Cards & Boards

The boardgame industry has not been spared the crowdfunding phenomenon known as Kickstarter.

With a well-honed and nicely packaged idea or concept, you could theoretically have a hot product in your hands. Of course, provided you get the necessary amount of funding.

It’s a simple enough premise, and I’ve highlighted the very interesting and more successful games on Kickstarter.

Now, like any “hit” product, what can wow over backers may not translate to equally awesome reviews, as some may have found out.

I was very nearly taken in by one particular card game (non-collectible): its awesome illustrations no doubt had a major effect in nearly extricating some hard-earned moolah from my dear wallet.

Nevertheless, I quickly forgot about it. Months later, I would revisit its Boardgamegeek.com entry, and it seems that my act of sitting back, proved to be wise in hindsight.

The game looks great, but the gameplay, and most importantly, the quality of the finished product, seemed to be a recurring issue for a number of the game’s owners. Phew!

Oh well, the usual caveat emptor phrase is going to be especially true for Kickstarter products: hey, if anyone and everyone can produce something, you just gotta temper down your expectations and do your research.

Again, I have to say that nothing beats community-based reviews, and this is where I have to also say that, it does often pay to wait. Finally, it might also mean that there’ll always be a reason why the bigger and more established gaming companies will often have an edge here: you can’t beat them in terms of product finishing (most of the time anyways).

Anyone had any experience with Kickstarter games yet? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

I’m a big Lord of the Rings (LOTR) fan, and being a card game and boardgame nutter, have played several games based on the awesome franchise.

My first ever Cards & Boards print column story was on the LOTR RISK boardgame. The LOTR TCG (Trading Card Game) by Decipher was one of my most enduring passions throughout the 2000s, when the game was in print, and its prime.

In fact, due to my new-found love for DBGs (deck-building games), I’ve even rekindled the love for that awesome TCG. Yes, there is an LOTR DBG! Fortunately, the TCG lives on, in the form of fan sites and what not.

One game I’ve yet to dabble in is Fantasy Flight Games’ (FFG’s) LOTR LCG (Living Card Game). Well, looks like the time is ripe for me to do so: the “Black Riders” Saga Expansion seems geared to be introductory, fun, and challenging at the same time.

With multiple “difficulty” settings, the set offers new and older players a variety of options. And of course, the slew of new cards will be another major pull factor!

Players can recreate three scenarios from the first half of the first book, The Fellowship of the Ring. Each can be played on its own, or in sequence, in a massive “Campaign” mode.

Previous sets seemed to allow one to two players (if you bought one set), but up to four players can game together if you have two “Core Sets” combined. Not too sure if the same applies to “Black Riders” – that’ll be worth confirming soon then!

“Black Riders” is slated for release sometime in the second half of this year.

Any thoughts of your own? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

I may not be getting a lot of play time on the Star Wars Living Card Game (SWLCG in short), but am really loving the game. It’s quick and dirty Star Wars fun featuring some decent-looking artwork.

In case you’re wondering, the latest expansion pack, or Force Pack, is out. A Dark Time features thirty brand new cards, across multiple factions. The ones covered here include Jedi, Scum and Villainy, Imperial Navy, Smugglers and Spies and Sith.

My personal favorite looks like the Jedi and Scum and Villainy ones. The Jedi one (Self-Preservation) looks pretty exciting – I like how something like Unwavering Resolve gets to sneak in extra Force icons when you don’t have enough units to play in a Force struggle. This leads into a boon for the accompanying Gotal Outcast – bam, he’s now a double hitter against Dark Side objectives!

Wow, I really am tempted to buy a pack now. Aren’t you?

Any thoughts of your own? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

I may have dropped off the trading card game (TCG) scene awhile back, but when something as cool as Modern Masters from Magic: the Gathering comes up, I’ll still recognize it as gold.

One of the biggest issues with the Modern format of Magic play was how incredibly hard was, for casual and new players, to acquire some of the better cards.

It briefly took the gloss off everyone’s favorite tournament format, Standard, but when I left the game a couple of years back, the prices of Modern’s top cards were simply stratospheric. It was nuts!

Fast forward to late 2012, when Wizards of the Coast first announces that it would be reproducing some of the notorious format’s gems: cue fan frenzy! And lo and behold, the official spoilers are being previewed on Wizards.com now.

Will this put the funk back into the game here? Will it be another short-lived marketing gimmick? Do Magic players everywhere, care? Well, one thing’s for certain: cracking these packs will be pure joy – for sure!

Any thoughts of your own? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

I had a blast with the DC Comics Deck-Building Game when it rolled in early this year. Well, to be honest I haven’t played DBGs up till that point, so the cool art and simple mechanics of the DC Comics game just kind of blew me and the playing group out of the water.

And it seems that Boardgamegeek.com managed to dig up this nugget: a preorder for a standalone expansion set has appeared on selected retailers’ websites, including this one. Called Heroes Unite, the expansion will purportedly feature Shazam, Hawkman and Batgirl, among others.

Note that we write it as speculative, as Cryptozoic has not revealed any official information yet.

Well, in good time then: we look forward to more superhero goodness of the DC kind! May they preserve the same awesome standards, artwork-wise!

Any thoughts of your own? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

Looks like there’s no keeping a good franchise like The Walking Dead (TWD) down, as we’ve got more games based on the classic comicbook-turned-into-a-very-famous-TV-show franchise coming up!

According to various websites including Boardgamegeek.com, we’re set to be getting both RISK and Monopoly sets based the TWD comic books, sometime by year-end. Both the games, MONOPOLY: The Walking Dead Survival Edition and RISK: The Walking Dead Survival Edition, will be produced by USAopoly and exclusively available via Diamond Comic Distributors.

While I can’t imagine the Monopoly game to be that different, the RISK game has me very curious. It’s supposed to be set in the Southeast part of the United States, and the gameplay is described as a battle for survival, with players going at each other. Will the zombies be the wild card like the how the TWD universe pits things about? What about these Supply Cards? Very exciting indeed!

Any thoughts of your own? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

If I ever had to recommend a solitaire boardgame, I’d almost always recommend that people roll with Space Hulk: Death Angel – The Card Game. The classic Warhammer 40K card game is a quick and easy adaptation of the classic Space Hulk boardgame.

While the original Space Hulk had plenty of wow factor going for it, it’s hampered by the two-player limitation, and the need to “prepare” the game (okay, so painting the miniatures is an optional thing, but it’s more or less prerequisite since the game will look a lot nicer).

The Fantasy Flight Games’ card game works wonderfully as a one player game, and supports up to six.

There’s a handful of other games that has solo support. One that looks promising, which I’m keen to try, is “Labyrinth: The War On Terror, 2001-?”. A one- to two-player game that simulates the global war against, well, terror, the solo variant has you playing the US of A, trying to curtail and overcome the extremist jihadist movements across the usual “hotspots”.

With every key facet of the war being simulated, from populations/nations’ “street” sentiments to US-friendly / unfriendly regimes, to military strikes, this looks like the kind of game that will appeal to anyone that’s looking for something a little more balanced, and not just a straight out wargame.

Any thoughts of your own? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

When Fantasy Flight Games previewed the Jawa bunch from their upcoming The Edge of Darkness deluxe expansion set for the Star Wars Living Card Game, I screamed Utinni so many times, I think I freaked my neighbors out.

The Edge of Darkness will satisfy those who want to play the yellow (Smugglers and Spies) and green (Scum and Villainy) factions of this cool game. Featuring a stellar “cast” of Jabba the Hutt, Bossk and Lando Calrissian, this looks like THE set of the year for me, since I really doubt FFG will be so focused on my favorite Dark Side bounty hunters, for a long time.

The Tatooine Crash objective itself looks like a solid capturing machine: the ability to mess with your opponent’s deck every turn is huge. Sure, capturing seems random enough, but I’ll take anything that is potentially disruptive in the long run. After all, it’s card gaming 101: disruption is the arguably the next best thing, after card draw.

And, I know I sound like a nutter but the artwork for Jawa Scavenger is simply, cool beans! Okay, I may have been less kind towards the standard of artwork in the earlier sets (I still stand by those assessments by the way), but things are looking better, aesthetically, so there.

I’m still hoping FFG keeps to the May 2013 release date for this set. I really, really want this, since yesterday.

Any thoughts of your own? Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

It came as a great shock to me to learn that one of my favorite Magic: the Gathering illustrators, Quinton Hoover, had just passed on recently. He also contributed artwork in other games, including the Legend of the Five Rings Card Game.

I’ll fondly remember him for being one of the “greats”, for illustrating the first Magic sets. His style was very unique – surreal and beautiful at the same time.

For a deeper look at the artist’s life and achievements, do have a read at Glenn Godard’s “The Life And Times of Quinton Hoover”, which was featured on GatheringMagic.com last week.

Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.

Finally: the long-awaited Lord of the Rings Deck Building Game, The Walking Dead Card Game and the Castle: The Detective Card Game should be clocking in here during the coming month of May.

This bunch of Cryptozoic games are long-awaited, and will finally make it here, reliable sources tell me. The LOTR game is much-awaited, and uses a modular Cerberus card game engine, meaning future related DBGs can be mixed in, further enhancing your playing experience.

Also appearing on the horizon will be the newest expansion for the Star Wars Living Card Game, by Fantasy Flight Games. The Search For Skywalker ought to arrive during May as well.

Watch this space as we get more details, soon!

Do tweet me at www.twitter.com/arcturus_mengsk or leave me feedback below.