Unboxing Week Post Part III: Roll for the Galaxy

Here we are at day three of Unboxing Week!  If you haven’t had a chance yet, please check out my previous posts on day one and day two.  Just click on the links that I will provide below and you can see the two games I have already done. 
  
Unboxing Post I: Star Wars: Imperial Assault

Unboxing Post II: Tokaido

If you are just coming in to this series of posts, I’m doing a week of unboxings!  I’ve chosen to do this because I have a severe backlog of games that I have pictures of but haven’t taken the time to sit down and actually write up the unboxing posts.  Thus, I have created this self-imposed Unboxing Week.  I may actually make this a thing where I occasionally do this when I get a backlog of games.  Anyway, on to the game! 

For day three I decided to do an unboxing of one of my favorite new games to come out this year (or very late last year depending on who you’re talking to) and that is Roll for the Galaxy.  Roll for the Galaxy is a dice game that is a re-implement of the original card game Race for the Galaxy.  It was designed by Thomas Lehmann and Wei-Hwa Huang and produced by Rio Grande Games.  This is a wonderful dice-rolling, engine-building game that plays two to five players and scales well at all player counts.

To begin, Roll for the Galaxy comes in a standard sized, medium, family-style box in the same vein as Ticket to Ride.  The box has a great picture on the cover that has an oversized sci-fi cube that is a representation of the dice that come in the box.  It is a great cover and is eye catching which is quite important to getting your game out to the public.  Sadly, when you open the box they have a pretty sad looking box insert.  However, I will say that I don’t necessarily think that this game would benefit that much from a box insert as some bags and the bag that comes with the game really seem to do a fine job of keeping the components separate.

Next on the list of game components are the cardboard victory point chits.  They are thick cardboard and are exactly the same as the ones that are used in Race for the Galaxy.  I have heard differing opinions as to people’s feelings of these chits, but I like them.  Some people seem to think that they are confusing, and I can kind of see where they are coming from, but again, I like them.  All you have to do is count the hashes on the chits and that is the value of them.  I think they lend to the sci-fi theme of Roll for the Galaxy.

Moving on from the victory point chits we take a look at the player screens, the player mats, and the phase strips.  These components are all made of the same thick cardstock and are of a pretty decent quality.  I will admit that I think that the phase strips and the player mats were cardboard instead of cardstock, but I don’t think that it detracts from the game.  The phase strips is a simple strip of cardstock that gives the phases and is what the players puts behind their player screen as they are choosing their phases with their dice.  It has the iconography clearly on the strip and is easy to read.  The player mat is where the player keeps their used dice, unused tiles, and their meeple showing how much money they have.  Again, the icons on this mat are clear and easy to read with no odd discrepancies.  

Lastly, the player screen is one of my favorite additions into the game.  This screen has everything printed on the back of the screen so you can just look at it and know the different phases, you different actions, and what they all mean!  All a player has to do is look at this and they can find all of the information that is needed during a game of Roll for the Galaxy.

Now we’ll take a look at some of the “random” components in the box.  These would be the dice cups, the wooden meeples, and the black tile bag.  There are five of each of these in the game and they come in the five different players colors, red, blue, green, yellow, and orange.  The dice cups are made of hard plastic and have the different phase icons on the sides of the cup.  They are super-high quality and a great addition into the game!  The wooden meeples are pretty standard fare except for their pose.  They look like they are running which has a pretty cool look as they are keeping track of the money that you have.  Lastly the black bag that you place the game tiles in is large and of a very high quality.  It is easy to stick your hand in there and grab a tile with no problem.

 

Finally, the last two components that are left are the main ones in the game.  These are the tiles and the dice.  Let’s start with the tiles.  The first tiles you get are five phase tiles.  These are double sided with one side showing that the phase is chosen and the other side showing that the phase wasn’t chose.  The game comes with nine faction tiles and nine home world tiles.  These are chosen at the beginning and give the player a place to start.  The faction tiles are twice the size of the normal tiles and have a technology for the player to start with while the home worlds are the same size as the rest of the tiles and give the player extra dice.  These eighteen tiles have gray corners so you can easily separate them from the rest of the tiles.  Lastly there are 55 other tiles that are double sided.  One side has a technology and the other side has a world on it.  The player can choose which side they want to go for when they draw the tile.  All of these tiles are very thick cardboard and would be able to take a lot of beatings before showing any wear.

The final component we’ll look at is the dice.  There are a total of 111 custom dice that come with this game.  There are 25 white (home) dice, 22 red (military) dice, 20 cyan (novelty) dice, 14 brown (rare elements) dice, 12 green (genes) dice, 9 yellow (alien technology) dice, and 9 purple (lavender)dice.  These dice are smallish (which is actually good for this game!) and have different icon placements depending on what type of die they are.  The icons are clear and make sense once you know the game.  The only things I would have liked to see would have been engraved dice.  I am somewhat worried that they will fade in time but to be honest, we’ve played it a lot already and they aren’t showing any wear currently.

Alright, day three in the books!  We are almost halfway through unboxing week and I’ve still got some great games with great components left to post.  Come on back tomorrow and see what game gets to be right in the middle of the week!  Until next time, game on!

Unboxing Week Post Part II: Tokaido

Onto day two of the epic (perhaps not epic, but I’m entitled to some melodrama right?) week of unboxings. Before we start with the festivities please check out the previous post if you haven’t already done so. Yesterday I did an unboxing of the wonderful Fantasy Flight game, Star Wars:Imperial Assault. You can find the link below this paragraph.  

Unboxing Post I: Star Wars: Imperial Assault

Alright, now we move forward with day two!  I have a bunch of games that have pictures all ready to go so it was tough to really narrow down the games into seven that I wanted to add to Unboxing Week.  However, with that being said, this game was always going to be one of the seven.  Tokaido is an absolutely beautiful game by the fantastic designer, Antoine Bauza of 7 Wonders, Takenoko, and Hanabi fame.  This game was beautifully produced by Funforge and they actually have a collector’s edition that was on Kickstarter over a year ago.  Hopefully that beautiful edition will see the light of day within the next year or so!

Tokaido is a point-to-point movement game that has elements of set collection and variable player powers.  You take your meeple and travel the “East SeaRoad” in Japan which connects Kyoto to Edo.  You and your fellow players will travel this road and make stops on the way at towns to shop for souvenirs, at temples to pray to the gods, at panoramic spots to paint, at hot springs to relax, and at inns to eat and spend the night.  Basically you are trying to have the best possible vacation imaginable!

First of all, when speaking of Tokaido, you have to look at the absolutely beautiful art.  The art in this game is done by the fabulous Naiade.  Naiade (Xavier Gueniffey Durin) is quite possibly the best boardgame/cardgame artist out there right now and definitely my personal favorite.  He has worked on Seasons (my current favorite game), Shinobi WAT-AHH!, The Phantom Society, and the upcoming games Melee and The Big Book of Madness.  His work has a very specific style and it fits so perfectly in the boardgame medium.  I always look forward to the new stuff that he puts out.

The first thing to talk about is the rulebook.  This is a pretty standard fair rulebook that does a good job in showing how the game is played with some nice looking art within it.  It is nicely put together with good examples of how to play the game.  To be fair, this isn’t a hard game to play so the rulebook should be able to adequately put forth the rules without the player needing to go to outside means (such as BGG forums) in order to find their answers.  This rulebook does a good job as I have personally never needed to go anywhere else to find answers that arise from the game.

Next we move on to the game board.  This is a tri-fold game board that is made over thick cardboard and will hold up very well under multiple plays with no problems.  As well as being well made the game board is completely beautiful.  It has a stark white background with Naiade’s brilliant artwork on top of that background.  The graphics and icons fit perfectly with the theme and make sense as your meeple takes their journey down the East Sea Road.  The board also has places for the cards that you will need during the game.  It is clear and was beautifully graphically designed.

There are over 100 cards in this game in two different sizes.  The first size is the small mini-card size that is popular in many of the Fantasy Flight games.  These are on nice card stock (sadly not the linen that I usually prefer) with rounded edges and they ruffle-shuffle very nicely.  Each of the types of cards have very clear backs with drastically different colors so that they are very easy to sort out at the beginning of the game.  The other size of card is just slightly larger than the mini-card size and they don’t have the rounded edges.  The reasoning for this is because these cards are put together in order to for panoramic pictures as you are collecting the different sets during the game.  All in all the cards are nice and of a pretty decent quality.

Next up are the components of the game.  These include the cardboard tokens and the wooden pieces.  There aren’t a whole lot of these components as the game doesn’t really need them, but those that are in the game are very nice.  First of all, the cardboard tokens include five colored tokens that show the color of each player and also the coins.  I love the coins!  They are beautifully made and actually have a square hole in the middle of them that really makes them feel like Japanese Yen.  Then, there are the five wooden meeples which are very nicely made and each color also has a small disc which is used for scorekeeping.  The only component I wish was a little different is the five colored discs.  They are a little smallish and I think they could be a little more thematic.

We now move onto the player cards.  These are absolutely beautiful!  Each of the ten characters has their own cardboard card with a small hole in it.  This hole is where you place your color token so you know what color each player is during the game.  On each of the cards is a gorgeous rendition of the character and below that is the icon of the player’s power.  These were a great addition to the game and I love that they were printed on thick cardboard instead of just putting them on cardstock.

Lastly I just want to point out the insert of Tokaido.  Publishers take note…this is how an insert should be done!  It is made perfectly where each of the components/cards/boards has a specific well that they go in and it keeps them so nicely separate from each other.  I love when thought has gone into the inserts of a game.  I understand that it isn’t necessary thing to have a nice insert, but it is a nice addition.

Thanks for reading everyone!  This has been an interesting process as I’m finally going back through all of these game pictures and doing the unboxings that I’ve been sitting on for far too long.  I have some good games coming up during the next week so check back in tomorrow for the next one!  Thanks again for reading and let me know if you have any questions or comments.  Until next time, game on!

Unboxing Week Post Part I: Star Wars: Imperial Assault

This will be the first post my self-imposed Unboxing Week.  I will be doing a post a day for a week in order to get through some of the games that I need to do some unboxings on.  The first will be the wonderful StarWars: Imperial Assault designed by Justin Kemppainen, Corey Konieczka, and Jonathan Ying and released by Fantasy Flight Games.  This was a game that was high on my list after last year and it has totally lived up to my expectations!

Star Wars: Imperial Assault was released last year after being demoed at Gen Con and Essen Spiel.  With all of the problems with the docking strikes in the west the game didn’t start shipping out to buyers and game stores until the end of December.  I had pre-ordered the game and it made it to our door just before Christmas.  This game is almost a re-skin of Descent: Journeys in the Dark but does a good job of changing and streamlining some of the rules in that game.  What was created was a great game with the Star Wars IP.  This has become a regular for my wife, me, and a good friend of ours.  We are over half way through the campaign and it has been a blast!

To begin, this game is actually two in one!  The “main” part of the game is the campaign mode.  In this game you are given missions and one person plays the Imperials while the other one to four people play the Rebels.  Also included in this game is a two-player skirmish mode.  This takes different (in some cases) cards and gives you a certain amount of points to create your team.  There are also different “game modes” or “missions” in the skirmish mode which keeps it more interesting.

Okay, enough of the precursors, on to the unboxing and this game’s wonderful components!  Since this is a Fantasy Flight game it is pretty much guaranteed to have high quality and multiple components.  It is basically what they have become synonymous with in the gaming hobby.  Whether or not you like Fantasy Flight Games is beside the point, it is hard to argue with the point that they really put a lot of work into the look of the game.  That being said, this game continues with their high quality components.

To begin with, this game comes with four, yes four, different rule books.  These include a learn to play rulebook, a campaign guide, a skirmish guide, and a rules reference.  I will say that these are all wonderfully put together and have great examples and pictures to go along with the rules.  Fantasy Flight has recently really started to put in a learn to play rulebook and this just gives an intro mission which shows the players how to play the basics of the game.  I think that this is a fantastic idea because you can really jump into the game with that reference and start playing right away.  Also, I absolutely love the rules reference guide!  This is one of the best ideas I’ve ever seen for a game.  If we ever have a rules questions I can pull that guide out and I’m able to find everything that I need right there.  It is put together beautifully and all of the reference words make it easy to find what you’re looking for.

Next up we have a ton of cards!  There are over 250 cards that come with the game and they are in both that standard poker size and the mini-card style that Fantasy Flight loves.  These are super high quality cards that have the linen finish that I love in playing cards!  It really gives them a good heft and quality feel when you are holding/shuffling them.   

These cards include mission cards, equipment cards, character cards (both Imperials and Rebellion), upgrade cards, skirmish cards, and Imperial agenda cards.  There are so many different decks that it is somewhat difficult to keep them all apart.  Along with the cards there are six double sided character boards for each of the six heroes in the game.  All of the normal archetypes are in the game, including the rogue smugglers, the jedi-in-training, the grizzled veteran, the wookie warrior, the commander, and the long-range sniper.

 

Another high-quality component that is included in the game are the die.  There are a bunch of different die (eleven in all) that are all custom and engraved for this game.  There are green dice, blue dice, yellow dice, red dice, black dice and a white die.  The green dice are a general attack die in the game.  The blue dice are more effective for long range attacks.  The yellow dice are useful for surges which give you extra powers during your attack while the red dice are good for raw power.  Lastly, the black dice are used for normal defense while the white die is used for defense/dodging attacks.  Each different weapon uses a different set of dice which makes them all good at different things.  It makes each weapon more interesting.

 

Next up in the line of components are the cardboard tokens, and wow are there a lot of tokens!  There are over 150 assorted tokens that come with this game and they do all sorts of different things.  Some of them are characters which are needed throughout the campaign mission but their miniatures aren’t included in the base game.   Some of them are status effects that occur at different points in the game.  Some of them are points of interest that are placed on the board during the missions.  Basically, there are a lot of very high quality cardboard tokens!  These are all very thick cardboard so you don’t have to worry about them being damaged during the game.  I also appreciate thick cardboard components.  Plus, I love punching out all of the different cardboard sprues!

Along with the very high quality cardboard tokens the game comes with 59 different, double-sided cardboard maps pieces.  These are all of an amazing thickness and the artwork that has been applied to them is of the highest possible quality.  The sheer amount of tiles that have been included with the game gives such a large possibility of map combinations.  There are a ton of different campaign missions that are included with the base game and they all use the double-sided map tiles to their best effect.  I haven’t really played a two maps that look the same as of yet!

Finally, we can’t talk about the components in this type of game without talking about how amazing the miniatures are!  This game includes 34 very highly detailed miniatures (36 if you count the Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker expansions that are included) that are amazingly done!  You get each of the six Rebellion heroes, an AT-ST walker, probe droids, nexu creatures, Trandoshan hunters, Imperial Guards, stormtroopers, commanders, gun placements and the characters of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.  These miniatures are all of hard plastic composites and are very well done.

 

 This game comes in a fairly standard size box in length and width (Ticket to Ride size) but it’s depth as nearly twice the size of other games.  It also includes that standard piece of crap insert that Fantasy Flight seems to like to add into their games.  This particular insert went into the trash as soon as the game was opened.  I would highly recommend baggies and boxes in order to keep the different tokens, tiles, miniatures, and cards as separate as possible.  I have a nice box that is keeping my tokens and dice all neatly separate and ready to roll when we pull the game out.

To end, this is a super fun, campaign style, one-versus-many game that we have already gotten a ton of hours of fun out of!  This is not only a fun game to play but also a wonderful game to look at!  Fantasy Flight obviously put a lot of work into this game and it really shows.  I can’t wait to play our next mission!  Go Imperials!  Thanks for reading this post and stay tuned over the next week as I’ll be doing an unboxing each day.  Until next time, game on!

Obligatory 2015 Origins Game Fair Post: Top 5 List

Hello everyone!  Sorry it’s been so long since my last post.  I’d give a good reason but I think laziness is the only excuse I have!  However, I have a bunch of posts planned and this will be the start.  Origins GameFair is one of the major boardgame conventions in the United States.  It is currently being held in Columbus, Ohio and is already underway for this year.  This has become a larger convention over the years but still doesn’t hold a candle to Essen Spiel or Gen Con.   

However, some companies are starting to release games at Origins and this post will be my top five interests from the games that are specifically debuting at Origins.  What I mean by this is that they are the games that are being debuted for the first time and are actually being sold at the convention.  Most of my “top so-and-so” lists are in three parts.  The first part is my honorable mentions while the second and third parts are my games 6-10 and then games 1-5 respectively.  However, in looking through Eric M. Martin’s excellent list on BoardGameGeek there aren’t that many debuts that I’m interested in.  What that means, for me, is that I’m only going to do this one post on Origins and give my top five interests of the convention.  Enjoy!

#5 – Bring Out Yer Dead (Upper Deck Entertainment)

Bring Out Yer Dead gameplay

Bring Out Yer Dead is a game by designer Arron Watts and published by Upper Deck Entertainment.  This is Upper Deck’s first foray into a Euro-style game and I think it is an interesting choice.  I saw this game back when it was on Kickstarter and toyed with backing it a couple of times but in the end decided not to.  Now it has been picked up by a major publisher and they seem to be doing a really good job in marketing it and pushing it out to the game-buying public.  This is a fairly macabre game where you are the head of a family who is trying to get their deceased family members into the best burial plots.  You are using set collection, area control, and card drafting mechanics to attempt to get influence points in order to be the top family in the city.  Put your family members in the best plots, rob graves, and bribe the grave keeper so he doesn’t throw your family into the river to be washed away.  It may be a little morbid, but it looks like a ton of fun, Tim Burton in a boardgame!  I’m glad that Upper Deck took a chance to bring this interestingly-themed game to the market.

#4 – Extra! Extra! (Mayfair Games)

Extra! Extra! gameplay

Extra! Extra! is a game by designer Andrew Bond and is published by Mayfair Games.  Extra! Extra! is a newspaper-themed game (much like Tabletop Deathmatch winner, Penny Press) where you are attempting to gain circulation points in order to win.  This game uses auction, set collection, tile placement, and worker placement mechanics in order to score the player points.  Your goal is to get the biggest and best stories on the front and back pages of a newspaper.  You get more points for the larger stories and even more for extras and those stories that are in you expertise.  This looks like a fun worker placement game with interesting tile placement in order to create your newspaper columns.  I’m looking forward to seeing even more about this game!

#3 – Parfum (Queen Games)

Parfum gameplay

Parfum is a game by designers Marco Ruskowski and Marcel Subelbeck and published by Queen Games.  This is another successful game funded and created by Kickstarter mainstays: Queen Games.  This is a beautiful looking games with gorgeous components that was very hard not to help fund while it made its Kickstarter rounds.  However, I was able to keep my finger off the mouse button and withhold my money for another time.  Now, it is great to see that it has come out and is being release at this year’s Origins.  Parfum is basically a set collection and dice rolling game where you are collecting “ingredients” in order to create perfumes.  You use different die in which stand for different ingredients and roll these and hope to get enough to be able to create the specific perfume.  Then, you turn around and sell these perfumes to customers who have very specific likes and dislikes.  This game just looks beautiful and fun and I’m hoping I get a chance to try it out!

#2 – The Voyages of Marco Polo (Z-Man Games)

The Voyages of Marco Polo gameplay

The Voyages of Marco Polo is a game designed by Simone Luciani and Daniele Tascini and published by Z-Man Games.  This is a game with quite a pedigree as Luciani and Tascini were the co-creators of the popular Tzolk’in: The Mayan Calendar.  This game is absolutely beautiful!  The colors are bright, it has a ton of colorful dice, and the board is just a stunning work of art.  In this game you have a small pool of five die which you will roll in order to take actions.  I love this idea as it takes the dice rolling aspect and puts it into a more classic Euro-style pick-up and deliver game.  I love how games are beginning to marry both ideas of “Euro-games” and “Ameritrash-games” to create clever and beautifully designed work of art!  I am very much looking forward to trying this game out.

#1 – La Granja (Stronghold Games)

La Granja gameplay

La Granja is a game designed by Michael Keller and Andreas Odendahl and published by Stronghold Games.  This game was originally released in Europe under the Spielworxx banner.  Spielworxx are known for their fairly heavy Euro-style games such as the brain-burner, Arkwright.  La Granja finds the player taking control of a farm and using cards and dice rolling in order to get goods which you will then sell or use for other things.  This game has been called the love-child of an Uwe Rosenberg game and a Stefan Feld game.  From what I’ve seen of it so far it seems pretty close to the truth.  There are many ways of getting points and the action selections allow you to do that.  This game also uses one of my very favorite mechanisms, multi-use cards.  I love when a game takes the cards and gives you multiple ways of using them.  This gives you so many different actions and decisions and just gives the game a deeper and richer experience.  This game looks awesome and I can’t wait to get it in my hands!

These are just some of the great looking games that are out now at Origins Game Fair and I wish I was there to pick them up!  I would like to give a quick shout out to DarkMoon, designed by Evan Derrick and published by Stronghold Games.  This game would have been #6 on my list as it just missed!  It is a deduction style game where everyone has variable powers and it plays up to seven people.  This looks quite interesting and would really add to a style of game that we don’t really have in our collection currently.

I hope you enjoyed this look at my top five (or six) interests from this year’s Origins Game Fair.  I hope to actually do a week of unboxings (one per day or five total that week) in the next couple of weeks.  After that I will start to work on my Gen Con posts for this year as it is rapidly approaching and I am getting SUPER excited about this year’s releases!  Thanks again for reading.  Until next time, game on!