: Rampage
Another game by another of my favourite designers (Antoine Bauza) and another lighthearted chaotic affair. Rampage is a dexterity game with a lot of character and tactics underneath. Imagine King of Tokyo but instead of imagining giant monsters smashing up city, you actually do get to tear one up on a big colourful board. Bits fly all over the place and it's silly hilarious fun.

07: Forbidden Desert
The follow-up to Forbidden Island, which was kinda like Pandemic-lite, this new game is it's own beast. A cooperative game that is really easy to set-up and teach, which meant it got a lot of play time over 2013 (it was an earlier release). Very challenging, but beatable, this is a great co-op, with excellent production values, highly recommended!

06: 1775 Rebellion
A historical wargame by Academy Games, this is not usually the sort of thing I would be interested in. But, a really streamlined combat system and "area-control-esque" strategic play peaked my interest. I was not disappointed, this is a fantastic light wargame and one that carries it's historical theme really well. Fantastic production values too.

05: Caverna
Another game that was an odd choice for me; the spiritual follow-up to Acricola (a game that I dislike for various reasons) fixes all the problems with the previous game and delivers an exceptionally polished euro - probably the best released this year. You really have a lot of options for how to play and win, and there is oodles of replayability in this beast of a game!

04: The Duke
The best abstract game released in 2013, The Duke was a genuine surprise for me - it's also probably the best abstract game I own! Like a super-modernised version of Chess, it primarily involves capturing your opponent's Duke. Clever tiles that instruct you how the pieces move and interact are complimented by two different move sets for each piece.

03: Freedom Underground Railroad
Nothing to do with train games, this was the best cooperative game of 2013, and a truly challenging experience (this game is hard). Another historical game by Academy Games, this is a perfect blend of theme and game mechanisms, creating a very thematic experience. Able to play solo as well as with others, this game scales well and suits all numbers of players.

02: Firefly
This year seemed a bit short on "ameritrash" and I had initially passed over on Firefly. But, after playing it at my local club I knew I had to have it! A fantastic game, especially if you enjoyed the TV show it is based on (recommended viewing for everyone) it's loads of fun either on your own or with a couple of other people. Component quality is also astounding!

01: Hanabi
Another game by Antoine Bauza, the very best game of 2013 was a simple cooperative card game. It won the 'spiel des jahres' and for good reason, Hanabi is a truly excellent game, and a lesson in elegant game design. Simple to teach, quick to play, but oh so difficult to make those crucial decisions. I've played it with all number of players and it's always a lot of fun!!
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So, there you have it. 2014 has some excellent board game releases on the horizon (The Witcher from Fantasy Flight - yes please!!) but it will have to pull out some masterpieces if it is to beat 2013, which was an excellent year for board and card games.

(P.S. an honorable mention must go to Cheaty Mages, which only just missed this list.)

REVIEW: Eclipse (Board Game)

Along with Cosmic Encounter and Twilight Imperium, Eclipse is yet another game with a space theme, and you'd be forgiven for thinking I was obsessed with the theme or it was one of my favourites; I'm not, in fact these are (besides Space Hulk) the only space themed games that I own. The simple truth is that these are just some of the best games out there, and despite it being a relatively new game for me (and you could argue I'm suffering "the cult of the new" here) Eclipse has just shot straight into my top ten. To glance at the pictures on this review you've also be forgiven for thinking "that just looks the same as Twilight Imperium" as both games share the same hex-board layout, plastic space ship miniatures, and a zillion tons of cardboard components. But they really are different beasts, as Eclipse is much more of an economic eurogame, but disguised behind a solid and different (for a euro) theme. I know some people will be immediately repulsed by the idea of banking in space, and I've jokingly called it "intergalactic recession" since I always seem to be making a loss for most of the game, but it really is fantastic fun. Also, whereas Twilight Imperium is a deeply complex and long game to play, Eclipse is actually (after a difficult explanation of the rules) pretty easy to play and lasts about 3 hours.

As in Twilight Imperium, the aim of Eclipse is to build your intergalactic empire up from humble beginnings into a vast interstellar civilization... and of course accumulate victory points in order to actually win. You gain VPs by exploring and colonising new worlds, by researching new technology for your civilization, by building large monoliths (think '2001: A Space Odyssey') as legacies to your advanced culture, and by assembling an armada and smashing your enemies to smithereens. All of this is done with careful scrutiny of your resources, especially money as it is very easy to bankrupt your empire by expanding too fast and throwing too much money into things that you can't really afford. This is really where Eclipse shines as a good eurogame as the majority of the gameplay comes from balancing how much money you spend to aquire other resources, which in turn aquire technology or are used to build space ships. Before I more on to space ships, and combat, it is worth just mentioning how much fun it is to simply explore the galaxy in Eclipse. You see, in games like Twilight Imperium you already know what the galaxy looks like at the start of the game - you have to really as it's what shapes your strategy, movement of your armadas, etc. In Eclipse though, you have true exploration, which involves turning over tiles as you go and not knowing the layout and structure of surrounding systems until you have explored there.

During this blind exploration you will, at some point, likely run into some hostile ancient aliens - which after the first expansion now come in all sorts of shapes and sizes - from the odd straggler to ancient homeworlds and hives. This is likely where you'll get your first taste of combat, which is great fun in Eclipse and rewarded with VPs, even just for taking part. Shooting aliens, and each other, is a dice chucking affair with a load of different coloured D6s representing different strength weapons, and your rolls are modified by all sorts of technology like targeting computers, shields, armoured hulls, ect. All these juicy components for your space ships can be upgraded on your individual player boards, which also keep track of technology you have researched as well as your available resources. Building your custom space ships is a neat little game in and of itself, as you perform a delicate balancing act of power consumption vs firepower/defense/maneuverability. All-in-all, Eclipse is just a fantastic game, it takes the space empire building concept of larger games and turns it into a streamlined eurogame, playable in a few hours; it won't scratch the exact same itch, but it has its own charms and has quickly become one of my favourite games.

REVIEW: King of Tokyo (Board Game)

One of the best games released over the last few years is a "simple dice game" called King of Tokyo. Now, I've already mentioned in the War of the Ring review how I'm a sucker for theme, and 'kaiju-eiga' (Japanese monster movies) is one that immediately appeals to me, although in the past there haven't been that many decent games that used it. This has all changed now, and King of Tokyo has proven so popular that giant monster games seem to be popping up all over the place, which can only be a good thing.In this game you play as a huge mutated lizard ( ala Godzilla), gorilla (ala King Kong), octopus (ala Cthulhu), robot-lizard (ala Mechagodzilla), alien robot (often in cheezy 60s/70s kaiju-eiga) and a rabbit piloting a huge robo-bunny (!?!?) with the intention to smash Tokyo to tiny bits or become the last monster standing. Basically you win either by accumulating enough victory points through taking and holding Tokyo and rolling VPs on your dice, more on that later, or you concentrate on dealing out damage to other monsters with the express wish to kill them off. Either way, it's a lot of fun!

The core gameplay of King of Tokyo is a yahtzee-esque  dice game, where you roll a number of unique specially designed (and chunky!) dice. After a couple of allowed re-rolls, you should hopefully have a few different actions available to you depending on what you got. The most basic dice result is simply to accumulate victory points, either in groups of 1, 2, or 3 and you need to reach 20 to win, so often it makes sense to simply try and take as many as you can in a turn. Another basic result is the attack symbol, and for each of these you damage either the monster currently occupying Tokyo, or if you're the monster in Tokyo then you damage every other player in the game!! After being smacked about a bit, the monster inside Tokyo can choose to retreat and let you occupy it, for which you get victory points, and this is how the flow the game goes - with monsters battering each other out of Tokyo turn after turn. Other things that you can do with your dice are heal damage (as long as you're outside Tokyo) and accumulate power cubes.

Power cubes let you purchase special cards each turn and these are what really spice up the game, as each one is either a one-off thematic event, such as eating a building full of people for victory points, or a permanent mutation to your giant monster. There is also an expansion for King of Tokyo called Power Up, which has another unique deck of cards for each monster (an well as another monster to play as - a giant kung-fu panda!?) which is accessed through rolling multiple heal results on the dice. While the expansion is not essential, the base game is great fun on it's own, the increased theme and differentiation between each kaiju really adds to the theme of the game. King of Tokyo is very quick to pick-up, teach to other players, and quick to play - usually leading to multiple games each session as people have so much fun they want to play again. and again. and again. The production value of the game is also fantastic, with bright vibrant artwork, high quality cardboard components and fantastic chunky custom dice. While the complete opposite in terms of game length and complexity to other games thus far reviewed, this game is near flawless and one of the best around.

REVIEW: Twilight Imperium: Third Edition (Board Game)

Twilight Imperium: Third Edition, or TI3 for short, defines the term "epic" when referencing a board game. It is a game that is infamous for being expensive, large to store (it comes in a gigantic 'coffin' box - by far the largest on my shelves), complex to learn, and takes an age to play. The rough estimate for a game is around the 8-hour mark, and this is actually pretty accurate for larger (6-8 people) games and for new players learning the system. So, the question that people always want to know is "is it all worth it?" YES. Yes it is. TI3 is an experience like no other, while it should seem like an absolute slog, you will be fully engaged and enthralled by this game from start to finish and the feel of actually playing it makes the time go very quickly indeed. This is not some sort of abstract board game, or a mechanical streamlined eurogame, this is a deep thick "ameritrash" experience, dripping in theme and richly rewarding - in short, it accurately recreates taking a space faring alien race and expanding your civilization out into the galaxy with the goal of reclaiming the lost throne at the centre of a vast intergalactic empire.

The aim of the game is to be the first to reach 10 victory points, which you do through fulfilling objectives both public and secret, and this represents your alien race becoming powerful enough to claim the right to Metacol Rex (the seat of power). Some of these objectives revolve around military conquest, often of Metacol Rex itself,  some concentrate on establishing trading routes, some on gaining more influence in the galactic council, etc. The objectives are varied enough to keep other players guessing and open the game up tactically so that you're not funneled down one path to victory. You achieve all this by carefully managing your civilization's resources, allocating strategic counters to different systems, or expanding your fleet size, or jumping in on different group actions as they become available. This is the genius part of TI3 for me, the fact that you almost have zero downtime between your own turns; you are constantly keeping an eye on what other players are doing and spending resources in their turns to take actions, trade, vote on laws, etc. It really is extremely engaging all the time and ensures that you're never bored or feel like you're waiting for other people.

Like Cosmic Encounter, this is another Fantasy Flight Games production, meaning that the components are gorgeous! This third edition is also heavily overproduced, by which I mean there are oversized hexes that make up the galaxy (taking up a massive amount of table space), an absolute ton of plastic space ship miniatures for each player, and lots and lots of cards and tokens. It may be quite expensive but you get a lot for your money. There's far too much to talk about regarding this game, and I'm not aiming to give a thorough in depth account of all the mechanics of these games, just hyperbole and gushing about how much I love them. One thing worth mentioning though is that the base game of TI3 is allegedly flawed in one key area and needs the Shattered Empires expansion to fix. Now, I've never played just the base game because I purchased the expansion at the same time as TI3 and mixed it all up straight away - so this review is really for the base game plus expansion - inflating the price even more. However, the expansion completes the game in my opinion, for instance I don't think I would ever play without pre-set maps and you need the expansion for that. If the idea of  a huge space empire building game appeals to you, then ignore the naysayers and their complaints of size and length, this game is the most epic board game you will ever play and an experience really unmatched by anything else.

REVIEW: War of the Ring (Board Game)

One thing that I always look for in a good board game is a solid theme. For instance, my "gateway game" (the board game that really got me into the hobby in a serious way) was Arkham Horror, which is really not very easy to pick up and play; but the theme is what sucked me in. War of the Ring is the most sophisticated marriage of theme and gameplay mechanics that I have ever seen in a board game, and a major part of why it is one of my highest rated games of all time. Basically, War of the Ring is 'The Lord of the Rings' in a box, and plays out in about 3-5 hours. It is a two-player game (the rules say 2-4 but *pfft*!) with one person taking on the role of 'the shadow' as they try and crush Middle-Earth, enslave everyone, and hopefully recover the One Ring. The other player is the 'free people' and they must try to politically activate nations to war, fend off the tide of Orcs, Uruk-hai and Haradrim, while also sneaking the fellowship into Mordor and cast the ring into Mount Doom.

All this is done over an absolutely gorgeous and mahoosive game board, on which you position and move the different armies, leaders and characters throughout the game. It looks very much like a "risk-type-game" and in some ways it is a long, complex, wargame, but it' also got a lot more going on. For starters you can't just start building units and stomping over each other, chucking dice willy-nilly; you have to first push your chosen nations to war along a political track. For the 'free people' player this usually involves breaking characters off from the fellowship and actively trying to coax sleepy nations to muster troops, or to at least defend themselves. Aside from the political maneuvering there is also the hunt for the ring, as each turn the fellowship is going to be moving in secret across the board towards Mordor and the 'shadow' player is going to be rolling dice, allocating resources and playing cards in order to corrupt and destroy the merry band. Once all the pieces start moving, it becomes a race against time for both sides to achieve victory one way or another (either through military conquest or by destroying/reclaiming the One Ring) and is a very exciting strategic brain burner.

You see, all these actions are governed by special unique dice, which are rolled (sometimes re-rolled) and these dictate the kind of actions that you can take on that turn. Each face on the dice have several different applications, so you never feel like the game is random or out of your control, but it does work as an excellent mechanism to ensure you can never do everything you want in one turn - requiring you to plan ahead and carefully manage your resources. There are also the different leaders and characters from the 'Lord of the Rings' that can be brought into play, each with their own unique effect upon the game and your strategies. Not to mention that there are also several decks of cards and various other bits and bobs that all contribute to the thematic flavour of the game as well a the tactics available to both sides. War of the Ring is an utterly fantastic game, one that takes a long time to play and really tests your strategic brain, but one that everyone should experience at least once if they enjoy JRR Tolkien's fantasy masterpiece.

REVIEW: Cosmic Encounter (Board Game)

Cosmic Encounter is a bluffing/negotiation game for 3-8 players depending on whether you're just playing the basic game or with expansions mixed in - to be honest, I think the more the merrier as long as you're prepared for a bit of chaos with 6+ people. It's a Fantasy Flight game, which means it is extremely well produced, with excellent component quality including lots of awesome plastic flying saucers and large planet tokens. You see, in Cosmic Encounter you are an alien race trying to spread yourself across the galaxy and colonise as many worlds as possible in order to win the game, and you can do this either through conquest or through peaceful negotiation (or through ball-faced lying as is usually the case).

Now, this game is one of my absolute favourites, and is often voted as the "best game of all time" in many polls and top ten lists. The reason for this is that Cosmic Encounter, more than any other board game in existence, has near-unlimited replay value. In just the basic game itself you get loads and loads of aliens to play as (randomly determined at the start of the game), each with their own special powers which break the rules of the game in some way and sometimes with alternate victory conditions. Once you mix in the expansions, not only do you get more player pieces, but also more and more aliens to choose from - now numbering the hundreds! This effectively means that every time you play Cosmic Encounter, you will be playing a different game, with a different mix of player powers and sometimes lots of different victory conditions to keep track of.

At this stage it's worth mentioning that the aliens powers are not balanced, not equal, and this is also part of the Cosmic Encounter game design. If you are someone who likes dry eurogames with little or no player interaction, and where all participants have an equal chance to win on their own, you won't like Cosmic Encounter. In this game you have to ally with other players in order to keep more powerful aliens in check, and you have to lie and cheat your way to the top if you are weaker, or aren't dealt the stronger cards. It is an experience as much about the metagame as it is about the rules around the table and I *love love love* this sort of thing. Cosmic Encounter is right up my street and really exemplifies why I enjoy playing board games (often more than video games) - lots of player interaction, lots of fun, great theme and really taxing to play and win, especially trying for that solo-win and not just relying on your allies.