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Reviews

Family Board Game Review: Amaze

by Linda Wrobel May 8, 2018

Amaze is a single player maze game from ThinkFun, and recommended for players ages 8 to adult. The maze board is changeable with 16 different mazes, and puts an interesting spin on maze games.

Game Contents

Maze board and an attached stylus
16 challenge settings available on the back (with three difficulty levels)
Instructions included in the box provide further directions and also proved the solutions to all the mazes

Game Play

Amaze is extremely easy to set up. There are red indicators on the left side of the board, and those indicators program to one of 16 mazes. These settings make the maze progressively harder. Once the player set the maze, you trace your path through the maze without lifting the stylus from start to finish. During play, the player pushes the red bars left or right to open up a new path, or potentially trap you.

Family Gaming Assessment

Amaze is a perfect travel game for families. Amaze has the ideal design feature, attaching the stylus so it can not be lost. Additionally, the maze itself is small enough to fit in a purse or backpack. For as simple as the design is the mazes are challenging and don’t present obvious solutions. Being a single player game kids or adults can work on the maze for a while and put it away easily when they need a break. Another advantage of Amaze is this is a battery free quiet game. Amaze is perfect for a waiting room, since play is quiet.

Conclusion

Since this game has come into my house is has been played by children as young as five and up to adults. The appeal is in the simplicity of the game, yet challenging nature of the mazes. This is a great addition to a game collection for travel or quiet play and will appeal to anyone who enjoys mazes.

May 8, 2018 1 comment

Board Games Reviews

Family Game Review: No Regerts

by Linda Wrobel May 1, 2018

written by Linda Wrobel

For anyone who has thought about getting a tattoo, No Regerts lets you enjoy tattoos without the pain or expense! No Regerts is a tattoo themed card game by Poisonfish Games. It is a two-six player game for ages 12 and up with game play taking between 25-45 minutes. The object of the game is to fill you “body” represented by card placement on the table around a formation card with cool tattoos and avoid “lame” tattoos. Players gain and loose points based on the tattoos they collect.

216 cards;
- 100 Positive tattoos
- 76 Negative Tattoos
- 36 Modifyers
- 6 Formation Cards

Gameplay

To begin the game, each player draws five cards, and places a formation card in front of them. The formation card helps to organize the placements of the cards for each body part as it gains tattoos. There are two arms, two legs, chest, and back to be covered. The person with the most tattoos goes first. If no one has any tattoos each player rolls a die (not provided )to determine who starts. Each turn is comprised of four steps.

Get a Tattoo: To get a positive tattoo on your “body” you need to “pay” by discarding another positive tattoo card or a modifier card. You may only start one body part per turn but can add to existing tattooed parts. The maximum is 3 tattoos per body part. If you can not play a positive tattoo card, you need to play a negative tattoo card, and there is no “fee”. If you are unable to get a tattoo you must discard two cards, and then draw back up to your maximum hand.
Open Play: You can play an additional tattoo on yourself if you have another tattoo card to pay for it. Modifiers can be played at this point. If you have a Bad Advice card you can put a negative tattoo on another player. One card must remain in your hand at the end of this step.
Discard: Discard one card
Refresh: Draw back up to your max hand size (5 cards unless you have a modifier that changes that number)

The game ends when one player has filled all available spaces on their body (3 tattoos each space). The person who ends the game earns 5 extra points. Then everyone adds the points from positive tattoos and subtracts their negative tattoo ;points to determine who has the highest number of points, and the player with the highest number of points is the winner.

Family Game Assessment

This is an entertaining player versus player card game. The artwork of the cards is beautiful and detailed. The tattoos represented are not “adult” themed but some are a bit suggestive. Therefore, players should follow the recommended ages 12 and up. Both the topic and game mechanics against other players make this a better game form older kids. This is not a game I would feel comfortable playing with younger kids, but is great for families with older children. Even though each turn has multiple steps it is an easy game to learn, especially for an experienced gamer. A good understanding of the range of tattoo and enhancement cards allows deeper strategy to be used both for building your own tattoos, and thwarting your opponents.

Conclusion

For a family who appreciates the art of tattoos No Regerts is a great addition to your collection. While not an optimal game for young players, it is a fun family game that older children and adults can play together and enjoy the theory of tattooing without the commitment of the real thing.

May 1, 2018 0 comment

Board Games Reviews

Family Board Game Preview: Fire Tower

by Linda Wrobel April 25, 2018

written by Linda Wrobel

Most fire fighting games are cooperative, but in the game Fire Tower, you compete with other players to protect your fire tower from the fire and spread the fire to your opponent’s tower. There are components of hand management and area control incorporated into the game. Fire Tower is for 2-4 player ages 13 and up. Game play takes approximately 15-30 minutes. Fire Tower launched on Kickstarter April 24, 2018.

Setting the Stage

Smoke rises on the horizon. A fire rages somewhere in the heart of the forest. From the height of a fire tower, you command the efforts to defend your tower and take down your opponents. With each turn, the inferno grows. Harness the power of the wind to push the blaze towards the other towers, clear tracts of land to fortify your tower, hinder the plans of your opponents with torrents of water, and unleash an arsenal of fire cards upon your foes. Each card has a unique pattern with its own tactical advantage. You must effectively direct the resources in your hand and use sound spatial planning to deploy them.

Game Components

Folding Board with grid
50 Action Cards
- Fire Cards
- Water Cards
- Fire Breaks
- Wind Direction
4 Bucket Cards
1 Firestorm Card
Custom Eight-Sided Die
Rule Book
24 Wooden Firebreak Tokens
135 Fire Gems

Gameplay

First, each player receives one bucket card, which is kept face up. Next, 5 cards are dealt to each player as their starting hand, and finally the weather vane die is rolled to determine wind direction.

Player Turns

At the beginning of each players turn they must add one fire token in the direction indicated on the weather vane die. The fire token must be adjacent to an existing fire token or the eternal flame. The fire occupying four squares in the center represents the eternal flame. The second portion of their turn each player can either play a card and draw a new one or discard as many as they want and redraw to 5 without taking any actions. This option comes in handy when there are no viable options in your hand.

Player can take a range of actions depending on the card they play. There are Fire cards that spread the fire regardless of wind direction. Water cards put out the fire in a small area. Fire Break cards create areas the fire is unable to burn, but may not be added to adjacent spots with a Fire Break. One exception is that they may be placed diagonally to an existing Fire Break.

Players are working to defend their Fire Tower, the nine squares in the corner of the board, and to breach their opponents. In the Fire Tower squares fire can spread, but water and fire breaks can not be used. This is where the bucket card comes into play. Players can use it once per turn to extinguish 3 fire tokens in a row, as long as one is within the tower. Once fire reaches the orange square in the corner that player is eliminated.

Eliminated Players and Victory

Eliminated players give their cards to the player that eliminated them. That player adds the cards to their hand, and discards down to six cards. All remaining players in the game add a card to their hand. The eliminated player rolls the weathervane die to exact their “revenge” and causes a Firestorm. A Firestorm add one fire token in the wind direction to all existing fire. There is also one card which causes the same effect. Play continues and if there is another elimination the hand size increases to seven. The last player without a burned Fire Tower wins.

Family Gaming Assessment

Fire Tower is enjoyable and accessible. I think that players far younger than the recommended age can have fun with this. The rules and game play are easy to learn and the game play is intuitive.

Fire Tower has core mechanics that are easy to grasp by younger players and novice gamers. Additionally, it also incorporates a depth of strategy which veteran players can find engaging. The variety of mechanics and strategy makes this game a good choice for mixed ages and various skill levels.

The theme, while about a spreading forest fire and burning a Fire Tower, is not graphic. If anything the more the board fills with fire tokens the prettier it gets. The cards incorporate a description and a grid representation of the effect making them easy to understand. This is another great way the game scales down to both younger and less experienced gamers.

Conclusion

Fire Tower is a awesome addition to any family game collection. I have played the prototype and . I was able to teach the game to new players on my second play through. The Kickstarter funded in only two hours, and there is a lot of excitement for this unique games. This is the your chance to get unique and family friendly game though Kickstarter.

April 25, 2018 0 comment

Board Games Reviews

Family Board Game Review: Bring Your Own Book

by Linda Wrobel April 17, 2018

written by Linda Wrobel

If you love games and books this is the best combination. Bring Your Own Book by Gamewright is a hilarious combination of judging phrases and book quotes. The game is for three to eight players and the larger the group the crazier and funnier it becomes. Bring Your Own Book is recommended for ages 12 and up.

Game Components

100 Prompt cards
1 60 second timer

Gameplay

Each player needs to bring a book to the game. It can be any book from an encyclopedia to a picture book, to a gardening book. The gameplay is very straightforward and players take turn being the picker.

At the beginning of a round the picker starts by drawing the top card off the Prompt Card deck. There are two prompts on each card and the picker selects one to read to the group. Second, the other players seek through their book for a word, phrase, sentence(s) that satisfies the prompt. Third, the first player to find their text calls out I’ve got it!”. This starts the 60 second sand timer for the rest of the players to finish finding their passage.

Once the 60 seconds ends players take turn reading their passage and the picker judges which one is their favorite and awards the card to the winner. The first player to four cards in a 6-8 player game or the first to five in a 3-5 player game is the winner.

Family Game Assessment

For children 12 and up and adults this is a wonderful family game, especially for family gathering. The rules and gameplay are so simple and easy to teach that even the occasional gamer can feel comfortable.

Due to inferencing, this is a difficult game to scale down well, but some depth is lost with younger players. With younger players the resulting book lines may not be as relevant or they may need extra time to find a text to read. It is essential that all players be fluent readers and familiarity with the book is helpful.

Bring Your Own Book plays well with tweens or teens mixed with adults. This game is also a great way to include adults or older kids that want a simple game.

Conclusion

Bring Your Own Book is a fun light game that is great for a group or party setting. The game can play up to eight, but that number could easily be expanded by playing teams. It is a wonderful game for integrating reading and gaming.

April 17, 2018 0 comment

Board Games Reviews

Family Board Game Review: Toasted or Roasted

by Linda Wrobel March 7, 2018

written by Linda Wrobel

The best part of camping is roasting marshmallows over the campfire. In Toasted or Roasted, from Education Outdoors, you are building the campfire and trying to toast marshmallows without them becoming roasted. Toasted or Roasted is for two to four players and is recommended for ages 6 and up.

Game Components

4 Firewood/Campfire Disks (two-sided)
4 Toasting Stick/Toasting Fork Disks (two-sided)
10 Fire Starter Cards
16 Marshmallow Cards
16 Toasted! Cards
8 Roasted! Cards
2 Rain Cards
2 Strong Wind Cards
1 Picnic Table Board

Gameplay

Game setup includes giving each player one Firewood/Campfire Disk, and one Toasting Stick/Toasting Fork Disk. The cards are all shuffled together and each player is dealt four initially. The Picnic Table Board sits in the center and has the draw and discard pile as well as a place for extra fire starters.

There are several objectives to complete in Toasted Or Roasted. First, each player needs light their campfire by playing a Fire Starter card. Once you play a Fire Starter card you flip your Firewood Disk over to the campfire side. Then, each player needs to try and toast 3 marshmallows.

On their turn, players draw a card, bringing their hand to five. If they have a fire starter card they put that down to light their campfire. Then the player flips over their Firewood Disk to the campfire side. However, if another player has a Strong Wind card they can play it immediately to prevent you from lighting your campfire. If they can not light their campfire, the player discards a card.

Once your campfire is lit, on your next turn if you have a marshmallow card you place that on your toasting stick. Other players, on their turns can play a Roasted! Card to ruin your marshmallow or play a Rain Card to put out your campfire. There is a balance on each turn to thwart other players verses working on toasting your own marshmallows, since you can only do on action on your turn.

Toasted or Roasted also has an interesting twist. Once you successfully toast your first marshmallow, you can flip your Toasting Stick over to the Toasting Fork. The Toasting Fork allows you to put two marshmallows on. The only downside is if both your marshmallows become roasted, you must flip the Toasting Fork back to the Toasting Stick side.

The first person to successfully toast three marshmallows wins.

Family Gaming Assessment

Toasted or Roasted is a great light family game. The game has minimal reading so it can easily scale down to players even younger than the recommended 6 years old. My five-year-old plays quite easily, and it could scale down even to 4 year olds. The only caveat is the young players need to understand they will get marshmallows roasted, and they need to be able to handle it if someone “spoils” their marshmallow.

Toasted or Roasted is great family game for younger players, but for older children, this is a bit on the simple side. As a game for multiple ages it works nicely since there is a mix of luck of the cards and strategy.

Conclusion

Toasted or Roasted does a great job at replicating some of the fun of cooking marshmallows over the campfire. For a simple game for younger gamers or a way to recreate the fun of camping it is a great choice.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments and let us know your thoughts!

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March 7, 2018 0 comment

Reviews Video Games

Family Video Game Review – Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King

by Guest Writer February 5, 2018

written by Guest Writer

This Guest Review was written by our goods friend Rob Kalajian! He runs the board game website Pawn’s Perspective! You should definitely check it out!

What would happen if you took an older 16-bit Action RPG, oh, let’s say Zelda: A Link to the Past, crossed it with The Princess Bride, and released it on a modern day system? Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King. That’s what. When I bring up a Link to the Past, it’s not just for comparison sake. Blossom Tales plays like a love song to the classic SNES title. It’s a retro gaming lover’s dream, even if it’s a short one.

If you’re familiar with Zelda: A Link to the Past, or top-down action-RPGs in general, then you know what to expect from Blossom Tales. Players take control of Lily, Knight of the Rose, trying to save her king and kingdom from a dark wizard. You’ve got a sword, shield, and special items to help get Lily through all sorts of puzzles and other sticky situations. One major difference here is that unlike most similar titles that may limit your supply of arrows, bombs, etc…, Blossom Tales doesn’t. Instead, you’ve got a Special Meter that depletes as these items are used. One that recharges rapidly. It gives the game a bit more of a fast-paced feel than those that have come before it.

I mentioned The Princess Bride before. That reference mostly comes from the fact that Blossom Tales is a story being told to two children by their grandfather. As he tells the story the children often interrupt him, arguing with his storytelling technique and offering the player choices on how to change the story in tiny ways. It’s a really cool mechanic, but one that’s a tad underutilized.

Some Concerns

That brings us to the first gripe with the game. The whole idea of the grandfather telling his grandchildren a story that they influence is excellent. The choices given, however, really have a very little effect on the story as a whole. I would have loved to see the choices made have a bit more control over what happens in the game, possibly opening different dungeons or providing the player with some sort of different item or power that they couldn’t have gotten otherwise.

The next issue with the game is its length. You’re only getting a handful of dungeons – four to be exact. The entire game rounds out to about 15 hours of gameplay. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the younger gamers in a household, but for those of us who grew up on similar titles, it’s a bit short and straightforward. There are no real story twists that change the world or shake up the main objective.

Putting those two minor complaints aside, Blossom Tales is smooth, polished, and a blast to play. It’s family friendly, and while the game is based on combat there’s nothing explicit here. The game safely falls in its E10+ rating and can be enjoyed by younger players as long as they have the ability to read. While the game certainly feels like it’s aimed at fans of old Zelda games, it certainly has an appeal to new players with it’s colorful, retro styles and approachable gameplay.

Conclusion

Blossom Tales is available on both Steam and the Nintendo Switch at a price of $14.99. There’s really no excuse to pass up on this one. My preference would be the Switch version since it makes it easy to take the game on the go, but both the Switch version and Steam version are identical.

Developer: Castle Pixel

Publisher: FDG Entertainment

Rating: E10+ (Fantasy Violence)

Platform: Switch, PC

MSRP: $14.99

Reviewed On: Switch

FCC Disclosure: A Switch code was provided gratis for this review.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments and let us know your thoughts!

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February 5, 2018 0 comment

Board Games Reviews

Family Board Game Review: Flashlights and Fireflies

by Linda Wrobel January 24, 2018

written by Linda Wrobel

Flashlights and Fireflies is a board game version of flashlight freeze tag for 2-5 players. The game is recommended for ages 6 and up, and is published by Gamewright. In Flashlights and Fireflies, you play the role of children playing flashlight freeze tag in the woods.

The game plays in three quick phases per round, and the game ends when one player reaches home. The board includes three sections; the woods, the firefly field, and the path home.

Game Contents

36 Woods tiles
6 player pawns
6 player tiles
20 firefly tokens
6 flashlight cards
1 game board
1 wooden die

Gameplay

Flashlights and Fireflies plays in rounds, and each round include four phases: hide, catch, shine, and sneak. In the hide phase of the round, you draw woods tiles and hide your player tile, then the tiles (four to start) are laid out face down in front of you. The woods tiles may have woods on them, or a pest that you might find in the woods.

In the catch phase, each player takes turns rolling the die to determine how many firefly tokens they can draw. The firefly tokens have between one and three fireflies on them, or they can have a mosquito. A mosquito token drawn during the catch phase ends the phase for that player.

In the shine phase players take their firefly tokens and place them in front of the other players to find them. For each firefly, the player can turn over one opponent’s tile, then if a player token is found the found player is frozen for the round. If they find trees nothing happens, and if they find a pest the seekers turn immediately ends.

The final phase of the round is sneak, and in this phase, each unfrozen player moves their pawn up the path one step closer to home.

Family Gaming Assessment

Flashlights and Fireflies is a great game for the whole family. The game moves quickly through each round and takes about 20 to 30 minutes to play. The age recommended is 6 and up, but since there is no reading in the game it does scale down nicely to slightly younger players. The artwork is cute, and the tokens and tiles are made of high-quality, thick cardboard.

The game is fairly easy to learn and players are typically very comfortable after one or two rounds. However, it might be worthwhile to do a few rounds of practice with the youngest gamers to help build familiarity. One additional point of note is that the directions are a little wordy and can be confusing initially. Once we played it through once and worked through the phases it was much easier.

Conclusion

For any family with younger gamers, Flashlights and Fireflies is a great addition to their collection. It has simple game play, and does a great job introducing the gaming element of rounds to younger players. The directions can be slightly confusing, but it is worth taking the time to understand the game for a quick and easy game for younger kids. Flashlights and Fireflies is a fun simple game that the whole family can enjoy playing together.

Make sure you check out our other board game reviews!

January 24, 2018 0 comment

Board Games Reviews

Kickstarter Review: Shadow Strike Melee: Ninja Card Game!

by Stephen Duetzmann November 13, 2017

written by Stephen Duetzmann

Shadow Strike Melee: Ninja Card Game is a fast paced bluffing game for up to nine players! It is currently live on Kickstarter, but we were fortunate enough to be given a prototype copy for review purposes.

Gameplay

Shadow Strike Melee puts its players in the shoes of a group of overconfident ninjas in a wild battle. The goal of the game is to outlast all of your opponents as players deal “strikes” to each other using numbered attack cards.

Combat itself plays out like War. Higher valued cards defeat lower valued cards. Ninjas never let things remain that simple though. These ninjas are cocky. Players represent that by playing with their three combat cards facing away from them. This means that everyone else knows more about a players hand than they do!

This information mismatch is the driving force behind the game. You really have to look at your opponents cards and make careful decisions. It might seem safe to attack someone with a hand full of ones and threes, but you don’t necessarily know that your hand isn’t worse! Fortunately, you also have a trio of equipment cards that help manipulate fights in your favor, or rescue you if your cards aren’t helping.

Shadow Strike Melee can be played individually, but our family preferred to partner up and play in teams. This gave us the option of using our equipment cards to help rescue our friends, and take advantage when our opponents get aggressive.

The biggest highlight of the game for us so far has been how fast the games are. Players are eliminated, but no one sits idle for long. The box says that games last around ten minutes, but I think that might even be too long.

Can Kid’s Play The Game?

The short answer is “Yes.” It does involve number comparisons and the equipment cards do have a small amount of text on them. But, this is not a challenging game to play.

One problem that young players MIGHT have is with their hands. You have to hold your hand in a very specific way to make sure that your opponents can see your cards. Younger players might struggle with that and drop cards a bit more often than they normally would. I don’t think this is a deal breaker by any stretch of the imagination, but it is worth keeping an eye on.

The Campaign

The Kickstarter campaign has a little less than three weeks to go and is more than halfway to its goal. You can get yourself a Standard edition of the game with a $20 pledge.

Conclusion

Go for it. This is a great game to get things started on family game night and makes a great party game for larger groups.

alimentazione sana

November 13, 2017 0 comment

Board Games Reviews

Kickstarter Review – Scream or Die

by Stephen Duetzmann October 2, 2017

written by Stephen Duetzmann

Scream or Die is a 2 to 8 player game by Amber Palace Games designed for players ages 8 and up. The game takes between 15 to 20 minutes to play and is very simple to learn and explain. It is currently on Kickstarter with a modest funding goal. We’re happy to report that this is a pretty good game that will be a cute addition to your family’s game collection.

The base game box comes with:

8 monster mats
36 scream tokens
15 dice (three of each color)
8 Candy trackers (two of each color)
Dice bag
Rules booklet

You play as a tiny monster that has been transformed into a child by your boss (who happens to be an evil witch). The only way to break the spell and get returned to normal is to be the first monster to bring her thirteen Halloween candies.

Gameplay

Each round of Scream or Die consists of three phases- Before the Roll, After the Roll, and Scoring.

Before the Roll

The roller removes five random dice from the bag to make a dice pool. Starting with the player to the left of the roller, each player takes turns using their scream tokens to add dice to the pool. They do this by paying the token which forces the roller to pull another die blindly out of the bag.

After the Roll

Each player gets a chance to re-roll dice of their choice. Just as before, starting with a player to the left of the roller, all players take turns using scream tokens to make the roller re-roll dice.

Scoring

Each player gets one candy for each of the monster symbols of theirs that is showing at the end of the round. Players keep track of their candy using the score tracker on their monster mat.

Players continue to play rounds until one person gets thirteen or more pieces of candy.

The game is quick to play, and the push your luck mechanics and dice influencing strategy make it much more fun than a basic dice rolling game. We love the fact that you can play with up to eight players! Our playtesters enjoyed that they were never bored because they had an action to take on every roll.

Another thing we love about Scream or Die is how great it is as a teaching tool. This is a great game for teaching the concept of resource management. It’s very easy to go through scream tokens in the hopes of adding dice that are favorable to you. But, you have to make sure that you are aware of what other players are doing so that they don’t take the lead too quickly. Some of our players forgot to save up some scream tokens to re-roll symbols that were helpful to their opponents towards the end of the game. They were VERY aware of the mistakes they made as they watched their friends rack up the points and win.

The rules include some fun variants for team play and dice drafting to keep things interesting. There is also a simpler family variant that makes scream tokens a little more fair.

Conclusion

Overall, this is a terrific party game, filler game, or introductory game for non hardcore gamers. You can back this game with confidence. We think your family will enjoy this one!

October 2, 2017 0 comment

Board Games Reviews

Family Board Game Review: Rampaging Jotunn

by Linda Wrobel August 15, 2017

written by Linda Wrobel

Rampaging Jotunn is a 2 player viking themed game by Lost Cog with a hex board made of large tiles. The object of the game is to avoid the Jotunn (a magically strong giant from Viking mythology), and protect your village using your army. The Jotunn is a constant variable in the game. The game is for players 8 and up and is expected to take 30 minutes to play.

Game Contents

12 Different land tiles (containing 10 hex spaces with forests, fields, mountains, and on some, a volcano)
1 Center Hex
2 Defense line Hexes
1 blue die
1 red die
I Jotunn (marker and stand)
2 Blue vikings (Marker and stand)
2 Red Vikings (marker and stand)
6 Wooden longhouses (3 red, 3 blue)
2 Terrain Cards
6 Army movement cards (3 red, 3 blue)
73 Rampaging Jotunn playing cards
Rulebook

Gameplay

Setup: To set up the center hex with numbers is placed in the center. This is the Jotunn’s direction indicator. The 12 terrain tiles are shuffled and six are randomly selected. Players take turns placing the tile around the center hex to create the board. Next, players take turns to place their three villages, placing one on each turn. Then, players take turns to place their two armies, and they must put them on an adjacent tile to two of the villages. Each player is given 3 Army Movement Cards, and have a Terrain card for movement reference for the Jotunn and their armies. Players are also dealt five Rampaging Jotunn playing cards. The final step of setup is to place the Jotunn on the center tile and roll to see which number he faces for his starting direction.

During their turn, players have several options.

They can:
- use one of their Army movement cards and move their army (note: once your three movement cards are used you get all three back to use again)
- Play a Jotunn card and move the Jotunn (or follow any special directions on the card)
- Discard 3 cards from your hand to raise an army
At the end of their turn a player draws to bring their Jotunn hand back up to 5, also if the Jotunn was not moved on a players turn it moves forward one space in whatever direction it is facing.
Battles:
- If you move your army onto the hex of another army you both have to roll to “battle” the offensive army gets plus one to their roll and the higher roll wins. The defeated army is removed from the board.
- If the Jotunn lands on an army it instantly defeats the army, and it is removed from the board.
- Should the Jotunn land on a village that has not gotten a defense line hex, it is instantly defeated. With a defense line hex under the village the Jotunn must roll a three or more to defeat the village.
- Armies can also attack an opponent’s village.

If a player loses all their villages they lose the game.

Family Gaming Assessment

Rampaging Jotunn is a good game for the family to play together. The game does take a little time to learn and is not intuitive with some of the multiple steps and mechanics per turn. This game, especially with younger players would benefit from a play through to learn the rules. The age rating is 8 and up, and I agree. An inexperienced gamer on the lower end of the age range will benefit from support with the steps and mechanics until they are more comfortable with the game.Once the rules and mechanics of the game are understood and comfortable the gameplay move smoothly. There is also a notable amount of strategy, mixed with some luck, and that may make it more challenging to play with two different skill levels.

Currently, the game is only available as a two player game. According to the developer, Matthias Bonnici, as of June 2017, that they are looking to do a Kickstarter “soon” for a four player version of Rampaging Jotunn. As a two player game it is more challenging to include the whole family playing, so a four player game is one to watch for on Kickstarter.

Conclusion

The viking theme of Rampaging Jotunn is entertaining and the graphics are appealing to players of all ages. The game was easily mastered in one play through and was engaging to play. The gameplay while a bit complicated to learn more smoothly once a few turns were played. Rampaging Jotunn is a good addition to a family’s game collection, especially if you enjoy the Viking theme.

August 15, 2017 0 comment

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