Week 32: Shadows over Camelot
Shadows over Camelot was an easy game to get into, following our experience with Dead of Winter. Like DOW, Shadows over Camelot is a cooperative game with a hidden traitor mechanic. Players take on the role of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Each knight has a special ability, and work with fellow knights to solve quests like the search for the Holy Grail, the quest for Excalibur, and opposition of the Saxon or Pict invasions. Each player has a hand of cards representing fight strength, special rule changes, or goals for each quest. Like many cooperative games, there is one way to win, and multiple ways to lose.
Our club had two sessions. Tuesday’s game was a loss for the players (except for our traitor). Part of our loss was due to an unfamiliarity with the rules, part was due to the efforts of our traitor. Friday’s session was a win for everyone involved due to no one drawing the traitor card, and the fact we were more familiar with our strategies…oh, and we also cheated…
Which brings me to what our club found so incredibly frustrating. According to the rules, a player cannot directly reveal what cards they possess. They can only hint about what they have, and this gets a little tricky. A player cannot say, “I have two Grail cards”, but they can say, “I can help you on the quest to get the Grail”. This gets tricky when it comes to matching up specific cards into sets, and almost everyone breaks the rule. It’s a difficult rule to enforce, especially if the traitor has not been revealed or there is no traitor to police the rule. Dice Tower featured a video about this very issue. You can check it out here. The rule is in place to allow the traitor to manipulate the success rates for the quests. Dead of Winter does a better job of allowing the traitor to anonymously manipulate the situation. The “illegal” table-talk is difficult to manage. The club enjoyed the game, but the rule was frustrating, and the victory felt a little tainted.
Week 33: Ticket to Ride- Europe
A short week meant we had only one after-school session, so it was time to bust out Ticket to Ride: Europe. Most of the students were already well-versed in Ticket to Ride, so the Europe expansion was a simple matter of learning some new rules (tunnels, ferries, and stations) and adjusting to the new map. The European routes are quite congested, and the board filled up quickly with five players. The students enjoyed the game, but after playing the deluxe version of the original Ticket to Ride, switching to the original, basic pieces was a little lackluster. Also the terminology used for certain locations was a bit antiquated, making the search for key cities a little more difficult. They did enjoy the game however, so I’m glad they got a chance to experience this variation.
Week 34: Mission- Red Planet
Some of my students played Mission: Red Planet before as we tried it out on one of our open-gaming sessions earlier in the year. I also included it in my list of the Top Five Board Games for the Holiday Season for 2015. You can read that review here.
Giving the game more attention last week, we got to see more of the strategies involved. Like all Fantasy Flight games, the components are well crafted and are of great quality. The game comes with excellent little plastic miniatures representing each player’s astronauts. The board is a large map of Mars, along with a smaller piece representing the moon of Phobos, and a third location representing a cosmic graveyard for dead astronauts. The mechanic for launching ships is quite clever, as players set miniatures on cards representing spaceships to different territories. Here is where we ran into a bit of a snag; the locations on the map are named after actual places on Mars, which are given rather antiquated and complex names such as Sinus Sabaeus and Mare Serpentis. These names become a bit cumbersome as one is trying to strategize key moves. Players did enjoy the playing of cards to load up the rockets, using a system much like Libertalia.
Like many games in the genre, players also draw objective cards called Missions, that grant bonus points if certain areas are controlled or certain conditions are met. These Mission cards are what drew the biggest criticism from the players. Some Missions grant bonus points if certain areas are controlled, or if players have a monopoly on key resources. Some Missions were seen as overpowered, such as the one that granted bonus points for every one of your dead astronauts. Considering how easy they are to kill, drawing this card can secure you a pretty substantial bonus. Personally, I enjoyed the game, but considering I won one of the sessions, it's no wonder I was left with a positive take on the product. The students were less pleased (a fellow teacher won the Tuesday session, I won the Friday), but they did enjoy the space theme.
With only three weeks left for the club this year, the plan is to play Among the Stars, Zombicide: Black Plague, and Blood Rage. I also want a special Friday session to invite all the Magic: The Gathering players in for a big session. Wish me luck, and thanks for reading.
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