What We're Playing!
/Ever wondered what games the guys behind the counter enjoy in their off time? Wonder no longer! This is What We're Playing!
Ben - Clank! In! Space!
Clank! In! Space! Is! Great!
Sorry. I'll try to stop! putting exclamation points everywhere, but! it's addictive. And so is Clank! In! Space! (referred to hereafter as CIS for obvious reasons).
I'm not a huge deck-building game lover overall. I enjoy Star Realms and Hero Realms because of their similarities to Magic: the Gathering, but the mainstays like Ascension, DC Deck-Builder, and Legendary never really appealed as the themes were not for me (has there been a three month span without a superhero movie?).
CIS turned out to be the perfect entry point. Themed in space and full of hilarious parodies from all manner of space-set television and movies, the game goals are simply: gain access to Lord Eradikus' command area, steal an artifact, and escape the ship before he and his army of minions kill you, all as quietly as possible. Along the way you're buying cards for your deck, moving about the ship, collecting special skills and items to aid you and fighting off security as you Clank! your way through the steel corridors and security checkpoints (sorry, couldn't resist).
There are so many different deck-building strategies and funny cards that I never experienced a dull moment. The amazing part is that I opened it and learned it out of the box without difficulty on the first play through!
If you're looking to try out a deck-building game for the first time, want to widen your deck-building horizons, or see what all the Clank! is about, come by and try our demo. I'll be happy to teach anyone as this is easily one of my favorite games ever and one that I feel will draw anyone into deck-building.
Nick - Legend of the Five Rings
I have been playing the crud out of Legend of the Five Rings! This is a new product by Fantasy Flight Games that was an older game that started in the late 90's and has now been acquired by them.
Legend of the Five Rings is a fantasy based game set in feudal Japan. The game follows the top clans of Rokugan as they fight and use politics to gain the upper hand and win the emperor's favor. Fantasy Flight has taken the core feel of the game and made a few adjustments to make the game play more fluid and responsive.
I have been playing L5R since the 5th of October and have been having a blast with it and my friends up here at the shop. The game has beautifully made cards with awesome artwork. The game itself is pretty easy to play - about three games and we had it down.
In the game, each player fights or uses politics to conquer the opponent's provinces using the might and political power of your characters. Once you have conquered three of the opponent's provinces you try to take over their stronghold. Once you have beaten it you win! Also another reason I love the game is there are two other ways to win other than breaking their stronghold. A player also has a resource called honor, and if a player has 25 honor they win the game, or lose when they have no honor.
I hope people give this game a try. It is a wonderful new addition to the Fantasy Flight LCG family. Give it a try!
Logan - Cosmic Encounter
Cosmic Encounter is a game of alien conquest, teamwork and betrayal. Each player chooses an alien species that, in its own unique way, has a game breaking power. Through a series of either peaceful negotiations or hard fought battles, you begin to conquer one another’s planets.
Each phase of the game can create allies and enemies. You can either choose to conquer the galaxy alone, or bring up to three other players with you. As fate itself pits friend against friend, who will come out on top as the true ruler of the galaxy?
Corey - Neil Gaiman's A Study In Emerald
Whew, how to describe this game? If you can imagine a mash-up of social deduction, deck-building, area control, and resource management in a Sherlock Holmes meets Cthulhu setting, you’ve got a pretty good picture of this game. Sound crazy? Let’s break it down.
The Old Ones have been ruling the earth for over seven hundred years. While most of humanity has welcomed their new eldritch overlords, and in fact a faction of Loyalists work to maintain their hold, an underground resistance movement called the Restorationists aims to topple the Old Ones’ rule. Their efforts at overthrowing the Elder Gods were largely futile until the invention of TNT. Turns out good old high-powered explosives are Cthulhu’s one weakness. Who knew?
Each player begins the game with a matching player deck, some agents, and a pool of influence. There are cities representing areas where Old Ones have taken control, each with a stack of cards available to buy. The agents are placed in cities where that player wants a card to add to their deck (the deck-building element). These cards can have a range of effects, from adding agents to the board and moving them around, to killing other players’ agents and even the Old Ones themselves! Buying a card requires you to have more agents and influence in that city than any other player (the area control element), but once a card is bought, your influence in that city goes into “limbo.” You must use your cards to retrieve this influence and add it back to your pool before you can put it on the board again (the resource management element), so be careful not to over-commit to a certain location. Ultimately you must deduce who among you is on your side and who is working against you (the social deduction element) so you can pursue your own goals and end the game with the most victory points!
I’ve had my eye on this game for a long time, and I’m glad I finally had the chance to play it because I’ve never experienced a game quite like this. The setting is definitely my style and the gameplay is very unique, with elements of multiple types of games that I already enjoy. If you’ve been waiting to pull the trigger on this one, I say go for it! I’m glad I did.
That's all this time around, but be sure to check back in next month for a glimpse into what's new, what's good, and What We're Playing!
