Well, it was bound to happen. DC is hard at work producing a range of Watchmen- related comics. I can just imagine Alan Moore sitting in a pentagram over the dead body of a sacrificed toad and screaming spells and curses against the DC CEOs (OK, cheap joke). The various mini- series will be called Before Watchmen and they will be prequel stories set in the Watchmen universe. Details:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/books/dc-comics-plans-prequels-to-watchmen-series.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&ref=arts&adxnnlx=1328270417-MQdxT/op82SG6x5MvPhpKQ 

● RORSCHACH (4 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: Lee Bermejo
● MINUTEMEN (6 issues) – Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke
● COMEDIAN (6 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: J.G. Jones
● DR. MANHATTAN (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist: Adam Hughes
● NITE OWL (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artists: Andy and Joe Kubert
● OZYMANDIAS (6 issues) – Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee
● SILK SPECTRE (4 issues) – Writer: Darwyn Cooke. Artist: Amanda Conner

Anyone who has any knowledge of comics can see that there is a huge talent pool here. Everyone involved with the project is an accomplished artist or writer. And yet, I am almost speechless with the bottomless stupidity of the whole project.

I am not an Alan Moore fanboy. Watchmen is indeed a masterpiece but it’s not necessarily the best comic of all time. Hell, I’d argue that it isn’t even the best thing Alan Moore has ever done. Moore believed that the whole thing couldn’t even be translated into film and I think he was wrong about that (although I wish it was Terry Gilliam or Darren Aronofski that got to do it and not Zack Snyder).

I am not going to comment on the ethical issues arising with the idea of continuing a story against the explicit wishes of the original creator. DC has the rights to the property of course, but, as a reader, I have the right to demand respect or to not buy their product. Watchmen was a perfectly contained story with a beginning and an end and that’s something that DC seems incapable of grasping. Continuing the story now, more than 20 years after the thing was concluded is idiotic beyond belief and smacks of, shall we say, “financial” considerations and not artistic ones. It’s a prime example of MISSING THE POINT. The mainstream comics industry (that is, Marvel and DC) needs to stop pestering us with stupid sequels, prequels, events and crossovers and learn again the concept of innovation.They don’t need a new Watchmen, they need a new Alan Moore.

Lets leave the last word on the man himself, commenting on the news:

” I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago.”  

(-Dimitris Kontogiannis-)

The Speicherstadt to me is a perfect example of what it means to be a “European” game. It is a very tight game about managing resources – and is, in fact, the first resource management game I have ever played that has hardly any resources. It feels a bit like playing a farming game set in the middle of a drought! So here’s what happens: each player has three bidding markers. Starting with the first player, each player places one of their bidding markers next to a “building” (by building I mean a building, contract, ship, or firemen; also, there will be one more building available than there are players in the game). If another player (or players) have already placed their marker on a building, you can place your marker above theirs. After all markers have been placed, you start determining who purchases each building – the player who placed on the building in question first has the first chance to buy it, but at a cost of $1 per marker present. If they pass, the second player has the option (and it is now $1 cheaper), and so on until the building is either purchased or all of the players have passed. After this, if someone has purchased a ship (the only way of getting resources in the game), then they have to immediately allocate their new resources – whether this means they store them in a warehouse, trade them to the bank, or place them on a contract. Now, at the end of the turn, each player collects $1 of income from the bank ($2 if they purchased no buildings that turn). Also during the course of the game, four fires will start. Each player helps put the fire out by contributing his Firemen (if he has any – these can be purchased like buildings, but must have already been purchased in order to be used). The person(s) with the most Firemen get victory points, and the player(s) with the least Firemen lose points. When you fight the last fire, the game is over, and players add up their score – points can be earned through completed contracts, buildings, and from fighting fires. Whoever has the most victory points gets the option of gloating the loudest (and dancing a victory dance – but you should at least think about having a tactful one)!

The first thing that I like about The Speicherstadtis how purchasing buildings works. I think that this concept of demand is an innovative and yet simple mechanic that functions masterfully. From a capitalist perspective, it also makes sense to me – if there are three people that all want the same thing, then let the first person purchase it – but only if they’re willing to pay for it! (How much do new iPhones cost when they come out again?) Well, it’s not exactly like how supply and demand works in a real marketplace, but it is a nice mechanic in this game. The first person present gets the opportunity to buy the building, but each extra coin they spend can make a large difference in the game! (Keep in mind, you only gain one extra coin per turn) Unfortunately, the limited amount of money in the game essentially turns this into a first player disadvantage. However, you each take turns being first player, so overall, I really enjoyed this new way of handling purchasing.

The next thing that I thought was interesting was the limited quantities of everything in the game. You won’t have an abundance of anything, I can almost guarantee it. One of the games I played I purposely refrained from buying any buildings for the first few turns so that I could have more money later on. Sure enough, within a few more rounds I had been able to purchase what I wanted, but I was back to a very small amount of coins available in my bank (by the way, this strategy worked; I won that game). This makes each decision feel much more crucial – which adds more of a sense of excitement and tension into a fairly simple game.

A third thing that I liked about The Speicherstadt was the Firemen. Specifically, I liked that they were important enough in the game that you couldn’t ignore them, but they weren’t overpowered to the point that you could win the game by focusing only on them. They simply added another element to factor in when deciding what to buy on any given turn. And so they helped add more of a feeling of “but, I need all of them” when looking at buildings. (And then you look at the amount of coins in your bank and you grow very sad realizing that you couldn’t afford to buy three buildings even if you were able to buy them for $1 apiece. I’m assuming this wasn’t just me…)

With that said, the main con that I had with The Speicherstadt was that I felt like the first phase of buildings were somewhat worthless. (There are 4 different piles of buildings that are shuffled separately and stacked on top of each other to form the draw pile.) Most of these buildings allowed you to trade in extra goods of a certain type for one coin each.  Yes, there are times when trading a specific good for one coin is useful – namely, when you have excess amounts of that good and no need for it. However, the trading buildings from the first phase only work with a single type of good and only improve your basic trading from a 2:1 resource to coin ratio to a 1:1 resource to coin ratio. And, you don’t know which goods you will have extras of later in the game. Therefore, buying any of the trading buildings seems to be far more of a gamble than a strategic decision, in my opinion. Since the bulk of the first phase buildings are these trading posts, most of the first phase felt somewhat pointless.

My second con was that there was nothing that really grabbed me about The Speicherstadt. Yes, this is a much harder con to describe, but overall the game just didn’t engage me to the point where I felt like I needed to play it repeatedly. There was no sense of building on previous accomplishment. Yes, there was ongoing strategy from the beginning to the end of the game – buy contracts, decide whether you need buildings now or coins later, make sure that you have firemen; but, overall you’re still reacting to the situation more than you are developing a long term strategy. Whereas I don’t think that necessarily makes a game bad, it is my best attempt of explaining why The Speicherstadt didn’t grab my imagination and make me excited to play it again and again.

Overall I give The Speicherstadt a 7.5/10. It works – there is nothing wrong with this game. I wouldn’t even mind playing it more if other people were interested. However, it’s probably not something that I will actively pursue. I am glad that I had the opportunity to try it, though, because it did feel unique to me, even with all of the other games that I have tried.

Another fine Dice Hate Me review!

Rock Science is a trivia board game for rockers, a real rock experience.  The game covers hundreds of bands, from Classic Rock to Thrash Metal and many other genres.

Players compete to be the first to reach the finish line through answering questions. Questions have difficulty levels – the higher the difficulty the higher the possible reward. Furthermore players can bet on their co- players’ rock knowledge. The game includes around 2,500 questions, a game board, a die, pawns, betting cards, rules summary cards, rules book and rock tokens.

You think you know everything there is to know about rock?….well, you have to prove it.

for more info: http://www.rockscience.tv/

Watch video:

Klara Force & Ida Evileye of Crucified Barbara

Nicke Borg of Backyard Babies with Rock Science

Nico Elgstrand (Entombed) with Rock Science

Jorge Bravo (Rock Science), Phil Campbell (Motörhead), Douchebag Dave (Rock Science)

-manoc-

When I was working on my PhD in Birmingham several years ago, every time I ran into trouble with my work, I consulted my friend Alex. Alex had a talent for chemical engineering problem- solving and a boundless enthusiasm for whatever project you would ran by him. He would consider your method, mentally take it apart and assess your objectives. That usually meant going off on various epic, complicated theoretical tangents (essentially thinking out loud), before snapping back into coherent, effective suggestions. His born- engineer worldview was a lot of help to someone like me- with my biology background and my various messy ideas and disciplines swimming around in my head, only occasionally  gelling into something lucid.

I mention this little diversion, not to salute the intellect of my engineer friends (although while we’re on the subject, lets also raise a glass to Paul, James and Jon), but to point out that there is such a thing as an engineer’s mentality. And that mentality is all over Neal Stephenson’s new novel. At its’ center, REAMDE is the story of Richard Forthrast, a former marijuana smuggler- turned- gaming- billionaire and his niece Zula, an Eritrean orphan who was adopted into the Forthrast family and who runs into serious trouble when (through sheer bad luck) she attracts the attention of some Russian gangsters. To try and summarize the plot as it snakes from Seattle to southeastern China, would be pointless. What is worth mentioning is Stephenson style. He is fascinated by the inner workings of a number of systems and processes and he often freezes the action (even in the middle of a gun fight) to wax exuberantly about ballistics, virtual universes, money- laundering, Iowa families, the traffic in Manilla, Spetsnaz tactics, MI6 policies and the fine points of religious fundamentalism. All this while a huge cast of mercenaries, mobsters, hackers, geologists, enterpreneurs, spies and bikers runs around the world in a gigantic shoot- out. At times, the dizzying, non- stop flow of jargon and detail makes you feel as if you are mainlining information, the hyper- reality of it all making the book feel like science fiction. All these tangents should be boring, but Stephenson’s razor sharp wit and attention to detail make it work. Plus, the guy is hilarious. REAMDE is a 1000- page doorstep of a book, but I don’t think even a paragraph passes by without the reader being blindsided by a great joke.

Those familiar with Stephenson’s seminal cyberpunk novels like Snow Crush and The Diamond Age, or his insanely ambitious historical trilogy The Baroque Cycle will not be surprised. His is a world where everyone is a smart- ass and a geek (including terrorist cell leaders, medievalist fantasy authors who live in actual castles and survivalist gun nuts). It’s not particularly realistic, but it makes for a novel where everyone is cool. One may detect traces of Roger Zelazny, Robert Anton Wilson, or Kurt Vonnegut in Stephenson’s picaresque style and love for the anarchic and the ridiculous, but his distinctive voice is his own. In fact, REAMDE can perhaps be classified as an “airport novel” or a technothriller (what a dreary term), but its’ sheer genius exposes your average best- seller as the bloodless hackwork that it is.

(-Dimitris Kontogiannis-)

Karl Edward Wagner was a writer of weird fiction and one of my favorite authors. He is considered a titan in the rather specialized fields of fantasy and horror and yet, he has been largely forgotten these days.

This is fucking unacceptable.

Wagner burst into the horror scene around the end of the sixties. Originally, he studied to be a psychiatrist, but found the University environment to be stifling and strict, so he turned to writing. He worked for a while in Robert E. Howard’ s milieu, writing stories about Conan and other Howard heroes and editing three volumes of Howard’s tales. At the time, Conan was far from a household name and several writers had been doing Conan stories, with little respect to Howard’s legacy. Wagner quickly became known as that rare thing: A Conan writer who understood the character and his universe.

But that was only the beginning. Soon Wagner created his most well- known character, Kane. Kane is based on the biblical Caine, the original murderer. He is a fearsome immortal warrior in a magick- encrusted, monster- filled version of pre- Medieval Europe. He is a necromancer with long red hair, a big beard and a penchant for elaborate squemes and bloody adventures. Forget the Hobbits with their quiet, cosy decency and Conan’s distrust for civilisation. Kane was a cultivated, devious, ruthless bastard. According to Wagner, “he could master any situation intellectually, or rip heads off if push came to shove”.

Wagner expanded the Kane universe in a handful of short stories and novels, some of which even positioned the amoral adventurer in the late seventies. the books became quite popular and the iconic covers by the legendary Frank Frazetta didn’t hurt sales. His horrorific short fiction was mostly collected in two books, In A Lonely Place and Why Not You And I. These were occasionally pulpy but always elegant stories and they reflected the post- Watergate, post- Vietnam American malaise. They were also a product of Wagner’s drink and drug- fuelled personal life, along with his love for gothic novels, Lovecraft and rock ‘n’ roll.

Wagner was also a noted anthologist. He edited the annual collection The Year’s Best Horror Stories on and off for several years between 1980 and 1994. He included a huge range of stories in his selections and tirelessly championed new authors and established names, critisizing the state of the field when necessary. He may have contributed more than anyone in keeping the spirit of horror literature alive in the late eighties, when the boom initiated by Salem’s Lot and Ghost Story subsided and the public and publishers lost interest in the genre. Along with his friends David drake and Jim Groce, he formed Carcossa Press, a publishing house whose mission was to re- establish long- forgotten authors from the pulp era. They published two of my favorite collections. Hugh B. Cave’s Murgunstrumm and Others (the stories of whom were gruesome and blood- drenched) and Manly Wade Wellman’s Worse Things Waiting (charming and creepy), both with illustrations by legendary Weird Tales artist Lee Brown Coye. I think it’s fair to say that he singlehandedly saved these wonderful writers from obscurity.

Karl Edward Wagner drunk himself to death in 1994. He left behind a gloriously grotesque body of work and thousand of fans all over the world (including peers such as Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell and Peter Straub). The upcoming publication of all of his horror stories in two expensive hardcover tomes by Centipede Press might rekindle interest in his work. And I’m sure Hollywood will eventually come round to adapting Kane for the big screen (considering what they ‘ve done with Conan though, that may be a mixed blessing). Perhaps Wagner now needs someone to do for him what he did for Hugh B. Cave and Manly Wade Wellman. For those who like their eldridge fiction with a dash of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, Karl Edward Wagner is an Elder God.

http://www.centipedepress.com/masters/wagnermwt.html

http://www.popcultmag.com/obsessions/profilesingreatness/karlwagner/wagner01.html

(-Dimitris Kontogiannis-)

We ‘ve rambled on extensively about Ilias Kyriazis in the past, here in Crows ‘N’ Bones. He is one of the foremost Greek comics creators and this year, he has reached a decade in the field. He is celebrating the occasion with a party in TILT, one of the best comic book shops in Athens (37 Asklipiou St.). There will be original art and merchandising, including the chance to buy his new comic The Dragon And The Ghost (a work created especially for the anniversary, which will be available only online after the event). So, if you are a comic book geek like us, in town on Saturday December 3rd, go and check it out.

http://iliaskyriazis.blogspot.com/2011/11/10-year-anniversary-party.html

(-Dimitris Kontogiannis-)

As Linus van Pelt once so aptly conveyed: “Happiness is a warm blanket.” There’s a lot of subtle, yet strong subtext in that sentiment; we humans often have a base desire to be wrapped tightly in comforting familiarity, and while so wrapped, have no wish to do much more than remain so, content and without need or care of the slipping of time. In certain gaming circles – and, indeed, in the Dice Hate Me household – that emotional conveyance could often be repurposed, with no loss of power or sentiment, to “happiness is a long Euro.” And, so, this is how the latest release from Tasty Minstrel Games – Belfort – has a lot in common with a hand-drawn, grade-school philosopher’s best friend.

Make no mistake – despite the whimsy of elves, dwarves and gnomes amidst a fantasy city setting on the front of the box, within Belfort beats the heart of one beast of a Euro game. This is not an untamed beast, mind you (I did mention that bit about a warm, fuzzy blanket) but it is a beast, nonetheless, and one that requires – nay, demands – commitment and attention. The benefit of this beast (and, some elite gamers might say, drawback) is that Belfort is comprised mostly of several standard Euro conventions and gaming mechanisms that only those that have never even looked sideways at a German boardgame might not recognize.

The simple and typical goal of the game is points, divvied out every couple of rounds, but getting those points is far from simple. Players must use dwarves, elves and gnomes to engage in a veritable buffet of Euro mechanisms:

Worker placement: Elves and dwarves make up the bulk of the Belfort workforce and they can be placed in various locations around the city to obtain resources or nab special player abilities. Gnomes can be hired later after building certain structures to act as staff for the buildings, activating even more unique abilities for a player. The interesting part of worker placement here are the planks – certain locations that contain a circle and a square, meaning they can only be used by circle-tokened elves and square-tokened dwarves – and gnome locks – which, by virtue of their nomenclature, indicate that they can only be unlocked by the pentagon-shaped gnomes. These specialized locations add a layer of extra strategy in how to hire, delegate and best utilize your workers from turn to turn.

Resource management: The typical Euro resources abound in the lands surrounding Belfort – wood, stone, metal and gold. However, the delineation of worker types make decisions on how to obtain them even more maddening; elves can gather wood, dwarves can gather stone, together they can gather metal, and either can gather gold. Since each resource is precious, and all are used in various combinations to construct the various buildings in the city (to net points and gain abilities), there is always more demand than your workers can supply. There is also a subtle bidding mechanic inherent in the resource area; the player who places the most workers in a particular area can take an extra resource. It’s a sneaky mechanic, but quite often the player that pays attention and makes best use of this advantage is able to eke out a point or two in other areas of the game.

Variable turn order: Turn order in Belfort is determined by the number rank on player crests. During the worker placement phase, players can dedicate one or more workers to the King’s Camp in an effort to take control of a certain crest. Early in the game, players may find that it’s often best to go first in order to first place their workers in Guilds or other advantageous locations around the city. However, in the last couple of rounds of play, going last has a great advantage, as that player can better react to the scoring efforts of others.

Hand management: Each player starts with three Property cards in their hands; these cards represent the various buildings located in each of the five districts in Belfort. The main points of the game are awarded to players who build these structures and best take control of parts of the city (we’re getting there!). Property cards are built during the action sequence of a player’s turn through the use of the above-mentioned resources. Most players will be able to build an average of one structure per turn, which means that their starting hand will slowly deplete. However, the hand limit is 5, and there are buildings and Guilds that can allow players to draw several cards in a turn, and each player has the option to pay one gold at the end of their turn in order to draw one card. Hands fill up faster than expected, always giving each player a plethora of choices for both tactics and strategy. Careful selection of the buildings (which ones will afford the best abilities, which will be most useful for scoring) is one of the most crucial decisions in the game.

Area control: So, those buildings you just built to give you an extra gold each turn, or produce gnomes more cheaply? Those same buildings are your main source of points in Belfort. After exchanging resources to construct a Property, a player takes one of their little wooden Monopoly houses (well, that’s what they are) and places it on top of any building with the corresponding icon in any of the five districts that does not already contain a wooden Monopoly house from another player. During scoring rounds (rounds 3, 5 and 7), the player with the most Properties in a particular district is awarded a whopping 5 points (believe me, that’s huge), the second-most Properties gains 3 points and 3rd place gets 1. Players tied for any position both gain the points for the next-highest scoring level. There is often quite a bit of jockeying during scoring rounds (naturally), and Belfort contains mechanisms and Properties that can allow players to sneakily wrest control of a district from others when they least expect it. This demands concentration, quite a bit of planning and just a bit of luck, but the look on an opponent’s face is worth every ounce of energy.

As any of you dear readers can see, Belfort has a lot of parts to that beastly Euro heart. If that’s all there was to offer, there’s a possibility a few gamers might get bored. But allow me to elaborate before you all strike up the yawns.

To begin, variability of play in Belfort is astounding. Each game, a certain mix of Basic, Resource and Interactive Guilds are placed in the five districts of the city. When a worker is placed on a Guild, the player pays a gold coin to the city and can then activate special abilities, such as recruiting more workers (Elves and Dwarves) to collecting a boatload of stone or wood from the supply, to stealing Gold from another player. Players are also able to exchange resources in order to take control of the Guilds, taking money from any player that choose to use the Guild’s ability.

Scoring can also be influenced by sources other than Property cards. Players can build Walls in a district through the use of resources and without the use of a Property card. These walls can often be used to disrupt or take control of a district for a higher score. This is also true of taking control of Guilds. Players may also influence scoring through the use of worker majority. Those players who have the most Elves, Dwarves or Gnomes in their employ during scoring rounds will vastly improve their standings.

Needless to say, choices abound, so Belfort is not for the attention-deficit crowd, nor is it for those looking for a quick hit. To employ yet another simile, Belfort is like a well-crafted novel that you just don’t want to put down; it may be difficult to convince yourself to start, but by the time you’ve reached the end, you don’t want the story or experience to come to an end. As I mentioned before, some gamers may complain that there is too much familiarity, that Belfort contains too many well-trod Euro game staples; to that I say that it is the whole sum of these familiar parts that weaves the welcoming and comforting blanket that is Belfort.

This is another fine DICE HATE ME! review

Another fine DICE HATE REVIEW!

“Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote, The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, and the peoeple dyd feast upon the lambs and slothes, and carp and anchovyes, and orangutans and breakfaest cyreals, and fruyt-bats…”

- the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, paraphrased

Sometime in the late 14th Century, author, philosopher and alchemist Geoffrey Chaucer – having dutifully observed and soulfully absorbed the full folly and sin of mankind in his surroundings – decided to share his singular vision with a vast audience in the way he truly knew best: through sarcasm, lyrical satire and bawdy humor. Early in the 21st Century, English professor, troll wrangler and board game designer Alf Seegert  – having dutifully observed and soulfully absorbed the full folly and skill of the board gamers in his surroundings – decided to share his singular vision with a vast audience in the way he truly knew best: by insanely adapting Chaucer’s classic and influential works into a game that encourages extortion, makes profit of death, and extolls the virtues of good ol’ St. Nick’s underpants. If you ask me, Alf automatically wins this particular contest of creativity.

Now, before some of you out me for review fraudulence, I must admit to a few small things. Did I create the video for The Road to Canterbury Kickstarter campaign? Yes, I did. Was I paid exorbitant sums of money for said video, enough with which to roll around in a small tub, and was I sent a copy of the game, for free, over a month before the game was to be released for mass consumption or sent to Kickstarter backers? Well, yes, yes, and yes. Do I owe Alf Seegert my life after dragging me to a chopper amidst the Viet Cong-infested jungles back in ‘Nam? You’ve got me there. However, does that mean I am not a reliable source for an objective review? Absolutely not. And for those that don’t believe a word of that, it won’t really matter anyway – you’ll all buy it after The Dice Tower throws holy gaming water on it in video #32,546 in a few weeks.

Now, on with the totally-unbiased review.

For those not wholly in the know, The Road to Canterbury is based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s seminal works, The Canterbury Tales. It remains one of the greatest works in English poetry and literature, surpassed only by Danielle Steele’s Five Days in Paris and Owen Gleiberman’s thesaurus-bursting 2009 review of the motion picture Watchmen*. In The Road to Canterbury, players take on the role of the famed Pardoner from Chaucer’s bawdy tales, set out to corrupt the travelers making a pilgrimage to Canterbury so that indulgences can be sold to “pardon” their sins, thus adding to the growing collection of coins in each player’s fattening purse. At first glance of the rule book, the mechanisms for gaining such coins seem oddly convoluted, but after a couple of rounds of play, it all seems oddly natural – as if leading some into temptation only to “deliver” them from evil were second nature.

And, so, a brief overview of the rules:

- Each player begins the game with five random Sin cards. These cards are used to tempt one of three voyaging pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. For each successful Sin card played to a pilgrim, Pardoners place a corruption cube of their color on one of the spaces that match the flavor of Sin just played. If any Pardoner manages to place a corruption cube on all seven spaces, they will receive a huge payout from the Pardoner’s Guild.

- Pardoners may play one card of any type – Sin, Pardon or Relic – from their hand each turn.

- Sin cards are played just as in the example above, gaining the Pardoner a corruption cube in the Circle of Sin. Pardon cards are played on pilgrims who have gained a certain amount of Sin cards, and the amount of those Sin cards will increase the number of coins they receive upon Pardoning. Also, Pardoners can supplement their greed by pardoning the particular flavor of Sin that the Parson – the little meeple with a funny hat – is currently positioned upon in the Circle of Sin.

- Pardon cards are played to “forgive”  a particular Sin. As mentioned, each Sin card of a particular type will increase the amount of coins a Pardoner receives upon Pardoning that pilgrim.

- Relic cards grant that particular Pardoner a special ability for the turn. These can range from The Hairbrush of Saint Hildegard (collect 5 gold), to the Dancing Shoes of Saint Vitus (perform two more actions after playing this card). Some Relic cards require careful planning and a little bit of luck, while others can become an immediate thorn in one Pardoner’s side.

- If a Pardoner plays a Sin card and it is the 7th Sin for a pilgrim, that pilgrim passes away from their transgressions, and the acting Pardoner performs Last Rites, collecting a Last Rite’s token, which allows them to take another turn after the current turn, at any time during the game.

- After a pilgrim passes away from their sins, the Pardoner with the most corruption cubes on the pilgrim card places one of those cubes on the road to Canterbury and collects an appropriate bonus reward in coins. The remaining cubes are left on the expired pilgrim card, for end-game scoring.

Sound convoluted? It is – a little – but it gets far less confusing as the game progresses. Promise.

As any good English scholar can note, there are a lot of variables in The Road to Canterbury. There is a distinct ebb and flow throughout the game, and you can instantly find yourself on the ebb just as your flow was warming up. This is certainly part of the charm of the game, as a healthy appreciation for intuitive tactical thought will often outweigh those that choose – and stick with – a particular strategy from the beginning. However, small-scale strategies can be planned and executed over a few rounds for more coins (and, in the end, more victory points) through careful manipulation of the visible Sin and Pardon cards, as well as just a little bit of luck. Although The Road to Canterbury will be most rewarding for those with a sharp and quick tactical wit, even those players that prefer to walk the razor-thin edge of serendipitous strategy will sometimes find themselves in the lead. And in the end, despite the outcome, there’s nary a player who could find sin in that.

The Road to Canterbury is a game for 2 to 3 Pardoners, by Alf Seegert for Eagle & Gryphon Games. It retails for $59.99 on the Eagle & Gryphon Games site, or you can ask your favorite local game store to pick up a copy for you. Happy trails!

*Anytime anyone uses the word “pastiche” in a review, in relation to anything other than board games, must surely signify a higher intelligence than the rest of us average bears**.

**This is sarcasm.

Another fine DICE HATE REVIEW!

How often do we see original soundtracks for a video game? Not too often. I think the last time that happened was with “Gods Of War” video game but I may be mistaken. Anyway, it’s a cool idea for a cool “super” hero. The soundtrack is 100% original meaning that every song is a new one written exclusively for Batman Arkham City.

Check it out:

Tracklist:
1. Panic! At The Disco – Mercenary
2. Coheed and Cambria – Deranged
3. The Duke Spirit – Creature
4. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Shadow On The Run
5. Blaqk Audio – Afterdark
6. The Raveonettes – Oh, Stranger
7. ††† (Crosses) – The Years
8. The Damned Things – Trophy Widow
9. Daughtry – Drown In You
10. The Boxer Rebellion – Losing You
11. Serj Tankian – Total Paranoia

*Bonus Collector’s Edition track
12. A Place to Bury Strangers – In The Shadow

[myyoutubeplaylisy cczQjKGXwIQ]

-manoc-

This a DICE HATE ME! review. Check out original post here

The old space hulk creaks under the strain of the vacuum surrounding it. A couple of hours have passed since you watched your android gunner be taken down in a hail of surprise suppressor fire by one of your original teammates. You turned and made a break for it, cold sweat covering your brow, and have since made it further into the complex despite those damnable bugs that have been popping up all over. Suddenly, a sound to your left makes you turn and jump. Out of the shadows steps Nina, your most trusted team confidante. “It’s ok,” she purrs, stepping closer, “we’re all in this together.” She slowly extends her hand, an object held tight. “Here, let’s trade – I have something that will help with those wounds.” You pause for a moment, wanting so badly to take her hand, to trust her with all your might. And yet, you hesitate. You rifle through your satchel and choose just the right item – the something you’ve been holding onto since the very beginning that may provide protection. Without further hesitation you draw it, and in one swift move take her item and leave her holding your only protection against the growing infection: a gas can.

That’s right, a gas can. Welcome to the Panic Station.

Placing the somewhat-absurd opening narrative aside for a moment for a brief explanation of the core mechanics, Panic Station is a paranoia-driven social game with a traitor mechanic for 4 to 6 players. The players take on the roles of a group of xeno-exterminators, sent to a remote station of some sort to investigate and eliminate a malevolent alien life form. To do this, they must find the alien nest, collect three gas cans which fuel one of the massive flamethrowers carried by a human team member, and thoroughly torch the room. However, during the mission, one of the group members will secretly become infected by the alien parasite. The infected’s mission: To infect as many other team members as possible, without detection, until all the humans in the team have been assimilated or eliminated.

In order to accomplish their mission, players control two characters – a human trooper, armed with a flamethrower used to take out the alien nest, and an android, armed with an assault pistol which can do harm to aliens, androids and humans, provided the player can find some ammo stashed on the station. Each turn, a player can perform actions equal to their current action limit, typically four. These actions include: move a trooper or android, explore the station (revealing and placing a new room card from the deck), searching a room (taking one or more cards from the item deck), attacking another player or alien parasite, or activating one of the special abilities of a computer terminal. These special abilities include unlocking certain doors, revealing rooms further into the station, and executing a heat scan that will reveal how many team members – if any – are currently infected.

The key mechanic in Panic Station, however, is trading cards held in players’ hands. This is triggered automatically when a player’s human or android token enters a room with other player tokens. Both players must then secretly choose a card in their hand and give it to the other player. The trick is that if one of the players is infected with the alien parasite, the other player may immediately be infected if they are passed an infection card. This passing of the infection can be negated, however, if the uninfected player passes the infected a gas can during the trade. That’s right, a gas can. Confused? Trust me, you’re not the only one.

You see, because gas cans are what are used to power up the human’s flamethrowers and destroy the alien nest, they are extremely valuable. This causes the uninfected players much consternation when they have to give up a valuable source of fuel. Mechanically, the passing of the gas cans makes sense, but thematically, it takes an incredible amount of suspension of disbelief on the behalf of all players involved. And that’s just scratching the surface.

For instance, each player’s human trooper and android are tethered together so that they can somehow share weapons, key cards, gas cans, and all manner of special items, as well as an infection, no matter their location in the station. It all feels a bit like they have access to Skyvault and Centurion exosuits that can beam items down to them at a whim. If that’s the case, however, and they have access to such amazing technology, then why weren’t they sent on the extermination mission with ammo for the android’s weapons? Speaking of weapons, why can’t the human troopers pick up the android guns when desperation sets in? After all, if Ripley can strap on a pulse rifle and tussle with an alien hive mother after all the space marines are dead, you’d think a crack team of bug hunters wouldn’t have trouble squeezing off a couple of rounds after their android bodyguards have been nibbled to death by parasites or bullets.

After a couple of plays, it becomes fairly obvious that the theme may have been reverse-engineered a bit to fit the mechanics. I’m sure that designer David Ausloos wanted a taut social thriller, came up with the concept of the Panic Station and then designed around it. In most cases, I like how those things turn out in games, but here I feel as though the core playtesters were engrossed in a mission of xeno-annihilation and all of a sudden the leader goes “wait – all those cards you guys are trading around? Just stop it. That’s silly. Only one card per trade, and it can’t be something immediately useful.”

I’m not sure that I would feel as strongly about the misstep in theme or mechanics if my Alpha team – my group of hardcore social gamers that have not only braved the best social games but relished every backstabbing minute of them – had not managed to break the game within the first three turns of their first playthrough. Granted, they “broke” the game under a previous rules set that I had been given, but our play brought up a fascinating quandary where we had to call off the game and left me seeking guidance on BoardGameGeek. I soon found that the rules had been revised to account for such a game variation, but the designer himself responded that the situation mentioned had never come up in playtesting. That can often point toward the core game being tested only within a close circle of gamers that played in the full spirit of the game, typically under guidance from the designer or a familiar associate. This could explain the fact that my team of social ubergamers devised a situation that had never come up before in any playtest group if the game had not been properly sent through the gaming gauntlet before launch.

Still, despite the thematic and mechanical shortcomings, every group that has tried the game has been rooting for its success and hoped to play again, albeit under better circumstances. The base elements of the game – paranoia, betrayal and teamwork agains the odds – seem to be ones that gamers find universally appealing, especially for the emerging narrative that is created in the cooperative and competitive process. One thing that is certain about Panic Station, though – no matter what the play experience, it’ll keep your play group talking, and constantly looking over their shoulders, for some time to come.

Panic Station is a game for 4-6 bug hunters, ages 10 and up, by David Ausloos for White Goblin Games and Stronghold Games. You can grab Panic Station early from Stronghold Games for the next couple of days in pre-order (which also includes a free Survival Pack mini-expansion); after that, you can find Panic Station online at Stronghold Games after Essen Spiel, or at your favorite local game store.

This a DICE HATE ME! review. Check out original post here