Sunday Sunday

A slight time setback with the game I had submitted to AEG for their Tempest setting, the submission has got lost in the ether of the interweb maybe attacked by an enthusiastic spam filter.

So I have had to re submit the idea for Ratero.

My meeting with the artist for my other game has had to be rearrranged for next week, which is disappointing, but it's only week and gives me more time to get the game to the next play testing phase.

Thoughts at Night and Kickstarter

Yesterday afternoon I had a few hours to work out some more details of my new dice game, which I felt went well.

Then last night or to be more precise at 4am this morning I was awake, and my mind was filled with extra details about the mechanics and how to improve the game, I also thought about some apsects to ditch from the games mechanics, the original idea was for a fast and easy to learn game, with some nuances thrown in to give an added layer of strategy, however I had been adding in more and more layers, thinking 'wow that would be great.' But I realised that it was moving away from the quick and easy to becoming a more complicated game, nothing wrong in that but I wanted it quick and easy, so those ideas are either going to be put aside for a different game or maybe added as an advanced version. Playtesting will help me decide.

My other thoughts turned to Kickstarter, yes I plan to use Kickstarter to help with the costs of getting the game published. But the thoughts of stretch goals and rewards keep filling my mind, and I sometimes find myself detracting from the main goal of creating a game to thinking about stretch goals, do people really want them, if I was offering a great game at a great price, wouldnt people just be happy to sign up on that basis, the stretch goals that would make the most sense I believe most people would feel that they could have been included in the original game in the first place. So would people prefer a great game at a great price with all the extras included at one price, or would they prefer stretch goals adding bits and pieces as we go along? mmm I know which I would prefer.

Thats not to say there wont be different reward levels, but at this time all the reward levels which include a copy of the game will include the same components as each other.

Why no mention of the games theme just yet, well I am awaiting the first piece of artwork and want to wait until then to showcase the game properly.

Till next time...

Board Game Design

Havent we all thought 'mmm that would be a cool game to make'. I have loads of times and have several works in progress. But game design isnt really that simple, the ideas are, the basics are, but taking it to the next level is the tricky part.

I have listened to various podcasts on the subject, my favourite being the Ludology series, which does a great job of going into the different aspects of board game design, I also frequent the board game design forums at Board Game Geek and occasionly drop by the Board Game Design Forum.

Looking at my list of basic game ideas, I tend to float between several different ideas, then come up with some more ideas, write those down and so on.

BUT recently I have been more focused on a couple of designs, AEG have got a great resource available for games designers, its called Tempest. They have created the city-state of Tempest, with maps and characters available, they then allow games designers to submit game pitches to use these resources and design a Tempest branded game, they currently have four games in production. So I have submitted a game idea to them and am currently awaiting news on my idea. The game idea was for a different thematic setting but also worked well with their setting, so a bit of re-jigging some of the mechanics and I felt that I had the beginings of an interesting game.

My other game idea which is proggressing is a dice based game, I am currently in talks with a great artist to design characters for this game and will be announcing more details very soon along with hopefully the first piece of artwork.

For me sometimes the theme of the game comes first, or sometimes the objective of the game enters my head first, then I start thinking about how to achieve said onjective, or what I would like to see happen in such a themed game.

For instance trench warfare, after watching a program about the trenches and playing numerous video games with a trench or tight underground section, I thought 'interesting, how can I turn that into a game, what would be the aim of the game'. Then its a case of thinking it through and fleshing out some details, what era should it be, what would the victory conditions be, what mechanics could it use and much more.

So next time more details on the actual game designs that I am working on...

Quiet Times

A bit quiet on the board gaming front this week, having only had a chance to play on the Ipad.

Ascension continues to dominate my gaming time, its just so quick and easy to pick up and play.

A few new IOS games coming soon that look interesting including Alien Frontiers.

New board games out this week:
Level 7 from Privateer Press is released this week, Im still undecided about it.
On the plus side it can be played solo, but a lack of reviews etc mean I am not going to bite just yet.
Others have commented that the game should really include minis, but Im not that fussed as long as the game is good.

Quiet Weekend

Well boardgaming wise it was a quiet weekend, the weather was nice and sunny, so my wife and I were out and about.

For boardgaming it fell to my trusty Ipad in the evenings for some action.

A quick fun game is Ascension and thanks to a recent sale, I have purchased all the expansions.

Followed my a couple of games of Summoner Wars and then Small World.

The Ipad is a really great way to play and learn some board games.
Playing Ascension against the AI lets you play quickly and learn the cards , their abilities and work out some chains.
Card abilities can interact with other cards, which can then trigger other cards abilities, so trying to get the biggest chain is hard but very worthwhile.

UK board game releases 10th Sept

7 Wonders: cities

Timeline

The Big Bang Theory

Starship Merchants

Aeroplanes: Aviation Ascendants

Game of thrones Lcg: A time of ravens

Izzet V golgari, Magic decks

Pokemon Legendary EX Tins

Reprints:

Mystery of the Abbey

Pirates Cove

Totnes Board Game Group

Last Friday saw me attending the Totnes Board Game Group for the first time, set up and run by Ross fromWishing Tree Toys in Totnes, although not actually held in the shop itself by very nearby.

First up was King of Tokyo which although I own it myself, I have never played it before, its a cool dice based game featuring godzilla-esque monsters competing to be king of the monsters in Tokyo.

Each turn you roll the custom dice and choose to keep all re roll the results, you can re roll twice.
The results either give you energy to buy power cards or remove some game effects, hearts replenish your health, attacks launch attacks at other monster or monsters depending on if you are 'in' Tokyo or not and finally there are three numbered sides to each dice from 1 to 3, these give you victory points, you must roll at least 3 of one number and you get that number in victory points, so roll 3 lots of 2's and you get 2 victory points.

During the game you are either in Tokyo or outside Tokyo, only one monster can be in Tokyo, the benefits are your attacks will damage all other monsters and you gain victory points for entering and staying in Tokyo, the downside is you cant heal and all other monsters attack you.

Its a quick playing game fast and furious, with clever management of the dice and your location will see you to victory. We played a couple of two player games with my monster being Cyber Bunny,while awaiting the others to arrive and then one four player game, alas victory was not mine in any of these games.

Next up was Dixit an interesting game of describing and guessing, that when it was being explained peoples faces were 'mmm not sure about that' but a couple of rounds in and it was an enjoyable game, made even more enjoyable by a close victory to me. Choose a card in your hand then either describe it with a word or sentence to the other players, they then choose a card in their hand to match, all cards are placed face down, shuffled then revealed, players then each choose which card was originally being described. The trick is you want players to pick your card on your turn, but not all the players, you only get the points if only some pick your card. As I said it was a fun game to play and would suit a family gathering.

Next up it was Munchkin, I have heard of it before of course but never played it, after a quick refresh of the rules we were off and away, its a quickish, fun, screw you type game. As a filler or one off game it was enjoyable and fun to see the different weapon and monster cards, but I get the feeling it would wear off pretty quickly. The chance of Victory was very close between all the players.

The other table was playing Settlers of Catan at this time.

We then settled into a late night game of Dominion Prosperity, a deck building game.
Again my first time playing it for real, I have the unofficial app on my Ipad, but only played it the once, the app dosent really explain what is going on and why, but after a couple of rounds on Friday we were all quickly up to speed, and through a judacious use of the goons card, our host for the night Joel was victorious, I came a close second. It was after midnight so we called it a night.

A fun enjoyable night, next time we have a Descent campign game starting and many more games available to play as well.

D Day Dice Board Game Review by Brian Lewis

June 6^th 1944 the Allied forces are landing, can you lead your unit to victory on these heavily defended beaches?

D Day Dice is a dice game for 1 to 4 players that is played co-operatively, each player is leading a unit on one of the beaches in the D Day landings, their mission to take control of the bunkers at the top of the beaches. Each player has a unit dice which is used on the board to denote the location of their unit, this also tracks how the unit has spent at each location, each player also has a set of six custom dice, two red, two white and two blue, these dice form the basis of the game and when rolled these represent your resources on the battlefield. These dice each have the following symbols on them, a single soldier, two soldiers, a star, a medal, a spanner and finally a skull. There are also decks of cards included for regular and unique specialists, items and awards.

There are eight beaches to conquer in the game, they are designed to be played in numerical order as each beach gets more difficult as you progress, usually only one board is used in each game, and each map is split into numerous sectors, which allow for different routes to the bunkers. The first mission is a training mission played on the Slapton Sands beach board, it has three different levels of difficulty to introduce all the elements of the game, and some of the other beaches included are Omaha, Juno and Merville Battery.

Each turn players act simultaneously in the five different phases of the turn; Phase one is the most important and forms the basis of the entire game, you will roll your six custom red, white and blue dice up to three times, on the first throw you have to choose two of these dice to lock in, these dice cannot be re rolled again this turn, on the second throw you can re roll any or all of the four remaining dice, now you can keep or re roll for a third and final time any of these four dice, you now have your final tally of dice for this turn.  

Phase two is the upkeep phase where  you convert your final tally of dice to add to your resources, each symbol  has the following effect, a soldier result adds the number of soldiers shown to your unit, stars are used to recruit specialists, medals represent courage and enable your unit to advance on the battlefield, spanners give you item points, which you can then spend on items to aid your advance and skulls are the bad side of the dice as they negate the effect of one of the other dice rolled.

There are a couple of special rules which relate to the final tally of dice, these add an extra layer of choice to the game, in your final tally if you get three identical symbols on three dice of separate colours you get a “RWB” result known as a red, white and blue this gives you a special ability as well as the usual benefits of each dice, for example if you get a skull RWB on the dice in your final tally then you get the Dead Man’s Gift,  which means “you find a dead soldiers gear bag and gain +20 Item points this turn and you also ignore the negative effect of the skulls this turn”, or a single soldier RWB result gives you an extra four soldiers and you can also give another players unit four extra  soldiers. If you manage to roll one of each symbol regardless of colour you gain an Award card, these are one use cards that mainly take effect straight away.

Once resources have been collected players change the face of their unit die, the unit die is used to track how long you have been in your current sector, most sectors allow you to wait a maximum of three turns, but some sectors are too dangerous to linger in and must be vacated quickly.

Phase Three is where you can recruit specialists or buy items using your available resources. Different specialists are available depending on the map but they include the likes of a minesweeper, handy if you have to cross a mine field or a Corporal who allows you to re roll a dice in your final tally each turn, these specialists also count towards the number of soldiers in your unit. Items purchased are only useable once per game, when used they are turned face down; they give you a special ability for the turn in which they are played, examples of items include a walkie talkie which gives you an extra two soldiers or a grenade which allows you to ignore Machine Gun Fire for one turn.

Phase Four is the Movement phase, if your unit has the move symbol showing you must advance either forwards or sideways into a sector you have not been into before, otherwise it’s your choice whether to move or not. To move you look at the board and each sector has a courage level, you must spend that number of courage points to advance, if you can’t the game is over.

Phase Five is combat, each sector has a Defence number in it, in this phase you must lose a number of soldiers equal to the defence value, and if you ever have zero soldiers the beach is lost. Some sectors have a symbol to denote Machine Gun Fire, in the combat phase you roll a normal D6 and add the result to the defence value of the sector; this is the amount of soldiers you must lose.

Each sector can have other symbols which can either aid you by giving you extra soldiers, a new specialist or bonuses to your final tally or they can also contain mines, machine gun fire and negatives to your final tally, these are all marked clearly on each board and are different for each board, one board also allows random generation of the layout for a different game each time.

Bunkers have a defence value and upon entering one you lose this number of soldiers, if you still have soldiers remaining you have occupied the bunker, once each player has managed to occupy a bunker you win the game.

It has been remarked that why when you are charging up a beach on D Day does your unit get stronger? For me each turn represents your unit advancing up the beach, so on the way you can increase you unit size by finding soldiers on the way who have lost their unit or you can be reinforced from soldiers moving up from behind quicker than your unit, specialists who are pinned down in the field can join your unit, items left dropped by fallen comrades can be picked up and a rousing charge command by your leader gives you the courage to continue your advance.

The game is fast and fun to play, there is of course a small element of luck involved as with most games involving dice, but it is also a resource management game, you can clearly see each sector you could go through, so it is your choice where and when you advance. The ability to re roll most of the dice up to three times gives you a greater chance to get the resources you need and with the added layer of the chance to try for RWB results this gives you a welcome boost, for most games the use of specialists is a necessity and there is usually a specialist or two that will enhance any strategy you choose. The components are of a high quality, there are four player aids included for quick reference during a game, the rule book is made to look like a war journal, the rules are clear, concise and well written, the back of the book includes special information about each mission and which cards to use, all the other information is printed on the player aids and the map itself, so once initial setup is complete there is no real need to consult the rule book. The game also scales very well from one to four players, there are some abilities that allow you to interact with other players, giving them troops or swapping dice, so unlike some co-op games this doesn’t feel as if you are each playing a separate game, I have also been enjoying playing this game solo a lot, the solo rules do not feel like an add on and where a card would be more beneficial in a multiplayer game there are slightly different rules included for its use in a solo player game.  So for me a big thumbs up for D Day Dice.

My handy dice tray, has a felt bottom to deaden the impact and noise, handy for when space is at a premium on the table.

Welcome to Bay Board Games a new board gaming blog.

Im Brian and based in Torbay in the UK, I am an avid board gamer, IOS board gamer and wannabe board game designer, so this blog will be a bit of everything.

New releases in the UK, intresting news, upcoming games, reviews and my thoughts on board games and board game design.