Sorcerer

A game that we play pretty often at home is Star Realms. We have brought it along on vacation and all that. I’ve written about it before. I know that Whitewizard games know card games. I have played a couple of them. But what if they made more than “just” a card game? This is what interested me the most about Sorcerer at first. I read up on it as I usually do. I read about the complaints that the fights take way to long and that makes it overstay it’s welcome. Well… To each their own.

A picture of the Sorcerer board game box
The box

Sorcerer is a game where you start of building your deck. Most deckbuilders make you build your deck from scratch and take a long while to get right. In Sorcerer There are three parts to a deck. And each part has 4 different parts of a whole deck to chose from.
First you chose a Character. In the base game there are four characters which all have special effects and cards.
Second you chose a Lineage. There are four of these as well. This is basically half of the cards in your deck. Here you chose a style of deck. They work in different ways.
And the last one is Domain, basically where you are from. Here you get more creatures and some sorceries that you can cast on your opponents.

When you have chosen of of each of these you have 40 cards in your deck 3 cards that just have effects on them (The top card of the three piles). That is the deckbuilding. Mix your cards well and you are basically ready to play.

Well… There are more steps to it. You get a player board too.
On this player board you get 6 actions per round, you keep your energy, a good cheat sheet and a place to kepp your omen tokens.
The omen tokens lets you reroll dices in the battle phase. Sometimes when you place a minion on one of the battlefields you get an omen token. They are really helpful and lets you reroll your OR your opponents dice.
There are also 4 battlefields where you place your avatar each round and that is where you are allowed to place your minions (you only play with three battlefields in a two player game).

A picture of one of the setupsin sorcerer i played.
One of the setups I have tried out.

After you have made your 6 actions in a round it is time for the battlephase. The first player will start attacking on the center board and then the opponent will attack and then when they are done there you will battle at the battlefield to the left of the first player.
The battle in itself is where most people think it takes too long… I get that. But for me, that is where the hard choices begin. As the first player you chose which minion you will attack with. You roll as many dice as you have attack on that minion. If you are happy with what you rolled you may not use an omen token. But if you are happy, but your opponent is not, THEY may use omen tokens to reroll your dice. This goes on until both have passed on rerollong dice. OH and as the first player, you get a “First player token”, this one lets you say “Reroll all of your dice” or if you want to reroll all of your dice. That is a gamble… After all the rolling you get to divvy up the damage.
The dice have three different kinds of symbols (besides blanks). One is a skull, which means one damage. Another one is a two skulls, I let you figure that one out. The third one is a pentagram (omen). This is where it gets REALLY interesting for me. When attacking if you have have skulls, the defender decides where the damage goes. The defender may deal damage to all different creatures if they like or all to one, or even to the battlefield. If I do 12 damage to a battlefield I win that battlefield. But if I get the pentagram on the dice I as the attacker gets to chose where the damage goes. And depending on how it looks on that battlefield it really makes a difference. If my opponent has no minions there, the dice counts as a double hit (unless they had minions there this round). I have won a game where my opponent had one single point left on the battlefield and he made me reroll four times but I still got the pentagram and could place it on the battlefield.

A picture of the table playing sorcerer. One battlefield has gone to me and the other ones are still being fought over.
This is in the middle of the battlephase.

So yes, the battles take a long time. But to me that is where it gets really strategic. Even with dice! The fact that you get that many combinations of decks in the base game and the entry level of deckbuilding makes it really worth the money for me.
I got it at a discount yes… But come on.
And the fact that it is GORGEOUS art in the game, does not make it any worse. It is dark, gritty and in many cases straight out yucky.

There are at the moment one expansion of each part of the deck and one expansion of three new battlefields that also adds effects on the battlefields. And I think I will buy them, just to add a little more to the game.

In conclusion I like it. I think there is a lot for the money in the base game but I still want more just to get even more out of it. It’s not a review, I just wanted to talk a little about the game. You may not like the same things as I do. And you know what. That’s fine. If you think the battle phase sounds boring and tedious, it might be that for you. For me that is where I stand up and look at all the cards on the board and in my hand, and really try to wrap my head around the best possible choice. Because the next round is my opponents and that will most likely suck for me…

Play more games!!!

A weekend of boardgaming

This weekend has been a bit massive with boardgaming. A friend of mine who has a podcast in swedish about board- and roleplaying, came over with a couple of more friends and even more friends came over and we played a whoöe bunch of games! We played Underwater cities (we only had time for one era…), Sheriff of Nottingham, Decrypto, Just One, Time’s Up and Wingspan.

All but Just One was new to me. It is a quick cooperative word guessing game where everybody but one person knows the word and need to write down one word to help the last person to guess the right word. But if two or more people write the same clue, it will get erased. So everybody writes something down that is helping them, kind of. Because if it’s too easy, someone else probably will also write it down. Which makes this game really fun! For example, if we had the word pipe. One person writes Popeye, because he has a pipe. Another person writes down tobacco and a third one writes down sewer. Those three words are not coherent for one kind of pipe. So you have to use your imagination and try to think like the person who DON’T know the word. Makes for some interesting wordchoices. Really fun party game!

Decrypto is more complicated. You divide everyone into two teams. Each team gets a “decryptor” and 4 cards that only your team can see. These cards all have one word written on them. And under the card, on the deceyptor, there is a number. One person gives clues to the words on the cards that both teams hear and will try and guess the numbers the word is attached too. Each round a person draws a card that says three numbers so you give clues to a different combination of the words. (3-2-4, next time 4-1-2 for example) makes for a really interesting game. Giving a clue that your team can understand seeing the words, yet cryptic enough that the other team can not get them together. I really liked that game. Oh, if your team can’t guess the right combination twice you lose. If the other team guesses the right combination twice they win. It might seem hard to grasp without seeing it, but it was really interesting playing!

Sheriff of Nottingham is a bluffing game where you try to get the most coins by getting wares by the sheriff. There are many legal goods that give you points but the contraband gives so way more coins, so it’s hard to resist. Apples give you two points each but a single contraband can give you fifteen. If the sheriff looks in a bag where there is no contraband he has to give money to that player, but if there is contraband the player has to pay a fine to the sheriff. Players can try to bribe the sheriff to not look in the bag. But then again, other players can bribe the sheriff to look in another players bag too! After every turn the sheriff role goes to the next player and everybody gets to be the sheriff twice. In the end you get points (money) based on every good you have, if you have the most or second to most of a single ware. Most money win. It’s a stupidly easy and fumny game that takes minutes to learn and I think you can pull out with almost anybody! It might make it to my shelves to, soonish.

Time’s Up is basically a quiz game on time. With a really interesting twist. You get to use the same cards 3 times. The first time you get to describe the words as much as you like, without saying the actual words on the card. The second round, same cards, one word, you get to pass if you like and make as much gestures and sounds as you like. Third round. NO words. Only sound and gestures. Oh, and you only get 30 seconds on every turn! A very interesting game with a lot of laughter and trying to figure out peoples references and everything else. We had the advantage in our team with two people who have an interest in film. We took most of the film cards. But oh man… there were some weird references. Someone humming Black Sabbaths “iron man” to get “sgt Peppers lonely heart club band” in the last round. It was beautiful!

Underwater cities we only played one era of because there was no time for more. That game I really want to play more. Some really interesting tactics that can be used in that! Three actions per turn to get what you need and almost never get. I have bo idea who was actually winning because everybody played it for the first time and everybody used different tactics. The game basically wants you to build the best… well underwater network of cities. By placing cities, structures and corridors. I really like city builders so this was a new twist for me that actually themewise stuck.

While we are on theme… Wingspan… Man do I get the hype! There is a reakly good game there. But man the theme just brings it over the top. It works perfectly. I got dead last but still really enjoyed it. The beauty of the game, the mechanics, the quality of the components even the rulebook is enjoyable! This will definitely be played many more times. Who knew birds could get this interesting! Maybe Elizabeth Hargrave. Getting food to place the birds in the right habitat, laying eggs, and drawing new birds to try and get out. That is basically it. But this is damn good. And so good everything. Just beautiful all around. Look it up if you can.

And play more games!!!

Christmas gaming

This year we celebrated christmas at my fiancés parents groups. That is why I playtested a couple of games before hand and took Second Chance, Welcome to… with me. My fiancé also brought along Skip-Bo, a game where she wins atleast 90% of the time.

First we got to my fiancés mother and her husband. My plan from the beginning was to introduce them to something new and then up the difficulty a little bit. We started out with Second Chance, a simle flip and write where you flip up 2 cards and chose one of them to put on your grid. We played a couple of rounds and they got the bug.

Then we took out Skip-Bo, I think most people are more comfortable with something recognisable. Numbers on cards. You get a number of unknown cards in a pile that you want to get rid of. The only card you can see is the top card… (I will write about it in another post. This makes no sense…)We played a couple of rounds of that. They realised I was not lying about not veing able to beat my fiancé in this game. The closest I came was 1 card of 15. I asked what they thought about Second Chance and if they wanted to try something similar, but a little more complicated and a lot more fun. They were on board.

We explained the rules for Welcome to… and there were a few furrowed brows but we decided to start playing. A bunch of questions during the first round, but after calculating the points they immediately wanted to play again and again! We played 6 games of Welcome to… so I think they liked it. 🙂 They even talked about buying their own copy. So I know what I am getting them the next birthday they have.

Next on our trip was my Fiancés dad and his wife. Here we went straight for Welcome to… It might not have been the right choice. We played a couple of games of it, one really liked it but the other not so much.

This is where we mostly play quiz games, but I think they both were pretty tired after all the christmas hubbub. Insted they took something out that I have not played for… I don’t know how long. Yatzy. I don’t know if you know this, but I am bad at rolling dice. This makes Yatzy a game I fear. But it actually went not terrible! I was not last and wasn’t THAT far behind. But Yatzy maybe is not a game that I would suggest to play… But still fun to play a game that I haven’t played for many years and seeing the role reversal to them being confident in the game and me asking for the rules for a game they find really simple.

Then we started to play the card games. These are games they play alot and are very good at. Palace and Oh Hell. A couple of games of Palace went by really fast when you are four people. I will write more about card games later on, but it’s a “don’t be the last guy with cards” game. Where the twos are jokers that start everything over and then tens get rid of the pile. With four people each game takes around 10 minutes tops.

Oh hell on the other hand I am notoriously bad at when we play. It’s a “trick taking” game where you guess, based on your cards, how many tricks you can take. Which means every players gets a certain numver of cards and guesses how many times they will have the highest card of each color. I have never won. I have never been in the top three of four people in it… My fiancés dad has won 90 percent of the times we have played and I have always been last. So he was a bit cocky and wanted to end rhe night on a win. But this time I won! I was amazed! How? Why? I don’t know. He demanded a recount of the game. I demanded a recount of the game. But it was right. I went to bed with a smile on my face and he went of muttering something about a no good guy being with his daughter… 😀

What have you been playing with your friends and family over the holidays?

Play more games!!!

Christmas games

I don’t know about you, but every year the families meet, eat and share presents with eachother. Then, when the smallest in the bunch has either started playing with their new toys or the even smaller ones have gone to bed, the adults bring forth “The game”. “The game” has been different for me over the years. Different families different games. Different decades, different games. But they are often played until you really don’t really want to play them again… I remember the first years… Monopoly… You don’t chose your family and this game really showed that in some ways. Then “The game” was Trivial Pursuit, and not to be that guy, but there are multiple versions of trivial pursuit and very differing difficulty levels. The first year I saw it I was terrified. I had no idea on how to answer most of the questions. But then I decided to be better, stronger, maybe even a little weird. Before bed each night for I don’t know how long, I read 5 cards from the game (I don’t know if this is cheating but maybe it is), so when the game came up next time I was ready. I got better and then they bought new versions because they found out what I had done (I did not place the cards in any order. I just wanted to be better). But then I had got the bug. I liked to learn. I was horrible at school but that’s another thing.

“The game” now changes. It is always a quiz game of some kind, but I actually like quiz games, but still, we play the same game until we get tired of it. And I don’t like that. This Christmas I will bring a couple of different games, some with questions yes, but not just the usual ones. This year you have to close your eyes and feel the questions too. So not the usual suspects. I will also bring a couple of “Flip and write” games, just to show there is more out there that can still be fun. Hopefully they will think so too. I still like quiz games, I just don’t like to play the same over and over again just to play a game. And then “The game” is not even “A game” anymore just something collecting dust on the shelf, just because that is all that was played for a while, then not at all.

I may have bought many more games than the average person, maybe not. But I think, at least to me, that if you really like to play a game. Don’t kill it by making it not fun anymore. Play the game when you want to play, not just because it is the one you know.

What games do you play on Christmas?

Play more games!!!

Solo play

Sometimes I have to admit that I like board games more than other people. I just want to play a game and have no one around that I can play with. This is the time where I sometimes pull out a game to play solo. I have some games that have Actual solo play and some that where some nice person on Board Game Geek has been kind enough to give out rules for possible solo modes for a game.
Sometimes the solomode is near impossible and sometimes I read the rules wrong. And sometimes you just have to outwit a mechanic.

When we play games here at home I try to give it some ambience. Music that fits, if it’s possible to dim the lights, we do. If it’s a really special occasion I might even cook food for the event that matches the theme of the game. This is all good and well for when you play with others. But what about when you play solo?

I actually think that I need more… I don’t really know what. But something. I sit down with a game and unless the game really pulls me in, the music and ambience might not make it perfect. Some video games have sent things with the deluxe versions of their games. A bloodscented candle and stuff like that. I am not much for bloodscent… but maybe i need something that smells right too? But mainly I would like the game to immerse me to that degree that I don’t see outside of the gameboard. And as far as the games that I have played solo. None of them has been able to that yet.
I think I need a game that is pretty complicated to really pull me in but also something more. I remember playing a solo version of Power grid, not the most complicated of games, but since it was the first time I played it, it made it a little more difficult. So I got more immersed.

Do you have any good tips for immersive solo games? And what makes them immersive?

As always. Play more games!!!

Introductory games

What would you say is a good introduction to board games? I’ve heard many people say the Settlers of Catan as a good one. I don’t think I agree. The Settlers of Catan and I have a past. It’s a game that make me someone I don’t like to be. A cheap and angry bastard. The trades hardly ever works between players. I even had a friend that was offended that no one would trade 1 stone for 1 of his sheep after he tried to get 3 wood and 1 stone for 1 of his sheep. This and the robber… The robber is such a… GHAA!!! The robber mechanic is so infuriating.
The thing is, I actually like the game. But I would not recommend it as a first game for someone. I have gone from a game of Catan winning and felt worse than after a loss. That’s not right? Is it?
But I still play and like the game. Not as others though.

A picture of the Settlers of Catan. as the game is about to start.
Just about to start a three player game.

So what DO I think is a good introduction in to board gaming. A board game I bought a while ago that I actually found really entertaining and simple too teach and learn is Luxor.

Luxor is a game where you are delving deeper and deeper to finally get into a gravechamber and loot the sarcofogi. You do this in a spiral that goes towards the middle and on most of the steps you find treasures that you can grab by standing with a specific number of adventurers. Then you get points in different ways and so on.
This game to me introduces many things that are interesting and still in a very simple way. It introduces set collection. It introduces moving by cards, but ,not any card in your hand, specifically the ones at the end of your hand. It introduces some strategy elements. It introduces many different things in a easy way. That to me is a good introduction game.
To me the take that of the Robber and the rolling of dice to get materials in Catan is maybe a little outdated? Luxor is a much, much newer game so it is obvious that many things have evolved in board games over time. But still. I will write a post about Luxor later.

A picture of two meeples at the Luxor board.
In Luxor you get more adventurers by “jumping over” them on the board

Then there is the definition of board games. I like the “and such” part of this blog. Card games and party games are also a very good introduction to me. I have previously written about Star Realms, that is a really good intro game to me. You don’t need a board and much room to play it AND it almost fits in your pocket (depending on what clothing item we are talking about). You can take it with you wherever you go.

Then there are family games and so much more. This post could go on and on with different types of games, so I’ll just write down these two. But depending on who you want to get interested I actually think you should try a few different ones. And maybe not introduce someone you like too a “take that” game that you know really well, unless you are willing to teach them strategy and all that on top of the rules. the first time you play.

Some people like the randomness of dice and some hate it. This usually shows after you played a couple of different games though. Some people like to go head to head and destroy their opponent and some like cooperative. Some like a little mix between and some like deception games. Some like to solve mysteries and some like to strategize the best way to defeat you in a big battle of miniature figures. We are all different people and we like different things.
I try to like most things, or at least try too, because if you do, you’ll enjoy things more.

What do you think is a good introduction game?

As always. Play more games!!!

#mvkneverendingbattle The Quacks of Quedlinburg

I just bought this game, but it was really fun so I chose this as my game for this turn of #mvkneverendingbattle.
We both new the rules so it was not a problem to play it and we played with the original setup, just so it wouldn’t be too complicated reading, just play.

A picture of my lovely competitor looking sneakily back at me.


After the first round I took a commanding lead with one point after her cauldron boiled over. Well… The first round doesn’t really matter too much but still, it feels good. We buy our ingredients and play on. After five rounds we had not actually gone very far on the scoreboard… But I still was in the lead with one point. She always managed to get a mouse tail between me and her which made her get a free space on the cauldron track. We bought different ingredients and we both had good and bad rounds. Some worse than others… But it was still anyones game.

A picture of us playing the game all ingredients and player boards visible.

I haven’t played this game very much, but honestly… This did not look good for anyone of us. After 5 rounds she had seven points and I had eight. It did not look good.

Round seven was really good for me. I pulled ahead after her cauldron exploded violently and i took 6 points and just flew ahead on the scoreboard.
Then came round eight… I refer to round eight as “the incident”. Round eight was terrible for me. I got a white chip, then i got a pumpkin, then a white chip, and another white chip. I had no potions and my mandrakes were nowhere to be found! I exploded terribly! there was ooze from the cauldron everywhere! Well… it wasn’t but that is just because it is a boardgame and not real life…
All the while it took Karin 8 (!!!) chips before she even grabbed a white one! I just saw her playing more and more chips and looked at my exploded little wreck of a cauldron…
While I got 1 point… Karin got 10 points (with purple chips). This was not good. She actually overtook me on the scoreboard with one point (with no mouse in between).

The last round. It was even. Really even. I saw her play a purple, but I also played a purple so it was OK. Then she pulled another one. And another one! I had to push or she would win. This was not going my way… Lets just say that this was not going my way. She even rolled a point at the end which gave her another point!

A picture of my better half holding up the little sugarbowl after she won in the Quacks of Quedlingburg.
She was happy

She won, but only by two points. It was a close and terrible game. The few times I played this I never got this low a score. The white chips are fickle little bastards…
I have read that there are people complaining that if you fall behind there is no way to catch up. She did fall behind buy a few points and still won. But then again we only played a two player game. If we were more players it might look different. But then again… It wouldn’t be #mvkneverendingbattle

As always. Play more games!!!

Star Realms

This is by far the most well played game we have at home. I might even go as far as to say it is my fiancees favorite game. I have the physical copy and i have it on steam and on my phone. This is a game we took with us wherever we went for a while. The original box has been destroyed for years… Know it is packed in an old whisky box and that is not the best…
This game has been played on trains, buses, airplanes, in bed, everywhere. It takes minutes to learn and gives almost endless hours of fun. (When you lose by one point it is more infuriating than fun…)

A picture of the Viper, Scout and explorer ships.
The Viper, Scout and Explorer

The rules are simple. You and your opponent has 50 authority (health) Destroy your opponent before they destroy you.
You start with 10 cards in your deck. Seven scouts and three vipers. The scouts give you one trade (currency) and the vipers give you one combat (damage). The player that starts get to draw three cards and the player after that draws the regular five. In front of the players there is a row of 5 cards that you can buy from, the pile you draw new cards from to fill up the row and a pile of explorer ships. The explorer ships cost 2 trade to buy and in return give you 2 trade and if you chose to trash (put it back in the explorer pile instead of your discard) afterwards it can also do 2 combat that round.
In the row you buy from there can be a good mix of cards. Ships, bases and outposts.
I will write about the technical part of the game further down.

A picture of 1 ship from each one of the 4 factions
4 different ships that you can buy.

The simplicity and availability in the small box this game comes in is really good! You learn the game quickly and there isn’t much text on the cards. The symbols are clear and to the point and leaves little to be desired. I have played this game hundreds if not thousands of times and each time it is different. I bought the base game and the expansion with more cards (Colony wars), and even though I have bought some more expanions, I feel this is what we play most with.
It’s cheap, it’s small and it is so much fun. If you like card drafting games this might be something for you. Even though it’s not very complex it still holds up after many plays. There are rules for playing more than one on one, but honestly I think it really shines when you only have one opponent.

I have won and I have lost in this game. I have lost by going down to -10 authority and I have won with having over 80 authority myself. the game really is different from time to time, but I would still recommend it.

There are 4 factions in the game:
Machine cult (red): Cards that often lets you trash your cards and control your deck.
Star Empire (yellow): Often lets you draw a new card or make the opponent discard cards.
Blob (green): Heavy hitters. A lot of damage is dealt by these cards.
Trade federation (blue): Have cards that often heal you or maybe put a card on the top of your draw pile.

There are basically 3 types of units you can buy in the base game:
Ships: They do what it says on the card and then goes to your discard pile (or you trash them).
Bases: After you play a base it remains up until you either trash it or the opponent destroys it and it goes to your discard pile.
Outposts: Outposts are a different kind of base. Like a base it reamins out until you either trash it is destroyed by your opponent. The difference is that if you are being attacked, your opponent MUST destroy the outposts before anything else. So it is basically a shield with benefits for you.

A picture of two bases of each type. Bases and outposts.
Bases and outposts

This is all I have to say about the game here. If you have any questions just ask.

What is your favorite card game and why?

Not reviewing and #mvkneverendinbattle

First off I just wanna say that I will not make reviews of games on my blog. I will say what I think, but it will not be a review. I find myself way to unprofessional to review games. I play them because they are fun. If I don’t find them fun, I will not play them again. Depending on who I play with and what game it is, it might not be a good fit. A bad fit might give me a bad taste for the game, but I have the rule of three. I play each game at least three times before deciding what I think.
I might play the game in a wrong way the first time, but then I will try and make different choices the next time. It’s just how I am.

This is a hobby for me so why make it difficult and make myself someone I’m not. I will leave reviews to much better people and just try to enjoy the games. I do read reviews myself, but I am a bit weird, so I read them to see what the reviewer does not like, to see if that thing is something I like. But enough about something I won’t do…

#mvkneverendingbattle
My fiancee is alot smarter than me… But I think she became a little cocky after winning a few games in a row. So I decided to buy a sugarbowl and little cup for the second place for us to battle for. The battles are in different games. For now we played best of three in Star Realms, Star Wars: Destiny and Dominion. She won the first 2-1 the others I have won 2-0.
Next year my Plan is to do it in Seasons. A spring season and a fall season. I will try and come up with some prices for the winner of them and some a little bit more impressive trophies.
The plan for tonight is to play Quacks of Quedlinburg as my game and her next game seems to be Railways of the world. Those will be the last games this year and then I will try to make up the rules for the next year.
The rules for now are:

  • She decides one game and then I decide a game and so on.
  • If it is a game that takes under one hour to play we play best of three.
  • The first season will end july 1st and the second season will start september 1st (Sometimes we only want to play for fun…)

Do you have any tips for more rules, prices, trophy or anything else?

And as always. Play more games!!!

How do you learn the rules?

I usually do it by sitting down with the game and play as two different players (If that is the minimum), or play it solo, if that is possible. When you go up to a minimum of 3 or more it starts to get weird and my head have a problem… I got Quacks of Quedlinburg a couple of days ago and sat down with it playing two different players to learn it and it was so easy to learn! I have a game that I hade for about a month now and playing two different players in that is just… too many things to keep in your head. I need another player to play it with me. And as I said in a recent post on Instagram: “How do you ask a person to sit down for almost an hour, listening to rules to play a game that takes two hours, that you think is fun, but you don’t know…”
But usually I just read the rules, play the game and have the rulebook close by to check for mistakes. Quacks I think I looked in the rulebook twice while playing and I was right on the thing I looked up. That really says something about the game. I was confident in just telling the rules when playing it the second time and we both enjoyed the game and then we were off.

A picture of the game Quacks of Quedlinburg

Tonight we are going to compete for the coveted sugarbowl I bought after my fiancee got a little too confident after winning a few games (6 games…) in a row. Now it’s on! She won the bowl the first time (she even had a bracelet with her name on it around the bowl!!!) but after that it has been in my possession for the last two games. It is a good way to play more games and still have fun.

The cups of the competition with star realms cards around them

How do you learn the rules of a game? What is the best and the worst rulebook you have read?

And as usual. Play more games!!!