Category Archives: first look

first look

Love Letter – Marvel: Infinity Gauntlet

first look

The latest in the Z-Man/Asmodee line of Love Letter has just been released, called Marvel Infinity Gauntlet.

This is an interesting version for the game because it takes Love Letter in a new direction. Love Letter goes from its free for all last person standing to a one against many game.

I think production wise and component wise Z-Man have knocked things out of the park.

It’s certainly easier getting the game out of the packaging over previous releases from AEG that were the sealed plastic boxes.

Like my other copies of Love Letter I will be sleeving the cards. That’s just me.

The art used is thankfully art from the comic books and not photos from the movies.

As you can see below the art for the card backs makes it easy to identify which deck is which whilst still looking awesome.

Below I’ve shown examples of the cards from both decks.

The Thanos deck has cards that are either henchmen or infinity gems. Whilst the heroes deck is made up from superheroes.

The nice thing is that the graphic design of the cards is straight out comic book. Which you’d expect. But sometimes publishers like to disappoint.

The life/score tracking card to which you will attach the two sliding trackers has a handy setup summary on the reverse.

The player aids are double sided, heroes one side and Thanos the other.

I can’t wait to play this once the on going world event allows to see how it plays.

Once I’ve played the game I’ll write another post looking at what I like about it and dislike about it. Apart from the obvious there are some new mechanics introduced in this game and they need to be experienced first before commenting.

A First Look at the Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit

Cyberpunk Red, first look, RPG

Over in the video game world they are eagerly awaiting the release of the next instalment in the Cyberpunk franchise (which just happens to have a guest appearance by Keanu Reeves in it).

In the meantime we in the ttrpg world get an early look into the world portrayed in the new Cyberpunk game with an updated release of the Cyberpunk RPG, called Cyberpunk Red. Before the main rule books drop for this update we got treated to a starter kit or as the publisher R. Talsorian Games call it Jumpstart Kit.

The Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit came out in the later half of last year. Since before Christmas last year this starter kit has been sold out in the UK. Every now and then I’d trying finding a copy. Hoping that it had been reprinted and sent out to stores. But nada. So a month ago I reached out to R. Talsorian Games over Twitter about it being out of stock in the UK. After a couple of interactions it came to light that there were copies winging their way over the Atlantic to Asmodee to distribute. Patiently I waited (pretty unusual for me I know) looking for Asmodee in their weekly new releases pdf to announce a restock of the starter kit. Sadly it did not appear.

I reached out again to the publisher and this time they pointed me in the direction of a retailer that had copies! You guessed it, I made use of this information and ordered a copy. Which brings us to this post.

So for your money what do you get in the Jumpstart kit?

For starters there is the cut down rule book. Remember this is a “taster” of the full experience. It’s meant to give you an idea what the system is like. Plus the full rules haven’t been published yet.

The other book inside is the world book. This gives you background info on the setting for Cyberpunk Red and adventures to run.

Two double sided maps.

Six dice – 2d10 and 4d6.

Six pre-generated characters that can be customised.

Cardboard standees.

Finally a rules reference sheet.

I really like the pre-generated characters that come with the Jumpstart Set. There are stats on one side (some of which are chosen at start of play by the player to help personalise the character). On the reverse side there is background info and art for the character. These are nice and the personalisation of them helps the player feel more connected to the character. That’s pretty cool.

Why other RPG systems don’t provide a rules reference sheet I don’t know. But this is a really nice and welcome addition to the contents. So you can guess I really really like this.

Another thing I like about this Jumpstart Kit is the battle maps and standees. Another addition that you would think other starter kits would have.

The one thing I dislike about the Jumpstart Kit is the included dice!

I just don’t like their design. I get that they wanted to produce something that would appear thematic. But these are literally unreadable for some of the numbers especially on the d10. These are a big let down and something I’ll never use.

As starter sets go I like this one a lot. It’d be nearly perfect if it weren’t for those dice.

The nice thing about this Jumpstart set is that if once I get it to the table and I don’t get on with the system for whatever reason I can re-use some of the content (maps and standees) with say the Genesys RPG and the Android setting.

Like the Android setting if you are looking for inspiration there are plenty of tv shows and movies that can be watched. I did a list a while back here for Android.

Scythe Digital Version Released (last week) on iOS

apps, first look

The digital version of Scythe was finally released on iOS last week.

This is not a review, but a quick “hey look what’s been released”.

I’ve not played the game online yet, just against the AI. But I’m enjoying that experience.

I like the interface and found it easier and quicker to pick up than the PC/Mac version of the game (which I finally got to try after getting it in a Humble Bundle deal a couple months or so ago).

As you can see the app looks stunning. And I love the fact you have the option of playing with the minis and meeples either unpainted or painted. It’s a little thing, but a nice choice to have.

This initial release is the base game with some promo encounter cards.

I can’t wait to have the expansions as an option to purchase and play.

A look at a Scythe Board Game Coin Box

first look

I think we all know how I feel about the board game Scythe by Stonemaier Games. To paraphrase the late great Bill Hicks, I’m getting a warm feeling just thinking about it.

Last week on the Scythe Facebook group some-one posted that they had just got a coin box for the game off Etsy.

Naturally I ordered one.

I like things like this coin box for games. They are great for storage. But also aid in speeding up the setting up and packing away of the game. You just take it out of the game box, remove the lid and are ready to go. I have a similar box for Wingspan that holds the eggs and food tokens.

This particular box is designed to hold the cardboard coins or the official metal coins.

I did find the 10 value slot a bit close fitting. It’s also the coin that there is not enough space to fit all of them in. As you can see there are two different coloured 10 value metal coins. With only space to fit one of the two colours.

I love the design, especially the slot/groove for holding the lid in place.

For a 3D printed product this rocks. Glad I got it.

You can find the coin box HERE if you want to also get one.

I can’t stand it, I know you planned it

first look, game night

Mid week I got a pleasant, but big surprise, when my Kickstarter copy of Sabotage arrived.

I really was taken aback when the delivery driver handed over the package. It was massive. I had not been expecting a game this big.

When I opened the box and looked inside you can’t help but be bowled over by the high production values of this game. The 20 cardboard tokens are really thick, chunky things. Probably twice as thick as ones I’ve seen in other games. Which translates to a satisfying feel when holding them. The inclusion of two game trays, the really cool minis. I think the only company that equals this sort of quality is Stonemaier Games. These two companies are setting such a high bar for others to match.

Although there is a minor blemish on the Sabotage production, there is a misprint on a character card, and text missed off the spies player boards. Plus some boxes don’t fold out fully when used. But stickers are being sent out to correct this. Along with a video showing how to correct the box issue.

It took me a couple of days to get my head round the rules. Which involved a few readings of the thin rule book, looking at the official FAQ, watching YouTube videos, and reading the odd bgg forum post. So I think it would be fair to say that the rule book isn’t the best. Although the little first turn booklet is a nice touch.

Once I was happy with how the rules worked in my own head I felt confident enough to ask Jonathan if he fancied a learning game of Sabotage.

Friday evening then was spent at The Luxe with a bunch of heroic spies attempting to foil the evil plans of a gang of ruthless villains by trying to infiltrate the villains lair and destroy their doomsday devices.

Jonathan played the villains, whilst I played the spies.

The game trays make set up so quick and easy. You just hand the players the relevant tray and they have everything they need.

Boy does this game have table presence. With the box between the players acting as a screen this takes up a lot of space.

This game is either a 1v1 game where both players play 2 characters each. Or it’s a 2 player co-op once the app is out, or finally it’s a 2v2 game. Although the 1v1 option isn’t explicitly mentioned in the rules, and is an assumption I made that made sense.

The main mechanics of this game are a battleships/hide and seek/hidden movement type thing, and programmed actions. Which combine really nicely.

The round structure is simple, roll dice, plan actions, take actions, clean up. Which is nice. And it flows really quickly.

Both sides are asynchronous. The villains earn extra dice to use for actions in a different manor to the heroes, and they gain more powerful action tiles differently too. What I like is that both sides have a way to mess with the other player and get rid of those extra dice the other side are using.

Each character feels unique, having a core set of action tiles, but then unique more powerful ones to obtain.

I like that when you take actions you are giving out partial information. Some actions don’t get announced, just performed. Whilst others you announce the action name and that’s it. The other player then has to guess what you did for that action. Take for instance the spies move and scan action. The spies don’t declare the move part, but they do the scan. The area you scan, either a quad, row or column gives the villains a clue to where the spy is. But the problem is a scan action may not be just with the move. There is an action that just scans, and can be any where on the board. So it could be misdirection also.

So you are getting this incomplete information all the time. That you are trying to base decisions on. I like that.

In away Sabotage reminds me a bit of Spectre Ops, but with both sides hidden!

I liked the game, it’s fun. Would like to try it with the app, and 2v2. But it worked as a 1v1.

Luckily for the world the spies narrowly managed to disable to doomsday devices and save the day. Which means I won.

Oh the title of this post, it’s the first line of the song Sabotage by the Beastie Boys. Predictable I know but it had to be done.

Valley of the Kings Premium Edition – A first look

first look

“I’m surprised you backed this Kickstarter” was the comment Jonathan left me on a shared Instagram photo to Facebook.

Jonathan then went on to ask what was different about this edition.

The easiest and most obvious answer is that it is all three editions of the game, Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Kings: Afterlife and Valley of the Kings: Last Rites in a single box.

The image below (extracted from the Kickstarter page) shows some of the other differences.

The size of the game has also increased! Before each version of the game in these nice portable, throw in a side pocket of a bag, boxes. Now the game comes in a much larger, regular size game box. The cards in the game have also gone up in size from a magic the gathering sized card to a tarot card size. The pictures below give you a more accurate comparison of the size differences.

There is also this cool pharaoh first player marker. Plus I’m not sure if this will be in the retail edition but in the Kickstarter edition there were enough clear sleeves to sleeve all the cards, and have a few spares left over if needed.

As the photo above there is more than enough space in the box to store all the sleeved cards.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that the art has been upgraded as well. Well upgraded in my opinion. The style is completely different. And I like it.

Having the player’s and rules guides is a nice touch. The player’s guide focuses on how to mix and match the versions together, with some suggested sets to use. Those suggestions were created by the designer and some bgg folks. It also has the rules for the pharaoh cards (player abilities), solo game play, and a card supplement explaining the cards. And naturally the rule book covers how to play the game.

So why did I back the kickstart of a game I already had? Well I did only have the base game, and wanted the other two versions. So this was a really nice way to get them, along with the little additional extras not in the other versions. Yes it looses that portability aspect that was a big advantage of the game. But that completionist part of me (that seems to be in every gamer) would have wanted those extra bits as well. And they were never going to be available in the original smaller versions.

Now I just need to get this to the table and enjoy this really nice deckbuilder.

Rolling and Writing

first look, game night

Yesterday Jonathan very kindly met up with me to try out some of the new additions to our collections.

Sadly our regular hosts were not available due to the refit taking longer than we expected. We are now having to cancel club meet ups. Which is seeing a first in the four year history of the club, a cancelled monthly meet up.

So Jonathan and I met up at the local Spoons. It’s been a while since we have done any gaming here. It far more busier and noisier. But on the plus side I can get unlimited coffee for £1.30. On the downside it’s just about drinkable coffee. So for me on the beverage side a very very cheap night out.

The first game to hit the table was the latest game from Portal Games Imperial Settlers: Roll and Write.

I like roll and writes, or the ones that are in my collection. They do seem to be this years must have for a publisher to be putting out (just like legacy games and escape rooms before that).

Naturally we played a 2 player game, and the basic version of the game. There is an advanced variant, and a solo variant too.

The game plays quickly, each game is 10 rounds, and we found a round was very quick.

I liked that the dice are used by everyone playing each round. So everyone gets the same number of basic actions each round, plus any bonus actions from buildings or tiles. And also get the same basic resources plus any bonus resources from buildings, tiles or harvesting.

I like the use of two sheets one for the village, which when the buildings are built give bonuses each turn, and an empire that is where you can harvest resources and score victory points. Neither felt overwhelming individually or together. Which the Ganz Schon Clever sheets do.

The empire sheet allows you to track rounds, and gives a very small area on that tracking for notes. Which we both found you needed. I was using it to note how many actions I had each round, and resources used.

One thing I like about the Portal Games rule books is the little touches of humour. But the one in this rule book has to be my favourite of all time (see below)


I love the graphic design and look. Naturally it matches up art wise with its inspiration thematically Imperial Settlers. But there is also this kind of pastel, sketch note feel to it as well. I point to exhibit a above for the house rules, and exhibit b below with the tile photo below. I really like the feel it gives to the whole game.

Let’s talk about the dice. There is a great design, game play choice made here with the worker die being not only a different colour to the resource dice. But also larger. It really hammers home this die is not a resource die, it’s use is different.

But wood?!!! Couldn’t we have better quality dice? These really are the weakest part of the game. You get 4 pencils included (very nice touch). But you scrimp on the dice?

I’m waiting to here back from Portal Games about why the adventure mode pad (used for solo games, each sheet is a unique village) can’t be used in a multiplayer game.

I can’t wait to try the advanced mode. But it’s cool that the game has this, plus the solo mode.

I like this game a lot. It’s not as light as say Qwixx or Qwinto. But less complicated than Ganz Schon Clever or the really over complicated and awful Welcome to Dino World. It’s hit the sweet spot.

I suppose I better admit Jonathan won by a single point.

Jonathan and I did start to set up Caverna: Cave vs Cave – Era II. Wow with the base game and this new expansion boy does it take up a lot of table space. Looking at the new rule book you play the base game first then move onto the expansion! We did the maths based on the game play times on the boxes. With having to refresh our memories on how to play as well this would take more time than we had. Our calculations put it at over an hour to play.

So we moved onto a game of Citadels. A classic for sure. I love the 2 player drafting of characters. It’s very similar to dark draft in Epic. You have an idea of what the other player may have taken but not exactly.

I will need to sleeve my copy before using it at club nights.

I managed to get the win of our play of this.

Jonathan did give me a game last night. They were being given out free at the expo. Apparently this is a worker placement style game. But looking at the box you’d have no idea what type of game it is. The description on the box gives no clue. The publisher is doing themselves no favours.


I’d like to thank Jonathan for being so kind for taking the time to meet up and play games last night. It was really appreciated.

Games played: Imperial Settlers: Roll & Write, Citadels

Empire at War hits Whitespider1066 Towers

Destiny, first look, star wars

Finally the latest Star Wars:Destiny release Empire at War has hit the stores in the UK. It felt like an age after it’s release in the US last Thursday. It was so hard seeing all these Yanks opening all their new booster packs and the goodies inside over the weekend. There were also the odd release events at the weekend in the UK, where the chance to open some boosters also occurred (but we need a local scene to be able to get that happening).

It was looking like according to the weekly release sheet from the local Asmodee Borg Collective Esdevium that we would have to wait until the 21st to get our hands on the boosters. However my FLGS said the boosters were arriving early. TODAY!!!!

Thanks to Dale giving me a lift over to my FLGS during our lunch break I was able to pick up my pre-order.
My first three boosters opened, three yellow villain cards for the rares. Two characters and a weapon.
So I’ll save you from total boredom and just show you the rares and legendary cards/die that I pulled.

I’m happy I got the EMP grenade.



I was surprised by two of the following cards. I hadn’t heard anything about “Servant of the Dark Side” or “T-7 Ion Disruptor Rifle”. I’m curious to build a deck with “Servant of the Dark Side”, maybe pair him up with FN? That Ion Disruptor Rifle is insane, and has an insane cost to go with it. I think that 5 cost is the only thing stopping this going straight into a FN deck.


So we hit the first of my “hit list” of characters I wanted to pull with Kanan.

I even got a candidate for worst card in the set Chance Cube. Don’t think I will ever be playing this.

A strong finish on the rare/legendary pulls. I’m happy with these three. That “X-8 Night Sniper” is screaming Han/Rey to me.

So that’s the first booster box done and dusted. Reasonably happy with the pulls. I got “Roll On”, “Rend”, “Quick Escape” and “Thermal Paint” on the commons front. So I’m chuffed with those ones.

Right onto box two…

Tanks and FEG@TA

Fenland Gamers, first look, game night

Friday afternoon saw me at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole picking up some supplies. Whilst there I caved and got Jonathan (the store owner) to give me a demo of the newly released miniatures/war game Tanks: Panther vs Sherman.

Basically Tanks uses a cut down version of the Wings of Glory/X-Wing system. It uses just a single movement arrow that can be used in any direction, in stead of the multitude the others use.

In our demo game I was Brad Pitt in Fury and a n other tank, while Jonathan played Rommel in the Panther. Apparently according to the scenario we were recreating an infamous tank skirmish by a heroic German tank commander. Which apparently was more Nazi propaganda than reality.

Anyway I tried to distract the panther with one Sherman while trying to attack with the other. The panther took out one of my Sherman tanks. I liked that the destroyed tank stayed on the playing field turning into more cover to be used. The destroyed tank also gets a dying last attack. In this case it didn't do much.

Our tank battle came down to close quarter trading shots. I had inflicted some damage to the panther, and the dice liking me more than Jonathan (only just) allowed me to survive repeated shots. But eventually the panther got through and delivered a killing shot. With my dying last gasp shot I delivered two critical hits that also destroyed the panther. The game was a draw.

Tanks is £18 of the realm. Which gets you everything you need for two people to play. You can buy more tanks for the game at £7 each.

When you compare this to oh say X-Wing, yes it's cheaper. However for that extra in X-Wing I get some nice painted models, that I don't have to cut off sprews, assemble and then paint.

I'm not sure who this is aimed at. None war/miniature gamers? If so then the whole cutting, gluing and painting is a major no no in my opinion. It's definitely a big minus for me. If it's aimed at the war/miniature gamers then I can't help feel that this is too light for them.

I think that the demo playmat the shop has should come with the game. Or at least be available as an addon for around a tenner.

The rules are very simplified. Especially the movement side. They have got rid of the simultaneous revealing of movement with the dials. Which gives an advantage to the player driving the panther, because the Sherman's move first, attack second. Thus the panther can move taking into account the actions of the Sherman. So to snatch the draw I feel was good. I also feel this is a weakness of the over simplification.

There are already addition tanks you can buy, plus there will be organised play support, play mats, etc.

Tanks is enjoyable, quick to pick up, however for me the models and having to build them is a turn off.

At the weekly Friday evening gaming at The Angel Inn this week it was super awesome.

The evening started off with a game of Love Letter Batman which my friend James and I introduced the barmaid/landlords partner. James took an early three point lead, before I heroically came back to get the win. Our second game saw Jonathan join us. James and I took a couple of early points but the game ended up being a battle between Jonathan and the barmaid. Jonathan held on and threatened to win, but in the end the barmaid won.

The end of the game was perfectly timed with the arrival of a new club member, but friend of Jonathan's Jeff.

Our next game was a four player game of King of New York. James committed suicide trying to brave it out in Manhattan so that he could get home to his luxurious bachelor pad. He had an early start in the morning to try and get a limited edition Clash vinyl record from the local HMV.

In the end it came down to Jeff and me trading blows, with the advantage firmly in my court. An advantage I wasn't going to give away, giving me the win.

Our next game of the evening was the totally under the radar game, that deserves its place in the sun, Bohemian Villages. After a run through of the rules for Jeff, the three of us (that's Jonathan, myself and Jeff) started placing our meeples in the villages.

Jonathan stormed to a new personal best score and comfortable win of 66 points, while I claimed second with a score that just missed equally my own personal best by one point. One point that I could have had if I hadn't forgotten to take it near the start of the game. Jeff got a very respectable score of 36 points for his first time playing.

Our final game of the evening was a new favourite The Great Heartland Hauling Co. The usual blocking of locations took place as people moved onto a location you wanted to go to. In the end it all came down to who could do that final bit of business to push them to the forty points needed to signal the end of the game. Which just happened to be Jonathan this game. After final tallying of scores Jonathan took the first place honours, closely followed by Jeff, with me hanging out in last place. Between first and last place the point difference was five whole points.

We had a great evening gaming. Don't forget anyone can turn up to play. So if you are at a lose end why not come along?

 

Guildmaster

Fenland Gamers, first look, game night

Wednesday saw Jonathan, Debbie and myself meet up to learn how to play the new Tasty Minstrel Games game Guilds of London. A game the yanks don't have at the moment.

Jonathan and I bought our early copies at the UK Games Expo (yes I still have to write about that), where the designer Tony Boydell had a limited supply of early copies to sell.

I'd read the rule book once about a week before hand. Tom Vassel had also just put his review up of the game, and spoken about it on his podcast. It looks like Tom and myself agree on the rule book, that it could do with a little work. For instance it starts talking about Masters however you have no idea what a Master is, until much later when they are discussed.

For those that can't be bothered to read any further Jonathan and I both love the game. If you have already watched Tom's review. I think I agree with the points he made about the game.

There is a lot of iconography, which because of the pace of the game didn't really get in the way, the two reference/cheat sheets helped. Although TMG could have been more generous and provided four of these. I know I have complained about the iconography in Cthuhlu Realms getting in the way. With the pace of the game having to decode the iconography on the cards did get in the way of the game.

For a “euro” style game this is a pretty cut throat game, especially when it comes to negotiating the majority of a guild that needs resolving. But it's fun. Also it's possible to get combos going with the cards, and also when resolving guilds. Debbie was really pulling this off during the game, and did this this better than Jonathan and myself.

For the majority of our game I had the lead points wise upto the last two rounds. Unfortunately I didn't build up enough of a cushion to hold off late surges of point scoring from the completed guild cards during final scoring. I went from first to desperately holding onto second by a single point.

Back to the manual when we had to do the expand/growth phase and add more guilds to the board, the first additions were easy and just like the example in the manual. Come to the second time we had to do it, it was less clear where we laid the first tile for that growth.

I did like the variable second place rewards, these will be different for each guild everytime you play. Adds that bit of variety each game, and sometimes you want second place more than first for that reward.

There is so much to love about this game. I'm looking forward to playing it again.