Top 7 Cosmic Encounter Powers

I know this won't pertain to all that many people, but it's something I've been mulling over for awhile.  Cosmic Encounter is my favorite game, so I think about it often.  One of the questions I got a lot is "what's your favorite power?"  This list is meant to explain some of my choices and give some of my thought process behind the choices.

#7 Fury
Fury gains a token for each ship they lose to the warp.  They can use these tokens to add or subtract 3 per token from their side in an encounter.  Fury has to play a balance game between ships and tokens, but if Fury is smart, they'll be a key player at the end of the game.

#6 Genius
Genius wins if they have 20 cards in their hand.  Often this is hard to accomplish, but certain flares can help.  Genius does have the ability to forgo claiming a colony in favor of drawing cards.  This gives Genius great flexibility.  It is more powerful in a hidden power game, since no one really knows why you're accumulating the cards, but it's still a solid power, and a lot of fun to play.

#5 Miser
Miser plays the game with 2 hands of cards.  This gives them a lot of options when it comes to playing cards.  They're still stuck with bad cards, just like everyone else, but they can also manage their main hand better, thus keeping flares and artifacts around longer.  Miser isn't a power that's feared, and rightly so.  It won't directly help you win a combat, but it does give you more options, and in a game that relies on cards to win the game, having more cards is a good thing.

#4 Sorcerer
Sorcerer has the option to switch the encounter cards that the main players play before their value is revealed.  Sorcerer is a giant mind-game, which often leads to a Princess Bride esque moment that goes something like this.  "I think you're the kind of person who's going to swap cards so I'll play card A. But knowing that you know that I think that you'll swap means you won't, so I'll play card B. But knowing that you know that I know that you know that I think you'll swap means you will, so card A it is." And so and and so forth.
Sorcerer lets you make something good out of the bad cards in your hand.  It does require a certain finesse to use well, but it's also easy to play the first time you see it.

#3 Pacifist
Pacifist is one of the simplest powers to explain, you win if you play a Negotiate.  Now, you can still win an encounter the normal way and an N v N still leads to a deal.  Pacifist is great because it allows you to utilize every card in your hand.  There is that bluffing aspect where players don't know if you'll play a Negotiate, so you can slip in a low attack card while they go for the N to try to deal.  Pacifist is a great power for using all the cards in your hand.

#2 Remora
Remora is just a bit clingy, maybe too clingy.  What I mean by that is Remora gets a card whenever someone draws cards, and a ship whenever someone takes a ship back.  It means that they'll likely never run out of cards, and will likely never be low on ships.  Remora continuously brings a supply of cards, which should help in combat.  Remora itself won't help you in combat, but the additional cards and ships make you a bigger threat as the game goes on.

#1 Chosen
Chosen is the power I would pick if I had a "must-win" game of Cosmic.  Chosen's power is to draw 3 cards after encounter cards have been revealed. He can then use one of the 3 cards to add to his encounter total, or replace the card he played.  This has a two main uses.  If things are close, you just gained a reinforcement card of some value.  If things are way against you, you can hope for a Negotiate to at least take some cards from your opponent.  Chosen isn't forced to add or replace anything, so his power can never hurt him.

Every power has good things and bad things to it.  Different powers suit different play styles.  Someone else's top 7 may be completely different than mine, but that's a good thing.  I think every power (110 to date) has something to offer.  Sure, you may not like all of them, but each and every power could come out victorious.

Top 7 Game Publishers

I try my best to judge a game based on the merits of the game.  One of the merits of a game is the company that publishes the game.  This isn't always a guarantee that the game will be great, but there are some companies that excite me more than others.

#7 Tasty Minstrel Games (TMG)
TMG is an up and coming company.  They've had some early successes with Homesteaders, Belfort, Martian Dice, and my personal favorite from them, Eminent Domain.  They've had some growing pains, but they're a company looking to publish great games, and provide fun games for families and gamers alike.  I've enjoyed the TMG games that I have played, and I hope there are more to come.  A few are in need of an expansion, and I hope TMG focuses on building up their existing product line as well as adding quality to it.

#6 Gryphon Games (Part of FRED distribution)
I've enjoyed many Gryphon games, from the non-gamer favorites of For Sale and Can't Stop to the slightly heavier Roll Through the Ages.  Gryphon Games targets casual gamers who are looking for an enjoyable play experience in a relatively short time. (Under 1 hour, typically around 30 minutes)  Games that are fun and short tend to be a hit with people of all ages and gaming backgrounds.  I really appreciate having games like that around, since I can introduce them to people and play almost instantly.

#5 Wizkids
Wizkids is fairly new to boardgame publishing, but they've made a big splash.  When they acquired the Star Trek license, my Trek fanboy heart was overjoyed.  When I saw what they did with Star Trek Fleet Captains, and to a lesser extent, Star Trek Expeditions, I was simply amazed.  Wizkids has been in the HeroClix business for a long time, so they're no stranger to amazing sculpts of characters and vessels from a variety of properties.  Wizkids has published some very strong games in their short existence, including the highly innovated Quarriors, and the highly intriguing Mage Knight.  They're a company on the rise, and I look forward to seeing what the have in store.

#4 Rio Grande Games (RGG)
RGG is best known for Carcassonne and Dominion, which are two games I rate highly and enjoy.  Those two games also show the two paths that RGG has taken in game publishing.  In their early days, RGG was primarily a game importer.  They sought out great games in Europe and brought them over to the US.  With Dominion and Race for the Galaxy, RGG started publishing some of their own games.  I've greatly enjoyed this shift, since I'm not a huge fan of "euro" games.  RGG has a good blend of games, and I think they're a company that offers something for everyone.



#3 Z-Man Games

Z-Man takes the shotgun scatter approach to games.  They like to publish a lot of games and see what sticks with their audience.  There isn't anything inherently wrong with this approach, though it can lead to some good games not getting the recognition they deserve.  The best Z-Man game I've played is Pandemic, but they have published a lot of other really good games: Agricola, 1960, Ascending Empires, Ares Project, No Thanks, Neuroshima Hex, and countless others.


#2 Fantasy Flight Games (FFG)
FFG is best known for large scale productions.  Twilight Imperium, Descent, StarCraft, Rune Wars, and many more.  I've yet to play one of their "coffin box" games, choosing to focus my efforts on some of their smaller games, such as Cosmic Encounter and Space Hulk: Death Angel the card game.  FFG is well known for stunning production quality.  They put a great effort into miniatures which make their big games look fantastic.  FFG is also known for their LCG (Limited Card Game) lines.  They have taken the business model of a randomly distributed card game and modified it with predefined chapter packs.  This allows everyone to own all the cards for a set price.  FFG has a superb commitment to quality and growth in the board game industry, and a propensity for expansions.  

#1 Days of Wonder (DOW)
DOW has made some truly great games, Ticket to Ride and Shadows over Camelot are two of my favorites.  Every DOW game that I've played, I've liked.  There are some that are better than others, but all of them have something to offer.  DOW focuses on superb quality and a very small quantity.  This keeps people coming back from more, without feeling that they could never keep up with the flow of new releases.

100th

There's a long running occurrence in TV shows to celebrate major episode marks with episodes of a slightly different nature.  Stargate SG-1 did this with the use of a TV show that spoofed Stargate Command. Frasier did it by celebrating the 1000th and 2000th episodes of his radio show, for the 100th and 200th episode of Frasier.

When I started this blog on December 2nd 2011, I never dreamt that I'd be at 100 posts and nearly 10,000 page views in 10 months.  It humbles me that so many people have read my blog, my random thoughts on boardgames.  I've never been a great writer. I once had a professor tell me that I wrote too conversationally.  That's a problem in the academic world, but for a blog, I think it's a good way to go about things.  Many people search to find what they're passionate about.  I feel that I'm lucky to say that my passion is boardgames, both playing them, and writing about them.

It's funny sometimes, the more I play games, the more ideas I have to write about, but the less time I have to write.  Then, when I have the time, I don't have the ideas to work with.  I've gotten better with balancing everything, I think that I've finally got into a rhythm with article series.  I have the collection building series, a series of random thoughts balanced against my Top 7 lists, and then reviews.  My aim is to publish one from each category per week, but often the week gets extended.  Still, having those categories keeps the articles going, and gives me something to think about ahead of time.

As I've stated several times, board games are all about people.  I write for you, my audience.  I do enjoy it, but if it wasn't for you reading this, it wouldn't really matter.  I'd just be some random guy writing about boardgames.  I truly appreciate how much of a global reach I've had.  Sure, the bulk of my hits are from the US, but I've had a good amount of views from the UK, Russia, Canada, Germany, France, Australia, Sweden, Ukraine, Netherlands, Indonesia, Brazil, Spain, Poland, Romania, Thailand, and the list goes on and on.  It's made me realize how universal boardgames truly are.  Anyone can play them and have a good time, because they are really about people.

To all of you who I've played boardgames with, Thank-You!  This blog, specifically this post, is for you. Without you, my gaming addiction/hobby/enthusiasm wouldn't be possible.

Here's to 100 more posts and a lot of great memories yet to come.

September 2012 Update

Welcome to October, and a special Happy Birthday to my sister.

September was simultaneously the best and worst month of boardgames for me.  The bad news, I only had 2 game days which accounted for a total of 8 game plays.  That's the lowest all year and has me behind pace.  The good news, a weekly game night has started up at my local game store.  It's not big on boardgames yet, but we had some people stop by who were interested in playing the next time, so here's hoping.  Also really big news, I played my 1500th boardgame last week.  It was For Sale, for anyone who's interested.  Cosmic came in at 1501, but I couldn't swing it for 1500.

What got playing in September?

Tsuro x3
Dominion x2
For Sale x1
Lost Cities x1
Cosmic Encounter x1

That brings the YTD total to 210, which is 15 behind pace for 300.  Hopefully with the weekly game night, I'll make some ground up.

I acquired 4 new games this month.  I received Angry Birds: Knock on Wood and The Resistance in a trade for some LoTR chapter packs, and I received Fleet and Solar Circuit Racing from Kickstarter campaigns.  It's really nice to see games coming in from Kickstarter.

September was a productive month in terms of posts with a total of 10, though we'll call it 9 since the monthly updates don't really count.
I got out 3 reviews, Dominion:Dark Ages, Catacombs and Shadows Over Camelot.
Also, there were 3 additions to the Collection Building Series, Co-op, Team, and Dice.
Finally, there were 3 bonus articles, 2 random musings, Kickstarter, and the upcoming game Story Realms, as well as my Top 7 Places to Play Games.

Looking at October, there are some exciting things coming.  I should have an interview with the designers of Story Realms, that should be in the next few days.  Also look forward to new reviews of both new and older games.  If you have suggestions for games I should review, feel free to leave a comment, or head over to the BoBG facebook page and vote there.  I'm going to have a couple of guest reviewers come in to review Munchkin and Money.  I'm going to try to review games in the Gryphon Bookshelf Series, at least the ones I own, which is 1-8. I'm open to having guests come in the review the rest of the series. If you're interested in that, let me know and we can talk about that.

Thank-you everyone for reading, commenting, tweeting, re-tweeting, etc. You all are the reason I keep writing articles.  The next article will be #100, which I'll be using as something fun and frivolous.  Also, BoBG is nearly at 10,000 views since launch in December.  I know other blogs have gained a larger following, but 10,000 is something I never thought would happen this fast.  Once again, thank-you to all of you, the loyal readers, the one time readers, and everyone in between.

Story Realms

I'm not usually one to go around shilling things in public.  It often leads to blame directed back at me if something goes wrong with the item I'm promoting.  However, I fully believe in this product, so much so that I'm willing to risk the potential downside.

Story Realms is currently on Kickstarter, and will be until Thursday October 4th.  I know, that isn't much time, but seriously, go check it out. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/springboard/story-realms

Story Realms is being designed by Escapade Games, and if you haven't heard of them, you're not alone.  That's because they're a new company, but two amazing people are the lead designers for Escapade Games.  They are Angela Hickman Newnham and Julian Leiberan-Titus, but you would know them better as the people behind the popular blog, Growing Up Gamers (along with Angie's husband.)

What exactly is Story Realms?
It is a cross between a board game and a role playing game. More than that, it is meant for people of all ages, especially kids.  When Angie mentioned that her 6 her old daughter led a play session, I truly understood that the game is for all ages. The game plays in ~1 hour sessions, and there is a lot of material, including in depth adventures, in the initial box.  Who knows what they could do with expansions.  The game is meant for 2-7 players, with one being the story teller.

Everything I've seen, heard, read, etc. about Story Realms has maintained or enhanced my interest in the game.  I was able to see the print and play version over the summer, and that looked really polished.  

The game has already hit funding, so if you back it, you will be getting a game.  They're estimating delivery in the summer of 2013, which is a ways off.  A lot of that has to do with very high quality and high detail artwork.  All of that takes an immense amount of time, and they want to make sure it's perfect.

If you like the idea of a storytelling boardgame, please go take a look at this game.  It's worth 5-10 minutes to just peruse the kickstarter page and see what they have to say.

Collection Building: Dice Games

Many board games use dice for movement or combat, but those games would not be classified as dice games.  What I'm looking at are games that focus on dice.  The most prevalent of these games is Yahtzee.  These are games about utilizing your dice.  Sometimes, various combinations score points, other times different rolls let you do different things, but the main idea is that the roll of the dice determine what you can and cannot do.

When it comes to dice games, there are several types.  There are the quick filler games, like LCR and Liar's Dice, and longer strategy games like Kingsburg and Roll Through the Ages.  Several dice games take a pre-existing property, and transform it into a dice version. Hasbro experimented with this idea for Battleship, Monopoly, Risk, Clue, and Sorry and called it their Express line.  While I appreciate the attempt to make these big name games faster, it really changed too much of the game's identity.  Two of the big names in hobby games did this as well, Catan and Carcassonne.  Ticket to Ride incorporated dice into the game, replacing the train cards, but it is not solely a dice game.

Let's talk more in depth about a few of these games.

LCR
LCR is a very simple game.  Each player starts with 3 chips.  Each turn they roll 3 dice. For each L, they pass a chip to their left. For each R, the pass a chip to their right. For each C, they put a chip in the center.  The goal is to be the player who has all the chips at one time, meaning no other player has chips in front of them.  There isn't any strategy to the game, just roll the dice and do what it says.  I can't recommend this for gamers, but it could be a fun party game, or maybe a drinking game.

Liar's Dice
In Liar's Dice, the goal is to be the last person with dice left.  Each player starts with 5 dice.  All players roll their dice, and then the start player makes a statement about all the dice at the table, based on only knowing their own.  The next player can either call them a liar, in which case all dice are revealed, and then if the asserter was right, the player who called them a liar loses a die, but if the asserter was wrong, they lose a die.  If someone doesn't call liar, they must up the statement in some way, either by calling more of the same die face, or by calling a higher die face. For instance, if someone calls four 3's, I could call four 4's(5's,6') or five(or more) any face.
Liar's Dice actually has some strategy and some bluffing, so it is a real game.  The dice are crucial, but so is the ability to read people, and do some quick probabilities in your head.

Catan Dice Game
The Catan dice game is an interesting play.  Each turn, you roll 6 dice up to 3 times.  The faces of the dice are the 5 standard Catan resources and gold. Gold acts as a wild, which is a great help.  The game only lasts for 15 rounds, which keeps play time under 30 minutes, maybe 45 as an absolute long.  In the game, you use resources to build roads, settlements, cities and knights.  Knights grant you one free resource of a given type once during the game. They don't offer many points, but they can be a swing in the game.  Things have to be built in order, which is a little confusing at first, but it keeps the game moving along.  I've only played this a couple of times, but I find it a short version of Catan without the trading, and a fairly good competition between the players.  There's a lot less you can do to mitigate bad luck, but given the time length, that's ok.

Kingsburg
Kingsburg fits more into the boardgame that heavily uses dice, but I think that it is a dice game at heart. In Kingsburg, players roll dice, then take turns placing one or more dice on various advisors.  These advisors give the players different resources or army points, or victory points.  Once an advisor is claimed in a round, no one else can take it.  There's a lot of strategy in how you place your dice, but even the best strategy can be foiled by poor rolls.  There is a lot going on here beyond the dice, but if you like dice games that let you do something meaningful with your rolls, Kingsburg is a great choice.

Roll Through the Ages
RTA is a civilization building game with dice.  Players have to balance workers, food and coins with the threat of disaster.  The more cities you build, the more dice you get to roll, but the more people you have to feed each turn.  If you can't feed your people, you lose points, but if you don't have enough cities, you won't have enough dice to do things to score points.  RTA has a fine balance to it, but there are a lot of ways to win.  I think it's one of the most replayable dice games out there.

Quarriors
I wrote a full review of Quarriors, which you can read here.  As such, I'll just summarize.  Quarriors is a dice building game, where you are trying to gather creatures to score points.  Each player starts with a very basic set of dice, but they buy more each round to grow stronger.  Quarriors has a lot of fans and a lot of detractors.  I personally fall in the "meh" category.  It's a decent game, but I don't want to play it frequently.

Scary Tales
Here's another game I've done a full review, which you can find here.  Scary Tales is all about rolling sets of icons to gather relics.  There are cards that add in symbols, making the set easier to obtain.  There's not an abundance of strategy to the game, but it is a neat game.  I recommend picking up two different sets for variety, and to allow more players.  I didn't really like it as a 2, but it's fun with 3 or 4.

Price Wars
Since we are building on a budget, let's look at the costs of these games.

If you're on a really tight budget, I'd say salvage dice from other games and play Liar's Dice/LCR.  If you've got a bit more money to spend, Roll Through the Ages is a really great value purchase. For kids, Scary Tales might be fun due to the theme.

My pick for a dice game to own is Roll Through the Ages. Word of advice, track down "The Bronze Age" expansion, it's available for free online. It really does add to the game.

Sir Dances on Tables - A Shadows Over Camelot Review

Shadows Over Camelot

• Designed by Bruno Cathala and Serge Lagent
• Published by Days of Wonder in 2005
• Playable for 3-7 players (5-7 recommended) 
• Plays in around 90 minutes

Overview

The Knights of the Round Table
They like to dance on tables.

Shadows Over Camelot, now referred to as "Shadows" transports players to the time of King Arthur.  Chivalry is the order of the day, Knights fight with honor, but the Mists of Avalon lurk in the distance, and someone is destined to betray Camelot into the hands of evil.  Shadows is a co-operative game, where one person might be secretly working against the other players.  Each player is a knight of the round table, or King Arthur himself.  Players seek to complete quests, earning white swords, and avoid failing quests which earn black swords.  The game is a challenge, even if all knights remain loyal, which is a great feature of Shadows.  It was one of, if not the, first games to have a hidden traitor.  For that reason alone, Shadows is worth a look.

Components

Camelot is under siege from the Catapults

Days of Wonder is known for their outstanding components.  They go above and beyond when it comes to unique pieces in their games.  Shadows exemplifies this idea with 7 unique knight sculpts, Picts, Saxons, catapults, Excaliber, the Holy Grail, and Lancelot's Armor.  The detail on each of these pieces is fantastic, and some of the pieces that look great even unpainted.  

Mechanics

Shadows thrives on two main mechanics. The first is card management, meaning, players need to know where to best use their cards, and when the right time to use cards is.  The second mechanic is the hidden traitor.  This injects a certain amount of paranoia/distrust into the game, and it keeps players from following the leader since the leader might just be a traitor.

The Saxons attack

The Picts attack as well

Shadows thrives on the hidden traitor.  Without that going on, the game doesn't have enough depth to keep gamers interested.  I have played with my family where we don't pass out loyalty cards, and it works ok, but we tend to handicap ourselves with some starting black swords to make it harder.

Interaction
Shadows requires players to work together.  If everyone tries to do their own thing, everyone is doomed.  There are limits in place to prevent players from working too well together.  You can't openly discuss what's in your hand, but you can say something like "My good King, I would be best suited questing for the Holy Grail."  The whole idea here is allowing players to work with each other, without plotting everything out. It also gives players a chance to think for themselves, which is greatly needed in any co-op game.

Theme

All the Knights at Camelot
The knights have won
unless there's a traitor

Shadows is dripping with theme incorporation.  If you know even a little bit of the Arthurian mythos, you will immediately get into Shadows. Yes, Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail counts in knowing Arthurian mythos.  Every part of the game feels right.  Saxons and Picts slowly invading, Catapult siege forces looming, the challenge of the Black Knight, questing for Excalibur and the Holy Grail, and lastly, fighting Lancelot for his armor, and a Dragon for his treasure.

Learning Curve
I'd call this a medium-long learning curve.  The game doesn't take long to explain, but in order to know what to do on your own, you really have to see a couple of games play out.  There are a lot of cards, and knowing when to play them, how to play them effectively, and how to manage your hand, are all things that take some time to do well.

A sampling of the white cards

Why I like Shadows Over Camelot
Shadows has a great theme, and solid gameplay.  Trying to deduce the traitor is an enjoyable challenge.  The artwork is gorgeous, the rules are very well written.  Shadows is a solid experience from start to finish.

Why I don't like Shadows Over Camelot

A sampling of the evil action cards

Shadows does have a predictability flaw. What I mean by that, some games are going to go one way or the other no matter what the players do.  Sometimes the shuffle on the cards is completely one sided.  Those games are rare, but they can happen.

Replayability
I've played Shadows 33 times, 22 of which were base game only.  Those plays have been spaced out over the last 3 years, the bulk coming in the summer and fall of 2010.  I haven't played it much lately, but that's due to the lack of a large group.  The key for me has been playing this with a lot of different people.  If I played with the same group of 5 or 6, Shadows would get boring. Everyone would have their traitor tells, and the game lacks intrigue at that point.  If you keep the group changing, even a little bit, Shadows is great fun.

Overall
Shadows is a 2 thumbs up. It's a keeper for a very long time.  The theme is accessible to new players, the co-op with a traitor is a nice change.  I have a few pure co-ops, a team game (BSG) and the hidden traitor maybe game in Shadows.  It makes for a good blend of games, and lets me pick what the group feels like.

What else is like Shadows Over Camelot?
Some similar games to look at are Battlestar Galactica and Mafia/Werewolf.  In both of these games, players have hidden loyalties, and figuring out who is on your side is a key aspect of the game.
There is a Shadows Over Camelot card game coming out soon, I think by Christmas 2012, so if you like the sound of Shadows, but not the playtime, give that a look.

Want to buy Shadows Over Camelot and support BoBG?