Cult of the New: Runewars

(image by Fantasy Flight Games)
I think I have a new favorite game.

Allow me to interrupt myself before I go further. Talking about a brand new game shortly after getting it can be dangerous while you are still in the "honeymoon period." The newness has not worn off yet and it is easy to be overenthusiastic. At the same time, it is nigh impossible to not talk about the game; you are so excited you can't help but tell everyone you know. This gives us the inaugural post for Cult of the New. When you read these you know you are getting relatively fresh impressions on a game so take them with a grain of salt: first impressions can be dangerous with strategy board games. There's a good chance I'll come back for a second look on these later.

As I was saying, I have a new favorite game: Runewars. I've talked about Fantasy Flight plenty already as they are behind some of my favorites: Descent: Journeys in the Dark, Britannia, Kingdoms, Battlestar Galactica and possibly my number one game, Twilight Imperium 3. They tend to put out western-centric games with modern Euro sensibilities that really hit a sweet spot for me. When Fantasy Flight first announced Runewars, early talk likened it to a fantasy version of Twilight Imperium... how could I possibly pass it up? After a couple of two player games and a four player game I think Fantasy Flight may have created their finest work yet.

Here is some of what makes the game great:

(image by sydo @ BGG)

Asymmetric powers: Player controls one of four different races, each with unique units and resources. I love games with asymmetry as it adds more variety and gives each player a unique way to approach the game. Your race may help direct your strategy for the game but it also seems like there's no single path to victory to matter which race you choose.

Asymmetric maps and map building: Building the map is a crucial part of the game. Runewars has different shaped tiles made of hexes and each player is given two along with their starting area. In turn players put down one of their tiles until all are placed; this will always result in a unique map. In a fun twist, the first player then puts placeholders for all of the home territories but the person to their left gets first pick of those placeholders. This encourages everyone to build a balanced map and select balanced starting placeholders as nobody knows where they will be starting off. It's a brilliant map building system and adds a lot of variability to each game.

Agonizing decisions: The game lasts a maximum of six years. Each year lasts four seasons and you choose one tactics card to execute per season. Tactics cards are numbered one to eight and have a primary and secondary ability. You only get to activate the secondary ability if it is your highest numbered card for the year. This creates an "ideal" sequence of play but often you find yourself having to go against that path. Weighing those bonuses against doing whatever you need to accomplish most while also trying to second guess your opponents makes for fun tactical decisions each round.

(image by DalimThor @ BGG)
Everything works together: You have heroes running around the map discovering runes and armies moving in to hold those runes to win the game. Each season has a special effect kick in which can greatly alter your plan for that season or even the rest of the year. Influence tokens are your key to winning auctions for various rewards and for attempting diplomacy with the neutral units on the board to try and convince them to join your side and managing your influence is crucial. Combat is resolved via a deck of cards but still manages to be exciting and quick to resolve. Long-term planning is rewarded but players must be flexible as things can quickly change.

Gorgeous bits: If nothing else, Runewars is a beautiful game. Each race has a unique set of units plus there's a set of neutral units out on the map and the figures are fantastic. The tiles look great and manage to never be too busy. Of course the three dimensional mountains are the real kicker. Yes, they only serve to show borders that can't be crossed but the aesthetic appeal really should not be overlooked. This may also be one of Fantasy Flight's best rule books, leaving little room for misinterpretation.

Runewars has really taken me by surprise. There is a lot going on but all the mechanics compliment each other rather than feeling tacked-on. It is also a shorter game than others of this style while keeping an epic feel. My guess is that once everyone knows how you play you can easily finish in an hour per player, possibly less.

(image UndeadViking by @ BGG)

Be warned that early plays may not reveal the true fun to be had. The game is over either at the end of the sixth year or when one player controls six dragon runes. It isn't hard for each player to collect four or five dragon runes on their own without venturing out much, so if all players hang back you may not see much action until the end of the game. Once everyone understands that and realizes the key is not so only collecting runes but doing so while preventing your opponents from doing the same then the game really heats up and starts to show off its potential.

It's been awhile since a game has consumed my thoughts like this. Fantasy Flight has really been showing off their maturity as game designers and for my money Runewars may be their pièce de résistance. We'll see how the game holds up over the course of 2010!

Race for the Galaxy and the fun factor

(image by Surya @ BGG)
I don't envy game designers. Find that perfect balance between depth and complexity must be extremely challenging. You want a game that holds up to many repeat plays but still has a relatively low barrier to entry. Too difficult to learn and few will want to play it, too simplistic and it may not have much staying power. Somewhere in there is the sweet spot that most designer games aim for.

As the person who generally teaches new games in our gaming groups, I am very interested in the barrier to entry for a game. The key to successfully teaching a game is breaking it down to its basics and describing everything in context to the players' goals. There are games I can explain in a matter of minutes and start playing, others that have easily taken the better part of an hour. Length of explanation isn't important, it is how everything clicks and how quickly the big picture comes together for players. To me a great game is often defined by how accessible the "fun" is.

Take something like Twilight Imperium 3. Yes, it can take quite awhile to explain everything but players will often be making comments like, "This is cool!" even during that first turn. You might not understand every aspect of the game but you can see where the fun is to be had. If you can't see where the fun is, odds are you will not want to play the game again - especially if it takes several hours to play.

(image by kilroy_locke @ BGG)

At first glance, Race for the Galaxy looks quite unassuming. There's a large deck of cards and a few cardboard chits representing victory points. That's it. Even the rules are fairly straightforward. It can take awhile to wrap your head around the idea that cards represent three things: stuff you can build by placing in front of you, currency you spend to build said stuff and resources that may be turned into more cards or points when they are sitting on cards in front of you. It sounds a little tricky but it's much easier to visualize and a few quick examples easily clears it up.

Race for the Galaxy really stumbles with all its symbols. There are five possible phases each round with players secretly deciding which phase they want to see happen that round. With four players you could see only a single phase happen if everyone chooses the same thing or four phases if everyone selects different ones. Every card in the deck has printed slots for these phases (numbered one to five with an extra symbol for a sub-phase) and possibly a variety of icons next to each phase illustrating some special power that cards gives you during that phase. For example, an icon showing a hand gripping a card with the number one inside means you get to draw a single card when that phase happens. On top of all those symbols, each card can be one of two different types (planet or development) - each with their own symbol - plus there are multiple types of planets distinguished by different fill and border colors.

Learning to read the cards is extremely challenging for even the most experienced gamers. While there is a standard base set of symbols, nearly every card is unique and may have extra text or special symbols not seen anywhere else. No matter how well you explain the game, nothing can prepare players to fully grasp the symbols until they start playing and see the game in action. Add in the somewhat confusing concept of cards representing multiple things and you have a system that is highly unintuitive and very difficult to wrap your head around.

(image by TabbySunLion @ BGG)
Your first game is almost guaranteed to be very rough. You'll struggle through the symbols, forget how to use your cards and have no idea what to do to earn points. There's a good chance you will have no idea where the fun is hiding and you will never want to play the game again. It's possible, though, that by the end of that first learning game you'll possibly catch a glimpse of how all your cards could work together and will at least be interested enough to try again.

Race for the Galaxy succeeds where other games with this steep of a learning curve fail. Your first few matches of Race for the Galaxy will probably take around an hour; future games will go faster. The short play time means you can get several games in and with each game you'll see how cards interact, how you build your internal point engine and will see the method behind the madness of all those icons. At that point the system becomes clear and the fun exposes itself.

(image by kilroy_locke @ BGG)

I've played many other games that suffer from a similar problem: somewhere inside the system there is fun to be had but you need to play several times before you might find it. My game groups love to play a wide variety of games and never fully dedicate ourselves to any single one. Games with steep learning curves will often fall to the wayside for other games where we know we'll have fun every time it hits the table. If it weren't for Race for the Galaxy's short play time I'm not sure I would have ever discovered how fun it really is. It's also a testament to the game's design and depth that I felt compelled to return to it even after a few disappointing first games.

Race for the Galaxy is a great game. There's a ton of depth stuffed inside a deck of cards. Resource management really drives the action; you have lots of interesting decisions to make on which cards to play and which to discard. Do you take the easy points in your hand or try and set yourself up for something bigger? While there is no direct player interaction, a good player will try to anticipate their opponents' actions and try to piggyback off them.

My advice is this: don't expect to fully enjoy your first play but do keep an open mind. In fact, don't expect to enjoy your first couple of plays. If possible I would highly recommend getting three or four quick games under your belt before you pass judgment. Learning all of the icons is tough but once it clicks you will find a highly rewarding game. Race for the Galaxy is challenging to learn and even more challenging to play well. For something similar that is much easier to learn I'd recommend checking out San Juan or Dominion. If you want a deep, fast-playing card game that will challenge you every step of the way, give Race for the Galaxy a few quick tries.

Small World

(image by MarkKaufmann @ BGG)
Sometimes a game comes along that seems like it should be right up my alley but ultimately falls flat. I'm a sucker for a fantasy theme and I really enjoyed my single play of A History of the World (the game that inspired the game Small Word is based on) so I thought that Small World would be a no-brainer. Sadly that has not been the case.

Small World is all about taking control of the land with various fantasy races. As you hold territory you earn points and whoever has the most points at the end wins. You have all your standard fantasy fare with elves, dwarves, giants, sorcerers, undead and many others. What makes Small World tick is that each race is also assigned a random attribute like flying, wealthy and spirit. Some combos are clearly going to be better than others and a good chunk of the game is deciding which powers you think you can best leverage.

The game takes place over several rounds. To start the game players select their new army and bringing them out on the map. Several race/attribute combos are laid out in order. You can take the bottom-most combo for free or you can work your way up the list by dropping a victory point on each race you skip over. This means the weakest races will filter towards the bottom but will also collect points that go into the coffers of whoever picks that combo. After you pick your race you bring them in on the edge of the map and start claiming territory. To take an area you need two tokens plus one per piece of cardboard on the map; cardboard is typically enemy units or terrain features. Enemies lose one unit and the rest are forced to retreat if possible. At the end of your turn you may redistribute your units however you want, most likely fortifying areas you need to hold or think will be attacked. At the end of your turn you earn points for each territory held.

(image by Jeff_Wells @ BGG)

Instead of activating your current army you may instead put them into decline. That turn you do nothing but score points, but on your next turn you get to select a new race/attribute combo to bring into the game. Your old army may no longer be activated but they will continue to earn points so long as they are on the board. Putting your army into decline is almost inevitable as you have a limited number of units and will likely lose some during combat. Eventually you'll reach the max potential for one race, see a combo you can leverage nicely and will want to grab it to try and earn you even more points. Knowing when to time this switch is central to success in Small World.

The game comes with several player boards, each designed for a specific number of players. It's a much better solution than just removing regions from a map or playing on a map size that is less than ideal for the number of players you have. The maps seem fairly well balanced and makes playing with a wide range of players feasible. I also really like the different races and powers. As the combos are different each game you get a ton of variety and it is fun to try and figure out which combo will be most beneficial to you and when to bring them into play.

Unfortunately the game just doesn't do much for me. I really enjoy the artwork but the board is far too cluttered. Regions can be a little hard to distinguish and all of the cardboard pieces blend in. It's even more tricky when a nation goes into decline as they flip to the grayed-out side of their chits which are even more difficult to find on the map and distinguish from each other. Even more offending is that the player reference included with the game is not only not useful but detrimental to play. They tried to summarize all of the races and attributes but they left out highly crucial rules on some of them which can have a major impact on play. Toss out those player aides as they will cause much more harm than good.

(image by lacxox @ BGG)
I also find the game just isn't all that exciting. Generally you'll go through two or three races and the key is knowing when to make that switch. There are a very limited number of turns in the game and going into decline takes your entire turn so by the end I always feel like I haven't done much. Combat is deterministic which by itself isn't bad but combined with the limited number of turns and and limited mobility on the map I find that my turns often almost play themselves. The real decision-making comes in figuring out when to decline and which race/attribute combo you think you can best exploit. Everything else is just a little too straightforward.

When all is said and done I find Small World to not be very satisfying. A single match can easily be played within an hour so there is certainly be something to be said for the ease of play. I think it would be perfectly for a younger or less gaming-oriented crowd but for a group of serious gamers I really think Small World has little to offer. The fantasy theme is great, artwork is fantastic (if not a little busy) and the rules are easy to teach. I just feel like there aren't many interesting decisions to be made and the deterministic nature of combat can lead to lots of analysis paralysis which goes counter to the goal of a fast-playing game. Small World is not a bad game by any means, it just isn't for me.

Galaxy Trucker and chaos in games

(image by @ henk.rolleman BGG)
Time to tackle another game element: chaos. Your initial reaction may be to equate chaos to luck but I feel they two are very different things. Luck is when the outcome of an event - a die roll or card draw, for example - has a percent chance to result in a given outcome. When you roll a standard six-sided die you have a 1 in 6 chance of any number rolling up. You may not have control of the outcome but there are set odds going in and a random result coming out.

Chaos, on the other hand, is the lack of control in a game. A chaotic game often has little to no room for strategy, forcing more tactical play as you deal with your turns as they come up rather than planning ahead. Chaos may come from luck but there is often more than just luck at play.

I often refer to chaos when describing how a game feels with varying number of players. Alhambra is a great example. With two to four players you can attempt to make plans based on the tiles up for sale, what you believe the other players will purchase and what may be left on your next turn. With five or six there are just too many players going between your turns, making nearly impossible to plan ahead. You lose control over your fate, forced to play turn by turn rather than planning ahead. One of Alhambra's core concepts is competing with other players for majority control of different tiles; too much chaos eliminates that strategic element and fewer turns per player gives more impact to lucky turns.

Don't think that chaos is always bad, though. Galaxy Trucker uses chaos at its core to create a tense and exciting game.

(image by @ henk.rolleman BGG)

Not unlike Space Alert (another Vlaada Chatvil game), Galaxy Trucker has two distinct phases: real-time building of your ship and turn-based resolution of events. Assuming your ship survives you earn points based on your place on the distance track, your cargo and how nice your ship looks. High score after three rounds wins the game.

Building your ship is the bulk of Galaxy Trucker. Each player has a set of identical ship templates that vary from round to round. All of the available ship tiles are set face-down in a pile. One player starts the sand timer and all players simultaneously start building their ship. You grab a tile, bring it over your player mat, look at it and decide if you want to place it on your ship, keep it for later or place it face up back in the pile for others to grab. There's a wide variety of ship components including engines, lasers, shields, cargo holds, crew cabins and more. At any time after the sand timer has run out a player may turn it over to signal they are done and take the 1st place marker. That player may not make any further changes to their ship and the rest of the players have one full sand timer's worth of time to finish their own designs.

Each tile has zero to three connectors going out of each edge. Three-pronged connectors are universal and may hook into any other connector while one- and two-pronged connectors may not connect into each other; also, connectors may never connect to an edge with no connectors shown. Once you've placed a tile on your ship it may never be moved so there's a very fun puzzle element when constructing your ship. You need a variety of components but must connect everything properly while other players are possibly taking the very pieces you could use!

(image by Toynan @ BGG)
Once everyone is done (or time runs out) the ships are complete and are "run through the gauntlet." First, players are ranked on the distance track in the order they finished their ships. Then a stack of event cards are dealt out and resolved in random order. You may find cargo to fill your cargo holds, space pirates that steal cargo or kill crew members, asteroid storms that tear your ship to pieces and many other crazy things. Most events are resolved in player order on the distance track and their outcome may adjust your position. For example, taking cargo typically moves you backwards on the distance track, meaning your turn order may be adjusted for resolving the next event. Other events - like space pirates - go in turn order and hit each player with some penalty (often losing goods or crew) until one of the players eliminates the threat.

The real excitement comes from attack cards. A meteor swarm, for example, will show a list of asteroids, their size and direction they attack. Your ship has a designated facing and a grid of numbers with sevens on the middle axis. You roll two six-sided dice to determine which tile on your ship will be hit. Some attacks may be defended with shields or lasers. If it isn't defended (or is unblockable), small attacks will destroy a tile if there's an exposed connector while large attacks will destroy the tile outright. The real key here is if that tile is the only link back to the core of your ship for other tiles, that entire portion of your ship will break off!

Losing parts of your ship is bad. Not only do you lose whatever was on those tiles (cargo, crew members, guns) you also earn negative points at the end of the round per tile. If you have no crew or no engine power your ship is a derelict and scores no points at the end of the round. Likewise, if your core is hit your ships explodes.

(image by kreten @ BGG)

Given all these dangers, building a solid ship is key to success. Your core is at coordinate 7,7 meaning odds are good attacks will trend towards hitting the middle of your ship. As you build you need to plan your components and connectors to ensure redundant connection paths and plenty of defense for the core of your ship. At the same time you must try to ensure you have enough crew members, cargo space, firepower, engines and shields to survive and avoid having outward-facing connectors. It is a lot to balance - especially given the real-time aspect - but I love the puzzle aspect of building your ship.

Unfortunately I think the game's strength may also be its weakness. While you may peek at some of the upcoming events to give you a feel for what may be important (lots of room for cargo, more attacks from the left) I feel that you generally must make as balanced of a ship as possible. A well-designed ship should be able to weather most anything thrown at it, especially if you ensure you have a well-defended core and redundant connections. While you'll never design the exact same ship twice you will always have the same rough idea for what you need: engines in back, shields in all directions, lots of forward guns, one gun on each side and then as much cargo and crew as you can cram in. I could see where many repeat plays of Galaxy Trucker may render the ship-building portion a little dull as it becomes a quick search for the best pieces rather than a fun puzzle-solving exercise.

(image by slith @ BGG)
As chaotic as the event resolution is, I find it also offers up some nice choices to make. Do you take cargo and lose a few days, putting yourself back in turn order? If you looked at what was in the deck, you may want to drop back and let someone else deal with a nasty upcoming event or maybe you want to stay up front for an even better haul. Knowing when to power up your shields and where to store your cargo in case part of your ship tears off also makes for some good fun. These little decisions give you some small control over the madness of running your ship through the gauntlet.

Chaos can be a great element for adding excitement and replay value to a game when it is built in to the game's design. It can also be a negative when it turns up as an unintended side effect. Not all players are going to enjoy chaos in their games, but Galaxy Trucker proves that solidly-designed chaotic game can be seriously fun. The real-time puzzle element of building your ship offers a unique challenge you don't find in other games and it is fun watching your ship suffer through waves of attacks. You just have to be willing to accept that your ship's outcome is not entirely in your hands. I do recommend playing Galaxy Trucker before purchasing if possible. Either you'll fall in love or never want to see it again! If you do enjoy the game then I highly recommend picking up the expansion as it only makes the game even more chaotic and fun.

Tide of Iron

(image by zombiegod @ BGG)
Fantasy Flight knows how to push my buttons. They are well known for their massive, epic games with tons of plastic and cardboard. I take one look at a new release and any semblance of willpower I have crumbles to the ground. When I first saw the images of Tide of Iron, I knew I had to have it. Tactical squad-based World War II combat with awesome plastic army men? Sign me up!

Tide of Iron is Fantasy Flight's answer to Memoir '44 by Days of Wonder and Squad Leader by Multiman Publishing. The former is a very simple card-driven combat game based on the Commands & Colors system used in Commands & Colors: Ancients and Battlelore, while the latter is an incredibly detailed tactical battle simulation. Tide of Iron finds the middle ground, offering far more complexity and a system closer to Advanced Squad Leader but toning down the scope and providing tons of chrome.

There are really three parts to Tide of Iron:

Components

Tide of Iron is gorgeous, no doubt about it. The game comes with extremely thick modular hex boards to build maps, hex overlays for different terrain and chits to represent entrenchments, pillboxes, razorwire and more. I really love the terrain components as everything is very clear and heavy duty.

(image by ram47 @ BGG)

While the terrain looks fantastic, the real stars of the show are the plastic army men. The base game comes with American and German units with different molds for infantry, elite infantry, commanders, machine gun nests, mortars and a bunch of different vehicles and tanks. These immediately take me back to my youth playing with the classic green army men and lend a seriously awesome "toy factor" to Tide of Iron. Each unit has a peg on the bottom which snaps into a round base with four peg slots. The base represents a single squad which you may customize however you'd like. Infantry take up a single peg while heavy weapons like the machine gun take up two. You could have one squad of three infantry and a commander while another has a machine gun nest accompanied by a normal and elite infantry. The round bases also have a clip on back where you can stick in a specialization chit to turn them into special units like medics or engineers.

The concept behind the squad creation is one of the really cool features in Tide of Iron. Each scenario gives players a set number of units but you can split them into squads however you'd like. Unfortunately the figures also lead to one of my main complaints with the game. While I understand what Fantasy Flight was going for with the pegged army men plugging into the squad bases, the problem is that they don't fit in that well. Most have extra flashing on them and aren't uniformly shaped so they either fit poorly or don't fit at all. I actually took time to trim the extra flashing off of each peg and even then some still don't make a very good fit. Ones that fit too loose are a pain because they fall out too easily when you handle the squad but others fit too tight and are tricky to get out, possibly breaking off the pegs.

Ultimately the figures end up as more fiddly than cool. I love the customizable squad concept but the bases are not as easy to use as I would like. It isn't a deal breaker but you will no doubt feel some frustration with the squad bases at some point. I'm actually considering trying to modify my bases and units to use magnets somehow; we'll see if I ever get inspired enough to make it happen.

Gameplay

Fantasy Flight sometimes struggles with rule books but I feel they did a great job with Tide of Iron. The book is filled with lots of great examples and offers a really handy index. Sure, you may still have a few questions here and there but overall I think the Tide of Iron rulebook may be their best.

Tide of Iron really shines when it comes to mechanics. Scenarios detail the objective, setup, victory conditions and number of turns played. Players are given specific units they assign to squads and set up on the board. A single game turn is played over several rounds of back-and-forth unit activation as listed in the objective. For example, each side may activate three units at a time (until all units have been activated for both sides) or it might be lop-sided with the Germans activating three and the Americans two It is a great system as it helps lend to the real-time feel of the game and gives players very interesting decisions to make. After all units have been activated the turn ends, you check for control of victory conditions, do some cleanup and continue.

(image by Konwacht @ BGG)
You have several different options when activating a unit. Generally you either move, fire, go into "op fire" (delay your attack until an enemy moves into line of sight) or play a strategy card. After activating a unit you place a fatigue marker next to them to indicate they may not be activated again this turn. Op fire is a big part of the game as you need to decide which units need to be used offensively and which can be used defensively in reaction to enemy movement. You also have two options when it comes time to shoot: normal and suppressive fire. A hit on normal fire simply kills off an enemy figure (removing them from the squad base) while a hit on suppressive fire pins that squad, essentially making them inactive for the rest of the turn. When you make an attack without moving (called concentrated fire) you may also combine fire with other unfatigued units within line-of-sight of the target, allowing you to make a single stronger attack rather than multiple weaker attacks.

I really feel like the combat system nails the feel I want from a tactical squad-level game. Killing off units permanently weakens a squad but sometimes you need to pin down a unit (especially machine gun nests) so you can push forward. Combining fire can be extremely powerful but it fatigues every unit that participates so you need to weigh the odds and determine how important that additional firepower really is versus another separate attack. There are rules for cover (adding to a unit's defense) and special units that give bonuses (commanders add plus one defense against suppressive fire, for example) which all add complexity of the decision-making process. Running through open ground towards a machine gun nest will almost always result in your squad getting mowed down but laying down suppressive fire on that nest first might open up a window for you to advance and get a better position. Those decisions and the moments that play out really make Tide of Iron fantastic.

Scenarios

As a historical game, Tide of Iron comes with a bunch of scenarios recreating battles during World War II. No matter how great the game system is, poor scenarios in a scenario-based game can really ruin it. I won't go so far as to say that the scenarios ruin Tide of Iron but I feel like they don't always make the fun immediately apparent. Many scenarios put one player as the attacker and the other as the defender. This usually results in the attacker having interesting tactical decisions to make while the defender holes up and adjusts as necessary. In many war games the idea is that you switch sides and play a scenario twice. Given a single scenario can easily take two to three hours to play out, that's not always an option in Tide of Iron. Unfortunately this means that one player may be stuck in the less interesting role.

(image by joebelanger @ BGG)

I've seen many comment that the scenarios are not "balanced" but I think they miss the point of these scenarios. They are based on real battles, few of which I doubt had equal odds for both sides going in. As a simulation I think Tide of Iron succeeds and the scenarios succeed in giving players a feel for the situation they are attempting to recreate. Unfortunately that does not always equate to equal fun for both players. I think it is very possible to create scenarios that are very well-balanced but they will likely be less historical. How much you enjoy the scenarios will likely depend on how much you really care about a truly balanced outcome.

One aspect I think the scenarios do a great job with is abstracting out elements that fall outside the squad-level focus of the game. There are a bunch of different card decks and special cards that come with the game. Each scenario details which decks each side gets. For example, the Americans might get the Air Support Deck to help represent bombing runs the player can perform while the Germans get the Reinforcement Deck to help represent additional support that appears over the course of the scenario. Rather than represent these on the board they come into play through cards the player draws and puts into play. The cards really add a lot of depth to the game while adding almost no additional complexity.

When All is Said and Done

Tide of Iron sort of straddles the line between war game and designer game. The rules and underlying system are fantastic and really capture the feel I want in a tactical war game. There's enough complexity to give you really interesting decisions to make but not so much that everything can't be summed up on more than a couple of pages of cheat sheets. The components are gorgeous but not quite as functional as they should be. Scenarios really set the stage for a historical simulation although they don't always result in an equal match between sides.

When all is said and done, I love Tide of Iron. It is not without its flaws but I think the good far outweighs the bad. Like many of Fantasy Flight's other games the experience of playing is what matters, not the outcome. This isn't a game for everyone, though; I highly recommending playing before buying if you can. Tide of Iron does have elements that will easily turn someone away, but if it hooks you it is all over. I only get to break out Tide of Iron a handful of times each year but for me it is worth it every time. I just hope Fantasy Flight takes away some valuable lessons in component usability.

Bootleggers and theme in board games

I'm always fascinated by the use of theme in board games. I think games tend to fall into one of the following five groups:

* No theme - Usually found in abstract strategy games like Go, these games have no theme. They are simply a set of rules to play but the components are not meant to represent anything specific. It is the purest form of gaming.

* Abstract theme - There is a theme but it does not really relate to the mechanics at all. Any number of themes could easily be placed on top of the mechanics and it would work equally well. Many games fall into this category, especially designer Euro-style games like Ra and Puerto Rico. The theme is generally irrelevant and does not impact one's thoughts on the game.

* Applied theme - Here the theme makes sense in terms of mechanics and probably helps contribute towards your thoughts of the game. Ticket to Ride is a great example; building a network of links works perfectly with a railroad theme and people may very well have their feelings about the game influenced by the rail theme. At the same time it could easily be themed differently and work just as well.

* Integrated theme - This is all about the theme; the game really would not function without it. Most war games probably fall into this category as the game is about that specific war. The theme often contributes equally with mechanics - if not more - when it comes to your enjoyment of the game.

* Pure theme - You play this for the theme and experience, not the mechanics or depth of play. I think many classic children's games fall into this grouping as well as something like Tales of the Arabian Nights or comedy-heavy games like Munchkin. Even thought there may not be much in the way of mechanics, the theme can often be enough to make these games highly enjoyable.

(image by Fawkes) @ BGG)
Bootleggers is one of the best examples of integrated theme I've played. It is prohibition in the 1920s and each player is a mob boss producing hooch and running it to the speakeasies across town while trying to take out the competition. Whoever has the most cash at the end of twelve rounds wins.

The game play is fairly simple. Each player has a hand of numbered "muscle" cards and at the start of the round each player picks one in secret and reveals simultaneously to determine turn order. Then, in turn order, each player gets to pick up one "Men of Action" card which usually involve all sorts of rule breakers. After picking cards, players roll dice to determine how many crates of alcohol they've produced, load them into their trucks and send them to the speakeasies to sell for profit.

First, the components do a great job of evoking the theme. The main game board shows all the different speakeasies around town with era-appropriate store fronts and the track for Men of Action cards has different entertainers and other characters all dressed straight from the 20s. Each player has a set of plastic Tommy gun toting mobsters and trucks that the wooden cubes (representing crates of booze) actually fit into. One look at the game and you can immediately figure out what the overall concept is, even without knowing a thing about the rules.

(image by angelotti @ BGG)

What impresses me most is how well the mechanics tie into the theme. The most brilliant part are the Men of Action cards. Many allow you to upgrade your stills to roll more dice for production or get more mobsters to influence the back rooms of the speakeasies, making it more likely for you to turn a profit there. The rest are rule breakers, though, and these are the key to the game. Most can be held in your hand until you wish to play them. In true mobster form, though, deals may be made at any time for anything you can imagine and nothing is binding. More often than not the Men of Action cards are used to extort money from another player. The threat of playing a card on someone can be more powerful than actually playing it on them!

Many other games have "take that" mechanics where you may play cards and take actions that directly (and usually negatively) impact other players. The mobster theme in Bootleggers fits perfectly with that style of play. Combine that with freestyle non-binding negotiations and you have a game that perfectly nails the mob theme. For example, I may have a card that allows me to hijack someone's truck once it arrives at a speakeasy and steal the profit from its sales. Instead of outright playing that on someone I can threaten to play it on them unless they split the profits. After all, receiving something is better than receiving nothing, right? Better yet, they may counteroffer to give me an even larger split to play it on someone else at the table. Many games with deal making often have fairly strict rules around what can and cannot be negotiated; Bootleggers has no such restrictions and these threats and negotiations really become the heart of the game.

(image by basilmichael @ BGG)
The other thing all this negotiation does is help reduce some of the luck in the game. You roll one or more six-sided dice to determine how many crates you produce and how many crates the different speakeasies will purchase. You can mitigate luck in production by buying and selling crates or buying/renting trucks from other players; at the speakeasies you play influence which may give you preference when it comes to selling, or you may be able to strong arm your way into others' profits by using Men of Action cards. There is most certainly luck but I feel it is very manageable.

My only real complaints are with some of the components. The artwork is great but the there's a lot of extremely small text on the cards and many of them are unique. This means each round you spend time reading the cards out loud - often multiple times - to make sure everyone knows what is available. As much as I enjoy the artwork I think they could have made it a little smaller in favor of larger text. Also, the little plastic trucks are extremely cool but they come in three sizes: small (4 crates), medium (6 crates) and large (9) crates. The problem is that the trucks are all the same physical size and are only differentiated by the number 4, 6 or 9 on the roof. There's no line to help to know which way is up for the numbers so it is very easy to get confused between the 6 and 9. Finally, the game comes with paper money which I think we all know by now I'm not a fan of. Use poker chips; not only is it easier to handle but it fits perfectly with the theme!

Thankfully none of that takes away from the fun to be had. This isn't a game for everyone; you need to accept that you'll get screwed over and blackmailed by other players. Once you accept that and start having fun with the theme, Bootleggers shines. Few games marry theme and mechanics together this well. You can find it for cheap online ($20 or less), which is sadly the only reason I even became aware of it. If a mafia-rich theme and a little dice rolling sound good to you then I strongly suggest you get Bootleggers into your collection.

Tales of the Arabian Nights

(image courtesy UniversalHead @ BGG)

Before you sits a massive board game. You've never encountered a box so dense or a game so unique.

You would love to open the box and play the game. Turn to page 83.

You need to put on your hernia belt before lifting the box. Turn to page 15.

The sheer size of the box sends you fleeing in terror. Turn to page 102.

For those that grew up in the 80s you no doubt remember Choose Your Own Adventure books where you read a paragraph and made a decision that led you to another page in the book. They were really unique with branching paths and multiple endings, meaning you could experience a new story each time (assuming you didn't cheat and read ahead).

Tales of the Arabian Nights is a reprint of the original by the same name from 1985. It is, in essence, a massive choose your own adventure. Players will move around a map, run into a random encounter, choose how to react and see what happens. Sometimes you'll earn great rewards, other times you'll have some horrible status inflicted upon you. Ultimately you want to collect story and destiny points and return to Baghdad. The first to do so wins the game.

At the start of the game, players have two main decisions to make. First, you get to choose three skills for your character. There are over a dozen to pick from and range from quick thinking and piety to storytelling, seduction and beguiling. Skills generally don't do anything by themselves but they will give you options as you resolve events. You might pick ones that sound fun or - like me - think what type of character you imagine yourself as. For example, I might decide to be a grizzled old wizard and go with magic, enduring hardship and wisdom.

You must also decide how you want to win the game. As a reward for your encounters you'll often earn story and/or destiny points. You need to earn 20 points to win the game but before the game begins you get to decide how you want to split those between story and destiny. So you could go for 10 and 10, or 12 story and 8 destiny... whatever you want to do.

(image courtesy betume @ BGG)

Once everyone has made their decisions the game starts. Going around the table each player moves and resolves an encounter. When you land on a spot you draw an encounter card that tells you what type thing you've run into, like a beggar or a witch. Then you roll a die and that gives you the adjective for that thing, so maybe you've encountered an imprisoned beggar or a wealthy witch. Based on what you've encountered you will have a list of reactions you may choose from. For example, if you find an imprisoned beggar you might have options to aid, rob, talk, avoid or attack them. Your action is referenced on a chart that tells you what paragraph from the book will be read to you.

First the reader will read aloud the start of the paragraph. Then there may be a list of outcomes that start off with various skills in bold. If the player has one of these skills they may choose to have that result read to them, otherwise you default to the "no skill" paragraph. The result is read (hopefully very dramatically) and then some rewards are given out. Typically you will earn (or possibly lose) story and destiny points, plus you may earn new skills or gain a status. There are a bunch of different statuses: some good, some bad. You could become lost (reduced movement), imprisoned (encounter a jailer each turn until you escape), envious (must always rob when given the option) or blessed (always choose the result when you roll a six-sided die) just to name a few. These statuses do all sorts of crazy things and are going to help and hurt your progress throughout the game.

Normally I don't dive this much into the rules but in all honesty that's really all there is to Tales of the Arabian Nights. There's no strategy, no tactics, no real decisions to be made. You just move around the map, have encounters, choose a reaction and hope it works out! You have quests you are working on which give you reason to travel to specific cities on the map but that mostly just helps focus your movement so you aren't wandering aimlessly the entire game. In all honesty there is not much "game" to Tales of the Arabian Nights.

(image courtesy bullseyetm @ BGG)
The experience of playing is really a lot of fun, though, and unlike anything else out there. You'll encounter a beautiful princess and then decide how to react. Your options might include courting her, kidnapping her, robbing her or just talking to her. You might make your decision based on what type of character you are pretending to be or maybe you'll go for the choice that you think may lead to a good result. Sometimes you'll pick "enter" when you encounter a small artifact just because you are curious how the heck that is even possible! You can't "play well" but making these decisions are still a lot of fun.

Then you get to see how your decision played out. The Book of Tales is 300 pages long and has something like 2600 paragraphs, each often having two or three outcomes. I really like that your skills determine how an event plays out and it's always fun to wonder "what if." You could choose to navigate that mystical river and when the reader asks if you have Seamanship and you respond no and get the "no skill" result, you can't help but wonder what would've happened if you did! I've never read the actual 1001 Nights tales but from the little bit I know it certainly seems like the encounters and results in Tales of the Arabian Nights are very much in the spirit of the original tales. The paragraphs are very well written and highly entertaining, plus they just beg the reader to add in all sorts of dramatic flourishes.

I only have two small complaints with the gameplay itself. First, at the beginning you have to decide what your target story and destiny points are. There's really no reason to deviate much from a 50/50 split, otherwise you'll just be prolonging the game for yourself. I've read that others forgo that decision up front and simply play until someone reaches a combined total of 20 points. In the future I may go that route as well. Second, the game technically plays two to six players but I would never play with more than four unless your players are extremely patient. Your turns are quick and there's nothing to be planning outside of your turn so players may grow tired of the game. I really think that the game will be best with two or three.

(image courtesy @ UniversalHead BGG)

Other than that I think the game is a lot of fun and the experience is second to none. However, I do feel that some of the components could use some work. There are over a dozen skills and over two dozen different statuses. The game comes with a bunch of cards and cardboard chits to represent all of these and there aren't enough enough for all the players even though you aren't supposed to be limited by the components in the game. Thankfully BoardGameGeek exists and there are some fantastic player mats out there but honestly something like that should have come with the game; I can't imagine playing without one. Each spot on the map represents some type of terrain that may be used when resolving encounters but I found the colors hard to distinguish and the legend is a little misleading as well. Finally, the Book of Tales is a massive 300 page spiral bound book. The cover is a little flimsy and is already highly creased and bent after only a few plays plus the spiral binding keeps twisting off the ends.

These are really minor complaints in what is one of the most original games out there. As I've mentioned there is no strategy, no grand planning, not even any true decisions to make. You just move, deal with your encounter and hope the outcome is good. The stories that get told are highly memorable, though! One friend of mine tried to court everyone he came across and kept getting thrown in jail. Another had a precious gem taken from him and for the rest of the game had to try and steal from everyone he encountered because he was envious of their belongings. Tales of the Arabian Nights isn't a game you will want to play too frequently as eventually you will start to repeat events. Thankfully there are 2600 paragraphs or so and with each often having different outcomes based on a couple of skills you will still find new events and encounters each time you play.

So long as you go into Tales of the Arabian Nights understanding exactly what you are in for I think you will find a lot to love. It really is a storytelling game and as such it excels. You may want to print out some player aides from Board Game Geek but with those in hand you will have one of the most unique and entertaining experiences out there.