PROFIL
Historia recenzji i ocen użytkownika Juamax
Ahoy (edycja angielska)
Review Ahoy!,
Ahoy, is the latest creation of Leder games at retail. This time Leder games are offering us an asymmetrical pirate theme game for 2 to 4 players. Illustrated with the very recognizable style of Kyle Ferrin.
The game offers a nice introduction to asymetrical boardgames, there are 3 different factions present in the game; The Bluefin Squadron (Sharks), The Mollusk Union (Crabs) and the Smugglers (Up to 2 players can play with them). On two player games, we will be only play the Bluefin Squadron vs the Mollusk Union. We will add up to 2 Smugglers for 3 to 4 players games.
Each player has an allocated amount of D6 dice and a specific faction board that represents their faction’s flagship, a nice double layered board with different spots to place our D6 and carry out different actions that will help us getting fame points turn after turn. The game end triggers immediately after a player reaches 30 fame points, the player with the most fame points at the end wins!
During the game players will roll their dice, and will use 2 dice to carry out the actions described on their flagship board filling up their action spots, some actions spots will require certain pip numbers and each faction has specific actions that will help them with their strategies.
Among the common actions each faction have; you will be able to Sail and explore the seas, placing new sea region tiles, each sea region tile will have a wealth die starting at 1 which value will increase depending on the players actions.
You will also be able to combat with your cannons and inflict damaged to other players flagship boards negating them from their action spots, destroy their smaller ships, patrols or forts. Finally, you will always be able to repair the damages received in your flagship.
The board, will be laid out by the players while sailing around the sea, each sea region tile will have an island and other terrain features, like strong currents, harbors, sandbars, fog, wreckages and treasures.
There is also a market of cards representing possible crew members to recruit or cargo (If playing as an Smuggler) the crew will provide you some edge over the actions you can carry out, bonuses or even additional actions.
Short overview of the factions:
The Bluefin Squadron, will be contesting the sea regions wealth dice with their numerous patrols and forts controlling the movement of their enemies at sea.
The Mollusk Union, will be also contesting the sea regions although mainly placing their comrades on the islands on each sea region, and using their secondary ships and specific deck of schemes to help them swing the control of the sea regions along the board.
The Smugglers, both share the same flagship action board, and they will be competing to gain fame by being able to pick and deliver goods between the different islands. Each time they achieve to deliver their cargo successfully they will get a reward of their choosing on their board and increase that sea region's wealth dice. They will be also betting secretly which faction they think will control at the end of the game those islands for extra fame points.
Conclusion:
If you want to enter the world of asymmetrical boardgames but you are unsure where to start, this is a great option. It offers 3 different asymmetric factions, on a very lean and straight forward rulebook, all wrapped up in a very colorful art style. Playtime should be less than 90 min after the players get used to the game.
As a two player game, Bluefin Squadron vs Mollusk Union offers a tight asymmetrical region control game. After a couple of games the time might not exceed 60 min.
All around, a fast engaging game to play, with very nice components and art.
And remember give no quarter seadogs!
Review Ahoy!,
Ahoy, is the latest creation of Leder games at retail. This time Leder games are offering us an asymmetrical pirate theme game for 2 to 4 players. Illustrated with the very recognizable style of Kyle Ferrin.
The game offers a nice introduction to asymetrical boardgames, there are 3 different factions present in the game; The Bluefin Squadron (Sharks), The Mollusk Union (Crabs) and the Smugglers (Up to 2 players can play with them). On two player games, we will be only play the Bluefin Squadron vs the Mollusk Union. We will add up to 2 Smugglers for 3 to 4 players games.
Each player has an allocated amount of D6 dice and a specific faction board that represents their faction’s flagship, a nice double layered board with different spots to place our D6 and carry out different actions that will help us getting fame points turn after turn. The game end triggers immediately after a player reaches 30 fame points, the player with the most fame points at the end wins!
During the game players will roll their dice, and will use 2 dice to carry out the actions described on their flagship board filling up their action spots, some actions spots will require certain pip numbers and each faction has specific actions that will help them with their strategies.
Among the common actions each faction have; you will be able to Sail and explore the seas, placing new sea region tiles, each sea region tile will have a wealth die starting at 1 which value will increase depending on the players actions.
You will also be able to combat with your cannons and inflict damaged to other players flagship boards negating them from their action spots, destroy their smaller ships, patrols or forts. Finally, you will always be able to repair the damages received in your flagship.
The board, will be laid out by the players while sailing around the sea, each sea region tile will have an island and other terrain features, like strong currents, harbors, sandbars, fog, wreckages and treasures.
There is also a market of cards representing possible crew members to recruit or cargo (If playing as an Smuggler) the crew will provide you some edge over the actions you can carry out, bonuses or even additional actions.
Short overview of the factions:
The Bluefin Squadron, will be contesting the sea regions wealth dice with their numerous patrols and forts controlling the movement of their enemies at sea.
The Mollusk Union, will be also contesting the sea regions although mainly placing their comrades on the islands on each sea region, and using their secondary ships and specific deck of schemes to help them swing the control of the sea regions along the board.
The Smugglers, both share the same flagship action board, and they will be competing to gain fame by being able to pick and deliver goods between the different islands. Each time they achieve to deliver their cargo successfully they will get a reward of their choosing on their board and increase that sea region's wealth dice. They will be also betting secretly which faction they think will control at the end of the game those islands for extra fame points.
Conclusion:
If you want to enter the world of asymmetrical boardgames but you are unsure where to start, this is a great option. It offers 3 different asymmetric factions, on a very lean and straight forward rulebook, all wrapped up in a very colorful art style. Playtime should be less than 90 min after the players get used to the game.
As a two player game, Bluefin Squadron vs Mollusk Union offers a tight asymmetrical region control game. After a couple of games the time might not exceed 60 min.
All around, a fast engaging game to play, with very nice components and art.
And remember give no quarter seadogs!
Fort: Cats & Dogs Expansion
,
This expansion for Fort brings 2 small independent modules that you can add to expand your base Fort gameplay.
They will add 2 new ways of getting points through your games. The dogs module brings 18 dog cards, 3 per suit (Same size as the Kids cards from the base game) and 4 dog houses, one for each player. The cat module brings 8 cat cards (Same size as the made-up rules, 1st player cards from the base game)
How many dogs are used? 3 dog cards will be added per player to their initial hands. So you will have 3 Kid cards less on your initial hand.
What do our dog cards do? Each dog has a unique action that will trigger when their specific need is fulfilled by us. Once we have triggered their action the dog will be put on our dog house til the end of the game.
How do we play with our dog cards? First of all, they all have a suit like every kid in the game. So, you can follow actions of other players with them as normal, reinforce your actions or you can fulfill their need and perform their one time action, this cannot be followed by other players. Afterwards, they will stay in your doghouse.
How do we score points with the dog cards? Well, the player with the most dogs in their dog house at the end of the game will score 7 points, in case of a tie, tied players score 7 points.
How many cats are used? only 1 cat card will be added per player.
What do our cats cards do? Cats are not playable cards and they provide small bonuses through the game while they are at our side. They have no alliances, so they will move to the player that gets their attention, obviously different cats different tastes.
How do we score points with the cat cards? Depending on the number of cats a player has with him at the end of the game; 1 Cat = 1 Point, 2 Cats = 3 Points, 3 Cats = 6 Points and 4 Cats = 10 Points.
My opinion:
Fort is a nice game with several different ways to score points and achieve victory, if you play the game a lot and you think you are always following the same strategies to win the game and are looking for new ways of doing so, this expansion adds a few more possibilities, point wise.
The dog cards might slow down a bit the game, since their requirements might take some extra time to prepare. But the unique actions of the dog cards add an extra layer of strategie to the game, if you don't use them they might end up with your opponent so you need to be careful.
The cat cards, add small modifications to the actions we perform on our normal turns, so they spice the game a little bit, but you might not enjoy their company/benefits indefinitely…
I like this expansion and the small twist to the original game, I think it is a good option for players that play the game a lot and are looking for small changes to the original. The cats and dogs expansion art matches perfectly the game.
I hope you enjoyed my review of this game.
PS: The small tuck-box where the expansion comes fits inside the original game insert, with unsleeved cards!
,
This expansion for Fort brings 2 small independent modules that you can add to expand your base Fort gameplay.
They will add 2 new ways of getting points through your games. The dogs module brings 18 dog cards, 3 per suit (Same size as the Kids cards from the base game) and 4 dog houses, one for each player. The cat module brings 8 cat cards (Same size as the made-up rules, 1st player cards from the base game)
How many dogs are used? 3 dog cards will be added per player to their initial hands. So you will have 3 Kid cards less on your initial hand.
What do our dog cards do? Each dog has a unique action that will trigger when their specific need is fulfilled by us. Once we have triggered their action the dog will be put on our dog house til the end of the game.
How do we play with our dog cards? First of all, they all have a suit like every kid in the game. So, you can follow actions of other players with them as normal, reinforce your actions or you can fulfill their need and perform their one time action, this cannot be followed by other players. Afterwards, they will stay in your doghouse.
How do we score points with the dog cards? Well, the player with the most dogs in their dog house at the end of the game will score 7 points, in case of a tie, tied players score 7 points.
How many cats are used? only 1 cat card will be added per player.
What do our cats cards do? Cats are not playable cards and they provide small bonuses through the game while they are at our side. They have no alliances, so they will move to the player that gets their attention, obviously different cats different tastes.
How do we score points with the cat cards? Depending on the number of cats a player has with him at the end of the game; 1 Cat = 1 Point, 2 Cats = 3 Points, 3 Cats = 6 Points and 4 Cats = 10 Points.
My opinion:
Fort is a nice game with several different ways to score points and achieve victory, if you play the game a lot and you think you are always following the same strategies to win the game and are looking for new ways of doing so, this expansion adds a few more possibilities, point wise.
The dog cards might slow down a bit the game, since their requirements might take some extra time to prepare. But the unique actions of the dog cards add an extra layer of strategie to the game, if you don't use them they might end up with your opponent so you need to be careful.
The cat cards, add small modifications to the actions we perform on our normal turns, so they spice the game a little bit, but you might not enjoy their company/benefits indefinitely…
I like this expansion and the small twist to the original game, I think it is a good option for players that play the game a lot and are looking for small changes to the original. The cats and dogs expansion art matches perfectly the game.
I hope you enjoyed my review of this game.
PS: The small tuck-box where the expansion comes fits inside the original game insert, with unsleeved cards!
Under Falling Skies
Great solitaire puzzle with an old school Space Invaders taste,
In this game, we will be in charge of a series of underground bases around the world trying to defeat an alien invasion, these aliens will launch their attack from their mother ship into the different cities that we will have to defend at all costs.
Our objective in the game will be to fill up the research track in order to learn the aliens weak spot and destroy them, but we will lose if the mothership descends too close to our city and triggers her death ray upon us or if the alien ships hit our city too many times and we reach our base structural limit.
The board is divided in 4 Sky tiles, 1 city tile and 2 underground base tiles each divided in 5 columns. In each turn, we will roll 5 D6 dice and will carefully place them in the available rooms in our underground base one by one placing only one dice per column. Every time we place a dice in a room of our base we will trigger the movement of every alien ship on that column and they will descend as many squares as the value in our D6. Afterwards we will resolve our rooms, using the energy required and applying any modifiers stated in the room. After all the rooms have been resolved the mothership will descend 1 row closer to the city and trigger the appropriate effect.
What are my impressions after 8 games:
This is a very elegant solo game, there is a good amount of randomness but the game provides you a bit of luck control in each round to mitigate it. In order to win, the game requires quite a bit of thoughtful dice placement and also a bit of luck. It feels very puzzly, but also very rewarding when you achieve to eliminate several alien ships at once or when you coordinate several rooms to investigate a long stretch in the research track, the continuous descension of the mothership will increase the tension through the turns.
The replayability of the game is really high. The sky tiles have 2 different difficulties easy and hard, the sky has 4 tiles so you can set up quite a few variations of difficulty to enjoy. The city tiles also bring and easy and hard difficulty and they provide you with a specific underground base layout.
I would recommend this game to people who enjoy problem solving puzzles similar to sudoku but with a Space invader taste, you will need to balance carefully the dice according to their values through the rooms, keeping a flexible balance between your energy levels, defensive capabilities, excavation progress and alien research in order to be victorious. The ability to increase or decrease the difficulty of the game through the tiles plus the random nature of the dice will provide hours and hours of challenging puzzles for the earth defenders.
Space wise:
The box has medium size dimensions (25cm L x 18.5cm W x 5.5cm H), but it is full til the brim with cardboard around 1.4 Kg. Once the game is set up (5 min) it occupies around (58-71cm L x W 12cm) on the table, so it will require a rather long table to play comfortably.
Component wise:
The cardboard thickness is good and similar to other games of CGE such as Galaxy trucker it has been nicely printed and all pieces are printed on both sides with a nice finished to the touch.
The alien ships have a nice smart design and are made of clear transparent plastic and they come in 3 different colours easily identified, regarding the tokens there are 2 transparent plastic discs and a small cube to help you track the energy, alien investigation and the base’s life. There is also an orange excavator meeple made of wood to track your base excavation progress. Finally the dice, there are 7 wood dice, in three different colours too, they are nice to roll.
The box includes also 3 campaign modules, with extra cities and sky tiles, objectives and some characters to use to aid you during the games. It is not meant to be a legacy campaign, and at the end you will be able to mix and match as you wish adding to the replayability value of the game.
I hope you enjoyed my expoilerless review of this game.
Great solitaire puzzle with an old school Space Invaders taste,
In this game, we will be in charge of a series of underground bases around the world trying to defeat an alien invasion, these aliens will launch their attack from their mother ship into the different cities that we will have to defend at all costs.
Our objective in the game will be to fill up the research track in order to learn the aliens weak spot and destroy them, but we will lose if the mothership descends too close to our city and triggers her death ray upon us or if the alien ships hit our city too many times and we reach our base structural limit.
The board is divided in 4 Sky tiles, 1 city tile and 2 underground base tiles each divided in 5 columns. In each turn, we will roll 5 D6 dice and will carefully place them in the available rooms in our underground base one by one placing only one dice per column. Every time we place a dice in a room of our base we will trigger the movement of every alien ship on that column and they will descend as many squares as the value in our D6. Afterwards we will resolve our rooms, using the energy required and applying any modifiers stated in the room. After all the rooms have been resolved the mothership will descend 1 row closer to the city and trigger the appropriate effect.
What are my impressions after 8 games:
This is a very elegant solo game, there is a good amount of randomness but the game provides you a bit of luck control in each round to mitigate it. In order to win, the game requires quite a bit of thoughtful dice placement and also a bit of luck. It feels very puzzly, but also very rewarding when you achieve to eliminate several alien ships at once or when you coordinate several rooms to investigate a long stretch in the research track, the continuous descension of the mothership will increase the tension through the turns.
The replayability of the game is really high. The sky tiles have 2 different difficulties easy and hard, the sky has 4 tiles so you can set up quite a few variations of difficulty to enjoy. The city tiles also bring and easy and hard difficulty and they provide you with a specific underground base layout.
I would recommend this game to people who enjoy problem solving puzzles similar to sudoku but with a Space invader taste, you will need to balance carefully the dice according to their values through the rooms, keeping a flexible balance between your energy levels, defensive capabilities, excavation progress and alien research in order to be victorious. The ability to increase or decrease the difficulty of the game through the tiles plus the random nature of the dice will provide hours and hours of challenging puzzles for the earth defenders.
Space wise:
The box has medium size dimensions (25cm L x 18.5cm W x 5.5cm H), but it is full til the brim with cardboard around 1.4 Kg. Once the game is set up (5 min) it occupies around (58-71cm L x W 12cm) on the table, so it will require a rather long table to play comfortably.
Component wise:
The cardboard thickness is good and similar to other games of CGE such as Galaxy trucker it has been nicely printed and all pieces are printed on both sides with a nice finished to the touch.
The alien ships have a nice smart design and are made of clear transparent plastic and they come in 3 different colours easily identified, regarding the tokens there are 2 transparent plastic discs and a small cube to help you track the energy, alien investigation and the base’s life. There is also an orange excavator meeple made of wood to track your base excavation progress. Finally the dice, there are 7 wood dice, in three different colours too, they are nice to roll.
The box includes also 3 campaign modules, with extra cities and sky tiles, objectives and some characters to use to aid you during the games. It is not meant to be a legacy campaign, and at the end you will be able to mix and match as you wish adding to the replayability value of the game.
I hope you enjoyed my expoilerless review of this game.
