Micro Macro Crime City is a little different when it comes to calling it a ‘game’, is it really a game or is it more of an activity? Do I care? After playing it, not really. I hear ‘x is not a game, it’s an experience’ but isn’t that what this hobby is about?

Micro Macro Crime City drew me in because it is a cooperative game which doesn’t rely on skill or understanding of the rules to play, meaning that the whole family can get involved. In the base game there are 16 cases which you have to solve on a map. The map is a kitchen table sized wimmelbilder map ala Where’s Wally (Waldo in case of US) depicting a cutesy city where anthripomorphic animals go about their days….and CRIMES!

The really cool thing about the map is that the city depicts the past, present and future. You can track a criminal from where they committed a crime through to where they stashed the loot all in the one map.

Each case starts with a synopsis read by the ‘lead investigator’ which starts the detective work. Once the initial clue is found and confirmed on the back of the first card by coordinates, the lead then moves on to the next card and so forth until the case has been totally solved. Quick, fun play is the result with players (literally) climbing over one another to try to find the next clues.

We played 4 cases in a row and probably could have kept going on our first play. I haven’t played some of the later cases but they do very much increase in difficulty, with the first case taking ~10mins and the 4th taking around 20mins total. If you really wanted to, I can see that this would be a game that you could pull out several times over a gaming weekend and solve all the cases in that time.

Community Opinion

Micro Macro Crime City is currently ranked 205 of all games on BGG with a rating of 7.6.

Overall

I have really been loving this experience. In addition to the cases there is so much to see on the map and it is just such a great fun time with the family. The thing that sets it apart from other family games is that there are no advantages for age or experience and that anyone playing has just as much chance at finding clues as anyone else. If you are looking for a filler, a game to spend a rainy weekend on, or something to introduce new players to, I would highly recommend Micro Macro Crime City.

You can pick up Micro Macro at Amazon or your local boardgame shop – I picked mine up from Games Empire.

The post Micro Macro Crime City Review appeared first on Next Player.

From the previous post I am surprised to say that all but two of the games got played. Bang: The Dice Game and Skull were the games that did not get played with the rest getting a great run through by a range of people.

“The bird game” – Wingspan became a pretty big hit with the other gamers in the family and was a great source of entertainment for the rest. Heaps of comments on artwork and components kept the interest of the non-players.

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong – not as many plays on this one, but lots of fun when it did happen. The only reason that it didn’t get played more was the constant presence of younger kids and conversation around bludgeoning and blood loss seemed to bother them a little…weird.

Just One – I sent some games a week early to where we are celebrating Christmas and Just One had already be played numerous times. This is a great family board game, players can come and go as they please, you can make rounds indefinite and it is so easy to explain to anyone who wants in.

Five Tribes – I don’t think that this one was on my radar originally for family games, but it really went down well, especially for those who are more into strategy games. The Mancala type movement is easy enough to explain, while the rest of the rules tend to fall into place. One of the only issues is that this game tends to favour those who have played it before, although it isn’t necessarily bad to crush the nephews and family every once in a while (did I mention I rarely win anything…)

Istanbul – Another Mancala-esque game that involves grid movement. I have previously played and reviewed and wasn’t the greatest fan, but now things have changed. I feel a change in the force and a swing towards the middle weight Euro. I played this at 2 player 3 times over the holidays and it has become a fast favourite, easy setup and quick play for experienced players, watch out for the player who takes all the Mosque tiles early though…

What did you get played over the holiday period, anything that you find particularly easy/hard to get to the table with family gamers?

The post What did I actually play over Christmas appeared first on Next Player.

Sometimes a game just doesn’t work for you, despite critical or popular acclaim it just doesn’t scratch that itch. Today’s game is Eldritch Horror. 

What was I looking for?

When I purchased Eldritch Horror, I was looking for a game that I could play solo and that had a good theme. From the research that I did Eldritch Horror was the game for me. Highly rated, dripping with theme and great artwork. So I bought it, but it really didn’t meet expectations. 

Other suggestions that were given to me were Arkham Horror The Card Game (hadn’t played it at the time), Robinson Crusoe (already owned it) and Nemo’s War (which I should have bought instead) 

What I got

• On rails – I like games (video and board) that I feel like I have some agency in my decisions. For some reason I just felt that Eldritch Horror was too restricting and didn’t allow me to explore other options. Turns felt mechanical – here are the moves that you can make in a turn, then pass on to the next player. After your turn, the AI takes it’s turn to make things more dire than they were before and then rinse and repeat. 

• Overdone – At it’s core Eldritch Horror uses the Pandemic mechanisms, player turns, infection turns in a solo or cooperative environment, however Eldritch just takes it too far. There were far too many things in play at any time and the setup of just the base game was a drain. I felt exhausted by the time I even had the chance to sit down at the table with it. 

• Is it an adventure game? I have a hard time with this because an adventure game has a sense of urgency and immersion. Unfortunately I have never felt immersed in Eldritch Horror and find games like Pandemic and Robinson Crusoe far more adventure laden. There is something about in the setup that just drags me totally out of the experience and makes me wonder why I set it up at all. 

I will probably make a few enemies with this, but this is how I also feel with Arkham Horror The Card Game, there is just too many things to setup and prepare in order to get what is technically Spooky Pandemic.

What are your thoughts on Eldritch Horror, what am I missing or not giving a fair enough consideration of? 

The post Games I bounced off – Eldritch Horror appeared first on Next Player.

Friday, I’m in love?

The post Friday review appeared first on Next Player.

I’ve talked about Raiders of the North Sea previously as a game that I have loved. From its place one – pick one mechanic through to the simplicity of the solo mode, this game by Garphill and Shem Phillips is one that gets me back over and over. 

So of course I was excited with Architects of the West Kingdom landed at my doorstep just recently. 

The Look

The artwork for Architects is done by The Mico – the artist who has completed the work for all of the North Sea and the coming West Kingdom games. The art has a comical menace to it, which fits the theme perfectly (more on that later). 

Component quality is good, with individual meeples and resources made from wood. Each resources is also made in the shape of what it signifies, which is a nice little touch. 

I have the upgraded West Kingdom metal coins, which I highly recommend for the tactility and also the satisfying ‘clink’ every time a transaction is made. 

Set up is simple, around 5 minutes to distribute player mats and draw initial building cards, and then it is time to go. 

Solo Play

My first play through of Architects was solo (this actually holds true of most games that can be played 1-player). There are 2 bots that you can play against an easier and a harder, but I have to say that if one is easy I don’t want to know how hard the other is.

Solo play is simple, set up like a 2 player game, remove a few cards that would ruin the experience and set up the Bot deck. Play is easily managed – you take a turn and then turn a card from the Bot deck and follow the instructions.

This was a great way for me to get used to the rules and to fiddle around with strategy so that I can be easily beaten in my subsequent games.

Multiplayer

While the solo experience is great, playing with others is where Architects of the West Kingdom really shines. Not just because tabletop gaming is an inherently social platform, but more about what you can do to other players.

As mentioned the game revolves around building a city and/or the Cathedral. Like in many worker placement/set collection games there several ways to victory and ways in which to cut off other players in their pursuits. However, Architects has come up with one of the most unique ways – capture your opponents workers so that they now have to use resources to release them. Not only that, but now you have undone any of the work they have done in building their income stream.

The capturing of workers really elevates this game above others in the genre. Worker placements can turn into a bit of a dull affair, with minimal interaction or only the slightest of blocking – Shem Phillips and Sam MacDonald really found a way of adding a Take That element to the game.

I love playing games with my kids with King of Tokyo and Charterstone being favourites for their age (6 and 10), however the amount of decisions in Architects probably puts it in a category a little higher than what they would normally play. For this, if I was looking at worker placement, I would definitely go with Raiders of the North Sea instead.

Negatives

I really struggle with finding any negatives with this game, and with Garphill Games in general. So here goes for what I found as minor issues:

• There are a great deal of options at each turn, so Analysis Paralysis is particularly high especially for your first few plays;
• The connection to the end game is a bit loose – When a player builds a building from their hand or improves the Cathedral the end game marker is advanced. For me, even though it’s right on the board, there is a bit of a disconnect in knowing when the end is coming, which can be quite abrupt.

Conclusion

I really love this game, even more so than I do Raiders of the North Sea (very different games, but same designers). The take-that mechanism of capturing others really improves over regular worker placement fare and allows a level of interaction that keeps players engaged. Another massive advantage of this game is that there is a brain-burner element to deciding what to do next without the complicated rules grit – One of the things that bothers me about some Euro type games is that if you haven’t deeply studied the rules, then you will be disadvantaged, but this is not the case with Architects as I was easily able to teach the rules after a single solo play through (which was also easy with a few glances at the rules).

If you are looking for a great worker placement game in a modern Euro style, check out Architects of the West Kingdom, a great one for any table.

Disclaimer – The review copy is the authors own copy. Promo cards and metal coins were provided by Garphill Games.

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We have written a bit on Gloomhaven in the past, mainly due to it being so popular, but we thought that Mistakes in Gloomhaven was probably another good addition to the current articles that we have written. The rules are pretty easy to follow for Gloomhaven, however due to the sheer amount of them there is the problem that you may get a few of them wrong, especially in the early scenarios. Given that the game is a legacy game and that all of the rules that you play mean that there is an impact on the following plays it is important to get the rules right.

Mistakes in Gloomhaven

Using the Modifier Cards from your Character box – the cards in your box are for your perks and other conditions to be applied to your damage modifier deck. The Damage Modifier deck that you should be using are the ones that have a 1, 2, 3 or 4 in the bottom left hand corner of them and with crossed swords on the back.

Null and Curse Card – these are the cards with the circle with the strike through them. They mean that your attack didn’t do any damage, but you still need to apply any other effects that your move may have generated such as Disarm etc.

Splitting Up your turn – Everyone plays their initiative card as their leading card. Let’s say your leading card is a 15 and your other card is a 73. This means that your entire turn occurs at the time that the ’15’ initiative is played. You DO NOT play the 15 and then wait for the 73 to come up.

Forgetting you could just move or attack – Each card also allows you to either Move 2 or Attack 2. This means that if any of the moves or abilities on your cards are not satisfactory for the current condition of the map, you can just take the simple approach.

Not losing cards when taking damage – This one is an optional one, but if you are running low on health it is important. If you have taken damage from an enemy you can choose to instead lose a card from your hand and not take any damage. This is especially important in your first plays of Gloomhaven, as taking damage is a quick way to get exhausted. So make sure that you balance the loss of cards against how many moves you think that you may have left.

Setting up the whole board – I mean if you really want to, go for it. But there are several things that go against this. First is that there should be some element of surprise when you enter room, sure you can see the scenario, but it loses atmosphere if you know exactly what you are up against in the next room. Secondly, it takes up a ton of time in setup that you could otherwise be playing, and what if you don’t even make it to some of those rooms?

Not using Gloomhaven Helper – Seriously, this is a game changer – set up the app on your phone, pad or on a desktop. The app does away with all of the Monster cards and allows you to input initiative, track effects and damage all without having to fiddle around with 5 different card types. You can find Gloomhaven Helper here.

Read the Cards – Monsters ONLY conduct the attack that is on their flipped card. This means that if they have a Move and Shield, they do not attack that round.

Not reading the end of a scenario – Due to the narrative of Gloomhaven and the ability to make different decisions throughout the game, the completion of a scenario does not mean that you unlock the next in chronological order. The end of Scenario 3 may open several others that are not Scenario 4, make sure you read what you achieved and where to place the new stickers out.

Make sure that you add comments below to tell us what other mistakes people make in the early scenarios of Gloomhaven

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