Design by:  Kevin Nunn
Published by:  Gryphon Games
3 – 5 Players, 90 minutes
Review by:  Greg J. Schloesser

Zong Shi has been a long time coming.  Kevin Nunn began designing the game back in late 2004, and I personally play-tested the game several times shortly thereafter.  It was originally going to be published over five years ago, but various snafus, an illness and other unforeseen circumstances continued to delay publication and cast doubt upon it ever seeing the light-of-day.  Finally, with Gryphon Games’ purchase of most of the Face2Face library and games-in-development, Zong Shi has arrived.

Zong Shi is a legendary Grand Master craftsman in ancient China.  Players assume the role of Master artisans competing with other Masters to rise to prominence and achieve the lofty status of Zong Shi.  To do this, players must send forth their trusty apprentice – and venture forth themselves – to collect resources, complete projects both large and small, visit town dignitaries and obtain scrolls of fortune.  The player most proficient at these tasks will achieve their goal of daring to be mentioned in the same breath as the revered Zong Shi.

Before going further, it is worth mentioning the outstanding quality of the components.  Everything is top-notch, with the Master, apprentice and Buddha miniatures stunning.  The box itself is thick enough to use as a weapon.  For me, quality components improve the gaming experience.

Design by:  Martin Wallace
Published by:  Treefrog / Mayfair Games
2 – 4 Players, 45 minutes – 1 ½ hours
Review by:  Greg J. Schloesser

Discworld: Ankh-Morpork by designer Martin Wallace is based upon the series of fantasy novels by author Terry Pratchett.  There are numerous books in the series, which have proven quite popular amongst fantasy aficionados.  The world of Discworld is populated by hundreds of strange and quirky characters, and Pratchett seems to take pleasure at not-so-subtly ridiculing the fantasy genre, weaving a somewhat humorous tone that pervades the dangerous and bizarre world.

Wallace has attempted to capture this atmosphere of quirkiness and parody in the board game.  Chaos reigns supreme as players attempt to utilize the skills and talents of various characters from the books to achieve their own goals.  Proper timing, subtle deception, and bold maneuvers are all required in an effort to gain the upper hand and reign supreme in Ankh-Morpork, the smallest, yet most interesting city in Discworld.

Design by:  Vladimir Suchy
Published by:  Czech Games Edition / Rio Grande Games
2 – 5 Players, 1 – 1 ½ hours
Review by:  Greg J. Schloesser

NOTE:  This review was first published on the Opinionated Gamers website.

I really appreciate a game with a unique theme.  Frankly, I’ve built too many cathedrals, castles and medieval cities, and consorted a bit too much with elves, warriors and dragons.  I want to experience something different.

The novel theme is just one aspect of Last Will from Czech designer Vladimir Suchy that I appreciate.  I cannot recall a game wherein the goal was to spend your inheritance as quickly as possible, leaving yourself completely destitute so you can inherit an even vaster sum … and win the game.  The theme is novel for a board game and seemingly lifted from the movie Brewster’s Millions, versions of which were filmed in both 1945 and 1985.  Interestingly, both films were based on the 1902 novel by George Barr McCutcheon.  Perhaps more game designers should look to novels and movies for their themes.

Each player receives two errand boy tokens (diminutive top hats), a planning marker, a board depicting spaces for five cards, and an inheritance of seventy pounds.  Each turn, players will plan their turn and send their errand boys to the larger central board, claiming cards, manipulating the real estate market and performing other available actions.  The idea is to spend money to lose money … not an admirable goal in real life and on that would drive financial guru Dave Ramsay stark-raving mad!

NOTE:   This is an interesting discussion members of the East Tennessee Gamers recently enjoyed on the future of game and book stores.  This was prompted by news of the closing of Nord’s, a local game store located in a prominent Knoxville shopping mall.  Please feel free to add your comments.

Rhonda Bender:  While I don’t think the recent economic woes in any way help, I think the trouble for both book and game stores has a lot to do with other factors, and both were suffering and closing during the big boom that preceded our current bust.

In the past, a lot of game profits were driven by a small number of products. In the 70s and 80s, game stores relied on Dungeons and Dragons for the bulk of sales and to bring people into the store. Then in the 90s came Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card (and later miniature) games, and there were crazes for these games. People lined up and spent big money. A lot of stores got used to that kind of cash influx. Or they opened on the back of that revenue model. And a resurgence of popularity for D&D and other role-playing games in the late 90s and early 2000s was also very good for stores. But while M:TG has continued to be reasonably popular, the overall collectible model has died. The RPG market has dwindled a little, also. So if you aren’t the local store where people go to play in M:TG tournaments, you have no regular, reliable source of revenue.

In some ways, you can say that board gaming is the current hot gaming trend. Board game sales have improved or held steady for several years, even during the economic downturn. This doesn’t really help game stores, for two reasons. One, there’s not just one or ten or even fifty hot board games that you can keep in stock and sell and make regular money. There are a handful of evergreen titles like Catan, Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne. (And Munchkin and Killer Bunnies and a few others that people avidly play and probably lead into FFG games.) And once the players in your area have those, then what? Well they could want any one of thousands of new, old or upcoming titles depending on which theme or mechanic tickles their fancy. You, the store owner, have no way to guess which of those thousands to get.

Once again SAGA had an excellent night of gaming.  Big group = Terry, Kelsey, TJ, Zach, Andrea, Ricky, Jayson, Elizabeth, Lemuel, and Gabriel attended.  We played a nice batch of games.  Here is what went down:

Airlines Europe – Zach taught this game to 5 new players, and everyone ended up really liking this slick game of route building and share buying.  Easy to teach and fun to play, plus the components look great.

Alien Frontiers – The Kickstarter darling was a close game, but Andrea edged out her brother in a tiebreaker victory.  Thanks to TJ for teaching this one.

Survive! – As always, there were lots of cheers and jeers and laughs.  A wonderful family game with a mean streak.

Puerto Rico Anniversary Edition – Terry brought this nice looking new version of Puerto Rico.  New look, but same classic gameplay.  Lemuel’s plantation was the most prosperous.

Lord of the Rings LCG – Zach and Gabriel really like this 2 player card game.  Great use of Lord of the Rings theme backed with solid, tense gameplay.  We played the Hunt for Gollum quest and beat it quite handily (which is rare).

Incan Gold – Last game of the night was a fun race for jewels in the Incan temple full of dangers.  Congrats to TJ and Zach for coming out with their packs loaded with the most treasure.

Ascending Empires

Published by Z-Man Games and Designed by Ian Cooper

Ascending Empires is a sci-fi themed strategy game with a twist – a dexterity mechanic.  Players each start with a home world within the unexplored galaxy.  Each turn, the player gets one action which they can use to move their ships, explore new planets, recruit more troops, research technologies, build cities, and more.  Each action is simple, so turns are quick with little downtime.  The choice of actions is crucial, forcing players to think carefully as to how to best spend each turn.  When moving ships to explore, blockade planets, or attack enemy ships, the players must flick the disc shaped wooden starships across the board.  The planets themselves are larger wooden disks, and they act as bumpers.  This flicking element really separates Ascending Empires from the crowd of space conquest games.  Players will need both solid tactics and precise flicking to master the game.

After a fun game of Eclipse with Kevin, Ken, and Robert, I would like to share some of my thoughts on the game.  First of all, I really enjoyed playing this game, and the comparisons to Twilight Imperium 3 are valid.  Both are expansive space civilization games, and both give me a similar gameplay feel.  There are differences, though.  Eclipse’s play length is half that of TI3, and Eclipse has fewer components and a simpler rule set.  Also, Eclipse has more Eurogame mechanics than TI3 does.  I find the two games equally enjoyable, but because of the play length, I will be more likely to play Eclipse again in the future.

Eclipse’s components were nice, but not amazing.  I like the option of playing with or without the variable alien races.  It has an interesting economic system that takes careful planning and strategic play to ensure one has the resources needed to achieve one’s goals.  The rules are easy to grasp, but the strategy should take time to master.

I thought the combat system was decent, but could have been more fun.  Upgrading ships is interesting, but the upgrades of various ships seem to cancel one another out, often leaving the players trying to roll hard sixes to score hits.  Consequently, combat usually involved both players rolling dice over and over trying to hit sixes without any choices to make.  This grew a little tiresome for me.

While there is a technology building facet to the game, the vast majority of the technologies seemed to be ship upgrades.  I wish there were more techs that involved non-combat upgrades that would allow for more strategic options in the gameplay.  I am curious to hear if other players agree with this assessment of the technologies or not.

I would like to try Runewars and compare it to this game.  From what I have read and heard, Runewars is a similar game with a fantasy theme instead of space conquest.  I enjoy this type of game, but I am still looking for the one that is good enough to add to my collection.

Design by:  Philip duBarry
Published by: Minion Games
2 – 4 Players, 1 -1 ½ hours
Review by:  Greg J. Schloesser

NOTE:  This review was first published on the Opinionated Gamers website

The history of the Israeli people is rich, dramatic, tragic and fascinating.  Not only does it make for scintillating study, but it seems ideal as the subject for board games.  Sadly, most of the few attempts made at producing a board game using this theme have been an attempt to appeal to a religious-minded market, which is not in itself a bad thing.  However, the games have generally been woeful.

Fortunately, Kingdom of Solomon by designer Philip duBarry and publisher Minion Games is an exception.  Set in Israel in the time of King Solomon, the game challenges players to collect resources, which they will use to construct various buildings, including the legendary Temple of Solomon.  It is a clever worker-placement game that requires proper timing and the ability to beat your opponents to coveted locations.  There is nothing startlingly new here, but everything blends together well to create a challenging and tense game.

Published by:  Buffalo Games
3 – 8 Players, 45 minutes
Review by:  Greg J. Schloesser

Ever get the feeling of déjà vu – the feeling that you’ve experienced something previously?  A “been there, done that” experience?  The odds are that if you play Truth Be Told from Buffalo Games, you will experience that same feeling.  Why is that?  While a relatively new release, Truth Be Told uses mechanisms and features that are present in numerous party games released over the past several years.  There is nothing here that you likely haven’t already experienced.

Up to eight players may participate, and each receives a marker and an erasable card and paddle.  Each turn, one player serves as the “host”, drawing a “Truth Be Told” card and reading aloud the question.  Each of the 141 cards contains four different questions divided into four colors.  The color being played for a particular game is selected in advance.  Thus, there are enough questions to play the game over-and-over again.

Each question has one important detail omitted, and it is the players’ task to supply the missing word, hoping to either match the answer secretly recorded by the host or fool the other players into voting for their word.  For example, the question could be, “Truth be told, I love to wear ___.”  The host will secretly record his answer – which should be truthful – onto his erasable card.  All other players will also record an answer on their cards.  The cards are gathered by the host, who checks to make sure there are no duplicate answers.  If there are, those cards are returned to their owners and they are asked to record a different answer.  This continues until all answers are unique.  Sadly, it is a fairly common occurrence for several players to record identical answers, so the process of returning and re-recording answers can often be lengthy and unexciting.

For those waiting for a stellar Star Trek game, your stardate has come!  Star Trek: Fleet Captains captures the feel of the Star Trek shows and movies, and it also has an excellent rule set to complement the theme.

Theme – obviously the theme is an important aspect to this game, and it has polarized gamers in my experience.  While fans of the series are drawn to this game like a tractor beam, others seem to steer clear because of its overt geekiness.  Star Trek fans will find much to love here, and I advise those who don’t like the theme to give it a tryanyway – you might be surprised at the fun gameplay.  The theme is superbly explored through both the components and mechanics.  The ship models are attractive, and the cards contain numerous characters, events, and locations from the shows and movies.  Furthermore, the gameplay invokes the exploration, action, and humor of Star Trek.  A game of Fleet Captains plays out a narrative similar to a season of the TV show.