volume 55 advanced civilization

G a m e R e v i e w s & R e p o r t s 22000077VVoolluummee 55IIssssuuee 22

How They RateKeythedralDante’s InfernoNY ChaseAnd More. . .

WRECKAGENot Exactly

Mad Max

WRECKAGENot Exactly

Mad Max

DIE MACHERA Classic Hits theTable

DIE MACHERA Classic Hits theTable

ADVANCEDcivilizationAs uncivilized as it getsAs uncivilized as it gets

ADVANCEDcivilization

2 INDEPTH 2007 April

FEATURES............................PAGEEditor’s Note ...................................3Member of the Month .....................3Game Puzzle Solution .....................5Convention Report ..........................6Unreviewed Games Montage .........38

REVIEWS ..............................PAGEVegas Showdown ............................8Return of the Heroes.....................10Dante’s Inferno .............................12Die Macher ...................................14Advanced Civilization ....................16NY Chase ......................................18

Keythedral ....................................20Kingdoms......................................23Wreckage ......................................24

SESSSION REPORTS .............PAGEAdvanced Civilization ....................25Die Macher ...................................32Descent ........................................34Nexus Ops ....................................37

STATISTICS ..........................PAGETop Players ...................................45LIBO Ratings ................................51Group Statistics............................52

Table of ContentsTable of Contents

Copyright on all contributionsrests with the original authorsand material from these pagesmay not be reproduced withoutthe author’s permission andwithout acknowledging its priorpublication here.

EditorialEditorialInformationInformationEditorChris [email protected]

Senior WritersBill HerbstJarett Weintraub

ContributorsSteve BrewbackerDave DentonMatt DickinsonAndrew DiGregorioJohn Reiners

INDEPTH 2007 April 3

Editor’s NoteEditor’s Notend so it ends. For a while, I had been wonder-ing to myself, “When will INDEPTHend?” I wasn’t sure when that would be, but I

also wasn’t sure how much longer we (LIBO) couldkeep churning out the magazine.

It’s funny how, sometimes, the epiphanies comefrom bizarre sources. One evening, a bunch of mem-bers were getting together to play a game, and I wasunable to attend, because I was working on the nextissue of the magazine.

I decided to see how well-read the magazine was. In two consecutive months, we ran something to checkon readership —- a quasi-poll one month (whichreceived no responses) and a game puzzle contest thefollowing month (which garnered one response).

It doesn’t take much more evidence than that, todrive home the point that, effectively, no one is reallyreading.

Now, of course, I know that’s not the case; thewebsite hits statistics indicate that someone is reading.But, perhaps the medium we’ve chosen is incorrect.The world is too fast-paced now; it’s rare anyone willhave an opportunity to sit and read an entire print mag-azine, even on something like their hobby.

So, starting this summer (July, probably), the writ-ers of LIBO will be taking to the Internet for our next“project.” We are in the planning stages of creatingfocused columns/blogs that will be updated a numberof times each month. So far, five members have volun-teered to write on a monthly basis.

These columns will deal with a variety of topics,

and may not be restricted to boardgaming (although,the lion’s share of the writing will focus on theboardgame world). Some other topics may includesome hints on organizing game clubs, covering nextyear’s LIBO Heroscape League (returning from hia-tus), the LIBO Computer Strat-O-Matic FootballLeague, and LIBO Role-Playing. Al of which areplanned for later this year or next.

Everyone in LIBO will be able to post articles.Besides blogs, we’ll also be writing reviews and ses-sion reports, as well (and uploading to our website).

One one hand, however, it’s a shame we’re endingwhen we are —- this issue, especially, has two of theall-time best articles to ever grace the pages ofINDEPTH. Steve Brewbacker’s session report onAdvanced Civilization is monstrous in scope, insightfulin analysis, and funny as hell.

Jarett Weintraub’s Descent report also is top-notch,but I won’t give it away; go read it for yourselves.

Since Steve and Jarett have been kind enough tovolunteer as regular ‘bloggers,’ I suspect you’ll be see-ing a LOT more of them in the upcoming months.

To anyone else who ever wrote anything forINDEPTH, thank you. The magazine would nothave been as successful as it was, without your help.

Chris PalermoEditor

A

Member of the MonthMember of the MonthQ. How long have you been gaming?

Since I was a child, I was probablyabout four years old when I started playingboard games. My first games were“Candyland” and “Husker Du?”

Q. Can you provide a brief history ofyour gaming exploits?

Most of the games I’ve played through-out my life have been the mainstreamgames we all know about. Some otherchildhood games I played were SweetPickles and Operation.

One of my favorites was the Star WarsEscape from the Death Star game. Lookingback on the game now, it really wasn’t a

Features

Matt Dickinson


great game, but back then I lovedit.

As I got older I was playinggames like Crossbows andCatapults, Life, Risk, and The MadMagazine Game.

When I was 13 years old, I wasintroduced to Dungeons andDragons by one of my hopheadfriends at the time.

I played it with friends on andoff through high school. I wouldn’tsay we were D&D nerds, it wasjust a game we enjoyed playingfrom time to time.

Gaming for me changed inFebruary of 2006. That’s when Idiscovered Euro games. I waslooking for a gaming group withthe intention of just playing main-stream games with new people.

During my search online, Icame across Board Games withScott. I watched a couple of Vlogsand was amazed by the games hewas reviewing. These games weretotally different from anything Iplayed in the past at that time.

It was through watching theVlogs that I discovered BoardGame Geek. Once I found thatsite, I was really hooked. Not toolong after discovering that site, Iwas contacted by Chris and was amember of LIBO. Gaming hasnever been the same.

Q. What is your favoriteboardgame of all time?

I would have to say Life. Mymother and I used to play thatgame allot when I was growing upand we just had a great time play-ing it.

Q. What is your favoriteboardgame played in LIBO?

It’s difficult to choose onegame as my favorite. With theexception of two games, everygame I have played has been ablast to play.

Off the top of my head I haveto say NY Chase, Cleopatra andthe Society of Architects, CircusMaximus, Mall of Horror andAtlantic Storm.

Q. What is your LEAST favoriteboardgame of all time

Bazaar. Those colored dotsmade my head spin. I don’t knowwhat a bad acid trip is like, but it’sprobably similar to the way I feltwhile playing that game.

Q. What is your least favoriteboardgame played in LIBO

Yeah, that would be Bazaaragain. The only saving grace tothat game session was the people Iwas playing with.

Q. What is the game you’re mostlooking forward to playing (thatyou haven’t played already)?

There are a number of gamesI’m looking forward to playing.Warrior knights and one of theTicket to Ride games comes tomind right now.

Q. What is your favorite moment(your HALL OF FAME moment)from a LIBO game?

To me a Hall of Fame moment

means a memorable funnymoment. One that comes to mindwas when we were playing Mall ofHorror. It was the fist time I everplayed a pure negotiation game soI was really out of my element.

Anna Maria threw me to thezombies because I trusted her toomuch. I voted for myself because Ithought she was going to be niceand vote for herself. Well, she was-n’t so nice, which was just funny.

Then Andrew suggested thateveryone go to the Control Room,which had four zombies waitingoutside. Andrew was saying,“Come on everyone, lets all takeback the Control Room”. That dis-cussion when back and fourth for afew minutes and Andrew just keptsaying that we should all take theControl Room back. So, what doyou think Andrew did? Yeah, hewent to a different room andburned Bill and another playerreally good.

Andrew wound up winningthat game because he conned theremaining players. It’s just the wayhe did it that was hilarious. Thatgame session just had so manymoments that were funny. Somemay think that what Andrew andAnna Maria did wasn’t very nice.But like Michael Kelso said duringan episode of That 70’s Show, “It’sfunny when friends get hurt”, and Isay, right-o my friend, right-oindeed!

To see Matt’sINDEPTH

Stats and Ratings,turn to 1.


Game Puzzle SolutionGame Puzzle Solutionast issue we asked you tosolve a puzzle based onthe game Blue Moon City.

The goal was to figure out whichmove Henry (blue) should make.There were four possible buildingshe could move to, but only onewould guarantee him a win.

Additionally, you had toexplain why none of the otherthree could be suitable solutions,which was a bit trickier.

Below is the solution, with afull explanation.

Congratulations to Phil Alberg,for being the first (and only)respondent to give a complete andcorrect solution.

1) Play the Gray 1 card to trav-el to the Thermae tile (the Blue 3-2-2 at the top of the board).

2) Play the Black 1 card tomove the red dragon.

3) Play the White 1 card toturn the Gray 3 card to a Blue 3.

4) Play the Blue 2 andGray(blue) 3 to contribute to thereconstruction of the Thermae.

Henry will now collect 2 drag-on scales for the red and greendragons. This empties the dragonscale supply. With 6 scales, Henryhas the most scales, and earns 6crystals. George earns 3 crystalsfor his 5 scales, and Jen 0. In addi-tion, George and Henry each con-tributed to this building, so eachcollects 6 crystals.

Henry now has 24 crystals(12+6+6). Jen has 4 crystals, whileGeorge has 12 crystals. This mayseem like it gives George thegame, as he now has enough crys-tals to make the final contributionto the obelisk and win. However,he is too far to reach the obelisk onhis next turn, and he has neither aGray 1 or Gray 2 card.

George also cannot completeeither building within his range ofmovement, so Jen cannot pick upany more crystals during George’sturn.

On his next turn, Henry canmove to the Courtyard tile, spend11 crystals on one obelisk contri-

bution, and by playing the Gold 1card spend 13 crystals (12 + 1) onhis final, winning obelisk contribu-tion.

While Henry could also com-plete the Monastery Tower (theGray 4-2-2 on the lower right, thiswould yield cards to all players,potentially providing George withthe gray card he needs to beatHenry to the obelisk.

The Caravanserai tile (the Gold4-2-2 on the lower left) wouldrequire the use of the Gold 1 cardto build, which Henry needs toensure that he can make a doubleobelisk contribution on the follow-ing turn.

Finally, the Flight Tower tile(the Gray 4-3-2 on the upper right)would not only require that Henryplay his Gray 1 card to reach it,but unlike the Thermae tile, it istoo far from the Courtyard tile forhim to travel from one to the otheron his following turn without sav-ing his Gray card.

L

Features

COMING SUMMER 2007

LIBO begins Blogging!

5 dedicated columnists blogging on focused subjectsContinued session reports and reviews

Opportunities for interaction with writers through forumsand comments


My First Year ofMy First Year ofGaming ConventionsGaming Conventions

hen I first thought ofwriting this article, Ithought about simply

comparing two of the conventionsto each other. As I thought aboutit further, I wanted to go a littlemore in-depth.

Sure, I’ll describe what I thinkhave been strengths and weak-nesses of each convention, buteveryone’s tastes and preferencesare different and I’ll try to touchon as many points as I can.

There is rarely a day that goesby that I check BoardGameGeekand I don’t see a “tips for conven-tions?” thread. Well, here youhave it folks: tips from the per-spective of a first year conven-tion-goer.

The first suggestion I have isto go with a group of gamerfriends, and slowly start to meetnew people. My first conventionwas the WBC of 2006. I won’t gointo too much detail, other than tosay that for a gamer, It was likeWonka’s Chocolate Factory. I waslike Charlie Bucket at first, andended up feeling like AugustusGloop right after binge eating.

WBC can be very overwhelm-ing, it can be very helpful to havepeople with you who have beenbefore. Some conventions have afriendlier atmosphere than otherswhen it comes to open gaming; italways helps to know some

gamers who are also going to theconvention to help “network” andmeet more people.

EUROQUEST: This conven-tion is held the weekend ofVeterans Day in Maryland.

Positives: This convention isheld shortly after Essen, so a lotof the “hot new games” arebrought out to play. I happened tocome on a good year, whenYspahan and Leonardo DaVincihad just been released. I also hadheard good things about NotreDame, which I haven’t played yet.

If some haven’t realized bythe name, this is a Eurogamingconvention. I will pretty much tryany game at least once, but forEurogamers, this is a great con-vention. Little touches, such astournament times on a computerscreen with a countdown weredisplayed: GREAT TOUCH!! Isometimes forget my watch.

The other truly positive aspectto Euroquest was that the formatpromoted total strangers to meeteach other and play. There is an“outlaw” tournament whereselected games are played towardstournament play, and can beplayed through the convention.This convention was the only con-vention where I truly heard “Hi,what’s your name? Wanna play?”

Negatives: There seemed to be

only one real negative for me:There were space issues, ESPE-CIALLY when game merchantsbegan to set-up. There simplywasn’t enough room at one point.I honestly don’t know what couldbe done about this issue; I spokewith some of the conventiondirectors about it. They called it a“good problem to have.”Euroquest seems to be growing,and I hope it can withstand “thegrowing pains”.

PREZCON: This conventionis held in February each year, inVirginia.

Positives:I liked the separaterooms for game demos. I’m oftena sucker for games that are beingsold by the actual designer:Murray Heasman (Project Kells),Bill Crenshaw (Manifest Destiny),and wargame designer RichardBerg all demonstrated differentgames/prototypes.

The auction at Prezcon wasdefinitely a buyer’s market, I gotsome good deals (such as ashrinked Villa Palletti for $5.)

Negatives: For me, this con-vention was mostly a tournamentfor longer games (some of whichconflicted). The parlor gamessuch as Slapshot and Greed onlygot about 7-10 people, not enoughin my eyes for a tournament.

I knew a small group of peo-

Analysis, by Dave Denton

W


Featuresple, and I got to play some coolstuff (Gardens of Alhambra forexample), but the atmospherewasn’t as conducive for opengaming as Euroquest.

The main downside for mewas the travel time. I live onLong Island and PrezCon is inCharlottsville, Va. My mom livesin Petersburg, and I visited herbefore going to the convention. IfI didn’t have relatives in Virginia,I probably wouldn’t have bravedFebruary weather through theVerrazzano Bridge AND the BeltParkway to go to PrezCon.

For those narcoleptics at con-

ventions, there are alwaysWerewolf games going on lateinto the night at conventions. Newblood? Players will gladly inviteyou in before eating you. Here area few tips before getting yourselfinto a game:

Try “smaller” games first thatare less time consuming. Thisway, you can see if you even likeplaying, and you might even get afew hours of sleep.

Avoid “kid games”. They justget strange, and aren’t as enter-taining as adults killing eachother. Trust me.

Don’t get too “wrapped up” init. It’s role-play, but ONLY that.

Most of all, try to get SOMEsleep. Remember you have todrive home.

Useful sites:WBCwww.boardgamers.org Euroquesthttp://euroquest.gamesclubofm

d.org/PrezConwww.prezcon.comMessage Boardswww.consimworld.com and

www.boardgamegeek.com mayhave info about more conventionsin your area.

INTERESTED IN JOINING LIBO?The Long Island Boardgaming Organization (LIBO) meetsone Saturday a month in Suffolk County. We also meet

one Friday evening a month, to replay games playedat the main Saturday GameDay.

Besides boardgaming, LIBO runs several offshootprojects throughout the year, including:

LIBO Heroscape LeagueLIBO Computer Strat-O-Matic Football League

LIBO Role-Playing

And, twice a year, we have “Celebration” days, wheremembers and their families are welcome to come andenjoy a variety of non-boardgame related activities.

If you’re interested in learning more, please email Chris [email protected]


egas Showdown is agame that is more thanthe sum of its parts.

Ostensibly a Vegas-themed game,the game is actually closer to astandard Euro than any game aboutgambling. The game was put outby Hasbro a few years ago, mostlikely in Hasbro’s attempt toappeal to a mass market, but it’snow out of print. It’s not the mostoriginal, and has mechanics thatare strongly reminiscent of manyother Euros, but it’s still verygood.

The first thing to note is that

there is no gambling in the game.It has poker chips, and a title thatreferences Vegas, but no poker ofany kind. Rather the game is aboutbuilding casinos. Each player has amat on which they build their casi-no. Players bid on rooms that willfill their casino such as restaurantsand Slots and lounges and ofcourse, the Dragon Room andHigh Rollers Room. Players mustposition the rooms so that theyconnect and leave an opening ateither entrance and players cantrace a path between each roomand the entrance. Players can only

place the blue rooms, variations ofrestaurants, in the blue area oftheir mat and the green rooms, forentertainment, like theaters andnight clubs in the green portion oftheir board. There is a third type ofroom, yellow which are the gam-bling rooms which can be placedanywhere.

At the end of the game, players

V

A Chip Off theA Chip Off theEuro BlockEuro Block

Vegas Showdown, by John ReinersVegas Showdown

Avalon Hill3-5 players

LIBO rating: 4.0 (1 play)Presentation RatingsGraphics: 6Components: 6System RatingsOriginality of Mechanics: 6 GamePlay/GameFlow: 8End-game: 8Fun Factor: 8Gamer Rating: 72 Overall Rating: 70

ScalesAbstract Theme

Luck Skill

InteractivityNone Plenty

Strategies to WinFew Many

CalculationsFew Many

While Vegas Showdown has many components, besides the game board, most of thepieces are flimsy and cheap-looking.


earn points, based on who has themost green rooms, the most bluerooms, whether they can placetheir rooms on their mat so thatboth entrances are connected. Themost money is also scored as wellas who has the largest population.Certain rooms also have red trian-gles on their corners which, whenconnected with other rooms withtriangles on their corners, can pro-duce points.

One flaw in the game is thepresentation. The graphics on themain board do a good job of apoker table at a casino includingthe green color as well as the whitelines that would outline where youwould place a deck of cards.However, the rooms you bid forare pretty bland looking and barelyhave any graphics on them at all..Even worse, each player’s mat ismade out of paper.

The gameplay though is muchmore enjoyable than the packag-ing. When we read the rules aboutbidding for rooms, someone point-ed out that it sounded just like

Amun Re’s biddingfor provinces.Players place a bidnext to one of therooms, then otherplayers bid. Ifsomeone outbidsthat player he islater allowed to out-bid them or movehis marker to anoth-er room.

There are stan-dard rooms whichare always availableand then there aremore expensive rooms which canbe bid on, which are limited, andsome of which require playershave other rooms before they canbe placed. On the following turnthough, a number of cards aredrawn equal to the number ofrooms that were purchased. Thesecards are what drive the game for-ward and have various effects thatchange the rules slightly or allowcertain types of buildings to bescored.

The game might end a bitabruptly. As it’s based on the cardsdrawn there is a lot of luck whichdetermines how quickly the gameends. The special rooms come inthree sizes and once all of therooms of one size are depleted thegame ends and then final scoring iscompleted. This is not, to me agame flaw, though for certain peo-ple I could see it being a turn off.

The game has a nice balance ofluck and strategy as well as playerinteraction. The game does havesome multiplayer solitaire action,in that each player is working onhis own board. In that regard youcan’t hurt players directly.

But the majority of the game isthe auction for the rooms,wherethere is direct competition,so players don’t feel like they areplaying by themselves

Despite the game’s flaws, Ienjoyed it a lot more than Ithought I would. I actually wasexpecting some variation of TexasHold Em , based on the title andthe game presentation, so I wassurprised to find a decent Eurohidden under the Vegas setting.

Reviews

Vegas ShowdownPlayers Score RatingJarett 37 4John 36 4Bill 32 4Adam 23 4

Overall Rating: 4.0Our time: 1h-15mRules explanation time: 15m

Despite its title, Vegas Showdown has nothing to do with gambling. Instead, the gameinvolves building a casino. It’s reminscent of other Euros, with a Vegas theme.


n 2003, Lutz Stepponat andPegasus Press put out a newfantasy adventure game

titled, Die Rückkehr der Helden,or, Return of the Heroes. Thismodular board game attempts tocreate the theme and excitement ofmedieval times, as players racearound a mythical land, attemptingto gain in power and magical itemsas they prepare to kill the dreadedNameless One.

The game commonly getsreferred to as a simpler version ofthe classic board game MagicRealm, while some jokingly referto it as a more-advanced Tailsman.Never having played either of theaforementioned games, I cannotspeculate on their similarities orlack thereof.

Being a fan of the fantasygenre, and based on some goodword of mouth, I had very highhopes for this game. While someaspects of the game seem to liveup to the hype, as a whole, aftertwo plays of Return Of TheHeroes, I can’t help but be leftwanting more.

In Return Of The Heroes, play-ers take the role of one of a num-ber of fantasy-heroes (fighters,mages, clerics, dwarves), whotravel the kingdom solving questsand getting themselves stronger inphysical attributes, and with theacquisition of magical items, in arace against the other players tosee who can become strongenough to defeat the Big Bad andwin the game.

The firstthing youcan seewhen youopen thisgame is thatPegasuspress reallyput a lot ofmoney andeffort intothe artworkand compo-nents. Themap tiles areconstructedof thick

cardboard and contain truly beauti-ful artwork. Likewise, the oversizedCharacter sheets are well done, anda very nice touch. The sheets areeven double-sided with a characterof each gender on either side,allowing players even more flexi-bility in their character choices.Players are even given their ownpolished gemstone to be places on

I

Like Lord of the Rings,Like Lord of the Rings,But With More WalkingBut With More Walking

Return of the Heroes, by Andrew DiGregorioReturn of the Heroes

Pegasus Press1-4 players

LIBO rating: 2.8 (2 plays)Presentation RatingsGraphics: 8Components: 7System RatingsOriginality of Mechanics: 6 GamePlay/GameFlow: 3End-game: 5Fun Factor: 4Gamer Rating: 51 Overall Rating: 55


Luck Skill




Loads of beautiful tiles where encounters take place...arguably, thebest part of the game.


their quest cards to signify theircompletion. These little items go along way in setting the mood andtheme while playing the game.

The rest of the game compo-nents, however, while certainlyadequate for the job, do not comeclose to the level of quality as theitems mentioned above. Theencounter tokens are standardcardboard fare, and the game couldhave really benefited from usingplastic or pewter miniatures,instead of the slim cardboardcutouts that come with the game.

Gameplay is fairly standard inits execution. Players spend theirturns traversing the board (whichis randomly generated each time…a nice touch), fighting monstersand completing quests, with eachvictory getting them either gold,magical items, or experience,which will gradually make themstronger, better fighters.

As soon as the first playercompletes his/her primary quest,then that player may endeavor to

battle the main vil-lain in the game, theNameless One (whois also random eachtime, making eachfinal battle slightlydifferent. Anothernice touch.).

Although thegame looks great,and the theme isinspired, the actualdrudgery of theturn-taking is wherethe game begins to suffer. On aplayers turn, they must travel fromone area of the board to another,picking up quests (which are most-ly of the ‘Find A, bring it to B,then kill C’ variety) and battlingthe random monsters that arestrewn throughout the board alongthe way.

That’s it, as far as decisionmaking goes. If you pick up aquest, your next few turns willmost likely be spent just movingyour character a few spaces each

turn, trying to get to the questobjective. As you travel, you willtry to pick and choose the mon-sters you fight, based on theirweaknesses and your strengths.Combat is completely dice driven,with the only tactic one canemploy is to only fight monstersthat are susceptible to the attackthat you are strong in.

After two2 plays now of thisgame, it seems that this middlepart of the game is what begins todrag the game down, with (in bothof my plays) over two hours of justmoving around the board andthrowing dice, waiting for the nextpiece of your quest to be randomlypicked from the quest bag, andplaced on the board so you cancontinue onward with the game. Ifyou suffer from bad luck, and theyour next quest objective isn’tpicked from the bag, you reallydon’t have a heck of a lot to doeach turn except just fighting mon-sters and running quests on theboard to continue to buff yourcharacter.

The game needs “something”during this phase, and after twoplays I can’t figure out what it islacking. Certainly, just cuttingsome of the time off the game

ReviewsReturn of the Heroes

Players Score RatingJarett 8 3Andrew 8 3Brian 1 2

Overall Rating: 2.7Our time: 2hRules explanation time: 25m

Roll, move, roll, move, roll, move, fight something, repeat. The excitement in this pic-ture is NOT posed or staged!


would have helped. Both of myplays clocked in at close to threehours, and that is just too long forsuch a light game of this type.

The game could be perhapsredeemed if there were more inter-activity between the players, or away to challenge and hamper yourhuman opponents, but here again,the game comes up short.

In both of my plays, there wasalmost zero interaction betweenthe players, as there is almost noway that one player can influenceanother’s actions, beyond grabbinga quest or killing a monster beforeanother player could reach it.

Most admirers of this gameboast that the game plays well as asolo-game, and I wholeheartedlybelieve it. I felt that both of mythree player games of this were

basically solo games, where eachplayer played their own game.

The end game also leavessomething to be desired. Once aplayer completes their primaryquest, they now are able to attackthe Nameless One, who is drawnrandomly at the start of the game,and can, based on his life pointsand powers, be anywhere frommildly to insanely difficult. But theending combat is just a series ofdice rolls, so there isn’t any realdecision making here either.

The worst part of this gamehappens if a player dies, eitherthrough fighting the Nameless Oneor just through standard monstercombat. Upon death, a player losesall the experience points they haveaccumulated from the beginning ofthe game, essentially starting the

game all over again! There is noth-ing that will take your enthusiasmout of a game than telling a playerthat they basically have to start atwo-hour game back from scratch.In both games I played, if a playerfighting the Nameless One died,the player opted to just leave thegame. A wise choice, indeed.

There are two expansions tothis game, “Under The Shadow OfThe Dragon”, and “Heroes In TheUnderworld”. I can’t comment onthese expansions, having not hadthe opportunity to try them. Onecan only hope that these expan-sions substantially enhance thegameplay, however, because as astandalone game, Return Of TheHeroes, while rich in componentsand theme, seems to be lacking inactual game.

nterestingly, Dante’sInferno owes anawful lot to some

Euro-game predecessors— Settlers of Catan, forstarters. The same conceptof collecting resourcesbased on the 2d6 probabil-ity is alive and well inDante’s Inferno. There aresome subtle changes, butnothing too substantial. Inthe end, the game playslike an equally longSettlers of Catan, withless options and choices.

Essentially, each play-er controls a team ofhunters, whose goal is tokill the devil in the ninthcircle of Hell. The board,a square grid, contains‘resources’ (which arenothing more than differ-ently colored tiles), eachwith a set of two numberson them. Players can posi-tion their characters oneach tile, and –—wheneither of the two numbersare rolled — they collectthe respective resource.

I

Abandon Excitement,Abandon Excitement,All Ye Who Play HereAll Ye Who Play Here

Dante’s Inferno, by Chris Palermo

Dante’s InfernoPlayers Score RatingChris 100 3Brian 66 3Andrew 26 3Anna Maria 20 4



Each action requires turning inone tile or a combination of tiles.Like Ingenious, the number ofeach colored resource is kept on aseparate board that each playercontrols.

Like Settlers, players canfreely trade resources for otherresources or for (non-binding)future considerations.

So moving, moving forward(to a deeper circle of Hell),recruiting a new hunter, etc.; eachaction requires some combinationof colors.

In truth, there’s really no needto recruit other hunters, because,once ONE hunter makes it to thecenter and slays the devil, thegame ends. It only takes onehunter to do that. However, themore hunters available and on theboard means more resources.

Finally, also like Settlers,whenever a 7 is rolled, a demonmay be placed on the board. Thisis the only way other charactersmay be attacked.

So, besides the fact that thegame feels like a rehashing of anold classic, the key question (as it

always is) is “Is it fun?” Well,yes, to a point. You don’t feelimmersed in the theme — I neveronce felt as though I really was ademon hunter descending circlesof hell.

There’s a sameness to eachturn, however; and that canbecome somewhat tedious. UnlikeSettlers, which offers multipleavenues to victory – developmentcards, upgrades, longest roads,etc. — Dante’s Inferno has butone criterion: Kill the main devil.Everyone else loses.

The pieces are attractiveenough, but the markers to denotehow many resources each playerhas are nearly useless. The tilesare standard tiles — sturdy andthick enough to withstand someamount of play.

While it’s true that the winnerisn’t known until the very end ofthe game (the first one to defeatthe demon wins), that’s not neces-sarily a good thing in this situa-tion. The gameplay leading up tothe endgame can be somewhatboring, as the entire turn consistsof little more than rolling dice,

collect-ingresourcesand tak-ing somesmallactions(assum-ing youhaveresourcesto exe-cute theaction).Again,it’s way

too reminiscent of Settlers, whichactually did it better.

The theme itself doesn’t addanything to it. You can’t even say,“for ‘horror’ fans, add anotherpoint,” because nothing about thegame drips with theme.

There’s no magic, no spells,no special circumstances. Instead,there’s resource collection andspending, and that’s all there is.

Mercifully, the game didn’ttake even as long as had original-ly been suspected. Again, though,if I ever feel the need to play thisgame again, I’ll happily takeSettlers of Catan down from thegameshelf, to play the original.

ReviewsDante’s InfernoTwilight Creations

3-6 playersLIBO rating: 3.3 (1 play)

Presentation RatingsGraphics: 6Components: 6System RatingsOriginality of Mechanics: 5 GamePlay/GameFlow: 6End-game: 7Fun Factor: 6Gamer Rating: 64 Overall Rating: 63


Luck Skill




Basically a Settlers of Catan where your holdings are constantly chang-ing, Dante’s Inferno has a great theme, that isn’t reinforced very well bythe game itself.


ie Macher is often hailedas an absolute classic ofEurogame design. As

such, it should be expected that itinvolves engaging tactical andstrategic choices, plays with attrac-tive wooden bits, does not includeplayer elimination, and nicely dis-guises a complex mathematicalpuzzle with a theme (in this caseGerman politics). Given its para-digmatic status in the Eurogamepantheon however (it does possessthe Game ID of #1 on

boardgamegeek.com after all), it ishighly unusual in that it fails toconform to two of the standardcharacteristics of a Eurogame — itruns for over four hours and has afairly extensive rule set.

As an early example of thegenre, it clearly exhibits its debtto hobby games such as the eco-nomic games of Avalon Hill in amore pronounced fashion thanmany of the subsequent Germangame designs that were influencedby its stylistic innovations. Over

two decades after its release, itnow represents a strange gamingoxymoron — the “epic”Eurogame, an Everest that awaitsclimbing by ever gamer who findsthat he enjoys games like Settlersof Catan a bit too much for hisown good and seeks somethingmore substantial.

The most recent version of thisclassic was released last year by afledgling game publishing compa-ny called Valley Games. This ver-

D

Why?Why? Because It’s ThereBecause It’s ThereDie Macher, by Bill Herbst

Die MacherValley Games

3-5 playersLIBO rating: 3.4 (2 plays)



Luck Skill




Die Macher represents the game that every Eurogamer must try at least once. However,with a lengthy ruleset and multiple actions each turn, it truly is an acquired taste.


Reviewssion is lavishly produced with sixmounted boards and a plethora ofcards and wooden markers.

It includes a very thoroughrulebook in English and a CDROM with rules for several otherlanguages. Perhaps most impor-tantly this 3rd edition ruleset alsoincludes a five round variant thatsignificantly shortens the playingtime without unduly sacrificing thegameplay.

The graphical design is suit-ably abstract with icons represent-ing the various political positionstaken by the competing parties andvariously colored and shapedwooden markers representing theresources that they use to influencethe elections. Some of the iconsseem poorly chosen as it’s difficultto distinguish some of the issuesfrom one another from across theboard and it’s essential to the gameto keep track of one’s opponents’political platforms.

The icons for economic rede-

velopment and nuclear technologyare particularly difficult to distin-guish from one another. This isreally only a quibble, however, asthe fairly abstract components ofthe game are more than functionaland do an excellent job at convey-ing quite a lot of information in avery efficient way.

The various mechanics of thesystem interact through the turnsequence in remarkably complexways. This is both the game’sgreatest strength and its fatal flaw.The turn sequence itself seems abit overstuffed with 15 differentphases each round.

Each phase is relatively shortand easy to understand on its own,but the web of connectionsbetween the implications of all thepossible options in each phase andtheir influence of subsequent phas-es is staggeringly complex. Thisultimately yields a very satisfyinggaming experience because itrequires attention to detail in each

of 15 phases over the course of 6full election rounds (as well as onescoring round).

It can also produce analysisparalysis in players and can leavebeginners floundering as they learnthe hard way that their poor deci-sions in one election, or even inone phase of an election, will neg-atively impact their party’s devel-opment in later rounds as well.

Ultimately, I find that the sub-division of the election round intosuch a large number of phases pre-vents the game from flowingsmoothly. The mechanics for eachof the phases also involve a bit offiddly card distribution (and, occa-sionally, redistribution), moneydistribution, and marker manipula-tion. The game’s mechanics arecertainly innovative and must havebeen absolutely groundbreaking in1986.

Moreover, the simple fact thatthis 15 phase behemoth of a roundsuccessfully comes to completionat all is a wonder to behold, but,sadly, bloated elephants are notgraceful and recent innovations ingame design have caused us toexpect elegance as well as forwardprogress in gameplay. Also, for itslength and the consistent level ofcomplexity that it presents theplayers in judging the complex tac-tical and strategic benefits of vari-ous decision points, Die Macherincludes quite a bit of chaosthrough its use of blind bidding onopinion polls, dice rolls for partymembership and card distribution.

Personally, I find that the gamestrikes a nice balance betweenchaos and control because most ofthe potential negative effects ofbad luck can be mitigated or pre-vented by prudent play, but it’s

Of all the themes that have been used for Eurogames, who would think that a gameabout German politics would be the one that, along with Acquire, resonates the longest?


probably best to warn those whoprefer their five hour brain-burninggames to be relatively luck freethat this game contains a signifi-cant element of reliance on fate.

While people often mock DieMacher for having a supposedlyuninteresting theme, I find that theidea of controlling a German polit-ical party attempting to maximizeits placement in a series of region-al elections and thus influencetheir standing on a national level tobe fascinating.

Unlike many of its followers inthe Eurogame genre, Die Macheralso manages to carry much of itstheme into its gameplay. Playersmust make cynical judgmentsthroughout the game as to which

regions must be abandoned toensure success in other regionsgiven one’s limited assets.

Party platforms must bearranged to appeal to the region upfor the current vote while the senti-ments of other regions and nationalopinion cannot be neglected.Money spent to gain control of themedia and public opinion polls isalways a tensely watched invest-ment that may or may not yield theanticipated benefits.

Of course, the most thematical-ly engaging moments are thoseoccasions where one looks acrossthe table at one’s bitter rival andrealizes that the only way to winthe election is to sell one’s princi-ples down the river and form a

coalition with the enemy that noneof the other players will expect.

While Eurogames have madesome improvements in streamlin-ing gameplay and cutting back onthe length of time necessary for astrategically satisfying experience,designers could still learn a lotfrom this 21 year old classic abouthow an engaging theme well inte-grated into the game design canyield an immersive experience thatleaves players mentally and emo-tionally drained yet strangely eagerto play again. While few would betempted to play this game at everysession, no Olympics would becomplete without a marathon andno Eurogame collection can affordto be without Die Macher.

ivilization is the granddaddyof development and empire-building games. And if Civ

is the slightly senile grandfather,whose long rambling stories aboutthe snowstorm that killed his cowwhen he was six years old can bethought of as amusing for theirabsurdity (or at least balanced outby the twenty he slips you whenyour folks aren’t looking), thenAdvanced Civ is the grandfatherwho gets drunk and walks aroundthe house in his underwear yellingthat everything was better in hisday all the while blowing stalecigar smoke from one end andstaler broccoli farts from the other.

Which is not to say that there’snothing to like about Advanced Civ.It’s just that it takes an already long

and fairly brain-burning game andpushes it right past eleven and rightup to around sixteen. And it does sowithout adding anything signifi-cantly new and different to thegameplay.

There are no new units; theydevelop and move in the same way;trading and combat are essentiallythe same. The most significant dif-ferences are in the number and bal-ance of trade cards and calamities,and the addition of a new group ofcivilization cards to buy.

The result is more calamities torespond to, more ways to trade forpoints, and more things to spendthose points on, without much realchange to gameplay itself. If youlike or love Civilization, this maywell be a good thing. It’s worth not-

ing however that in the decade anda half since Advanced Civappeared, it’s become pretty com-mon for an expansion to a game(which is what this essentially is) toadd some real variety.

The better expansions forCarcassonne, or Cities & Knightsof Catan, for instance, create a hostof new ways to play the game, insome case creating an entirely newplay experience.

The question then becomes, doyou like Civilization itself, and ifso, do you like it enough to wanteven more of the same? For me,honestly, I think the answer wouldpretty much have to be “no”. Mythinking on this was crystallizedwhen another player suggested thatthe game would go faster if there

C

Advanced to BoredomAdvanced to BoredomAdvanced Civilization, by Jarett Weintraub


were fewer calamities. I realizedthat he was right, but that it wouldalso almost completely freeze playon the board. The only reason thereare so many calamities, I realized,was to ensure that you something,anything at all, to do on the mapfrom turn to turn.

After the early game, onceexpansion is more or less completeand your civilization’s infrastruc-ture is built, there’s not really atremendous amount to do of greatinterest on the game board otherthan figuring out how to limit thedamage from calamities and how torecover from that damage, turn afterturn.

The board has plenty of spacefor players to build, and war rarelydelivers significant advantages. It’sreasonably easy to get to 7, 8, or 9cities, and if wasn’t for calamities,the board would simply stagnate.Even so, most calamities are rela-tively easy to bounce back from inquick order, other than the two orthree major ones that can reducehave your civilization (Civil Warand Iconoclasm & Heresy, primari-ly). Recovery just becomes an exer-

cise in abstract logistics, repeatedover and over. If one is sufficientlycareful, and able to do addition, itcan always be done at least well, ifnot optimally.

Given this, the two biggest fac-tors in Civilization will often beluck, with respect to getting oravoiding calamities; and skill, intrading and buying with goodscards. The former skill is signifi-cant, and possibly the most interac-tive portion of the game as well.

It can be a lot of fun, and pro-vide a real respite from the drierand more math heavy activities offiguring out which civilizationcards to buy or where to put one’spopulation expansion so as to bestrebuild from the last round ofcalamities.

The ability to trade skillfully isat the heart of many games, howev-er, most of them much shorter thanAdvanced Civilization.

In its defense, many gameshave tried to take the mantle of bestcivilization building game awayfrom Advanced Civ, claiming to belike Civilization, but playable in 2or 3 hours; none of them strike me

as having succeeded in unseatingCiv. However, Civilization itself,while a better game than most if notall of these, is simply too long, evenfor what it is.

If it was able to be played andcompleted in 6 hours, I would con-sider it excellent almost withoutreservation. But those extra 2-4hours of play time make for somevery large reservations indeed.

ReviewsAdvanced Civilization

Avalon Hill2-8 players



Luck Skill




Despite the cardboard counters and map (and general appearance), Civilization (andAdvanced Civilization) are not wargames.They have much more in common withEurogames about Empire Building, etc. than any wargame.

Remember to checklibogroup.com

this summer for ourNEW BLOG

and updated site!


sk any detective who hasworked in NYC how theytrack down a suspect and

they’ll tell you they rely on cluesand deduction to figure out the like-lihood of where their suspect can befound. NY Chase gives a taste ofwhat it might be like to try and cor-ner your suspect and take him in fora beatin...I mean questioning.

If you like deduction games,you probably will enjoy NY Chase.If you have ever played Clue, andchances are you have, then NewYork Chase would be a good nextstep toward a little more advanceddeduction game. This game is for 3to 6 players and the unique thingabout this game as opposed to Clueis that some of the players worktogether to capture the suspect whois referred to as Mr. X.

The object of the game is for thedetectives to try and find Mr. Xwithin 24 game rounds while Mr. Xtries to elude them. If Mr. X eludesthe detectives for 24 founds, thenMr. X escapes and wins the game.However, if the detectives win byfinding Mr. X within 24 gamerounds, the players get to beat theheck out of the player who was Mr.X. No really, I’m not kidding. Oh,ok, I’m kidding.

I played this game with fourplayers; three of us were the detec-tives and one played the suspect.Bill was Mr. X during our game. So,

Bill put on his Mr. X visor. Oh, Iforgot to mention the visor. Thegame comes with a cardboard visorwith an elastic band that is worn bythe player who is Mr. X. It lookslike something that you might getwith a Happy Meal. And no, its notto make the player who is playingMr. X look like a dork. It actuallyhelps to shield the player’s eyes sowhen he is looking at the board hewon’t give away his position. A lit-tle side note here, it was mentionedthat when this game was played onanother occasion that the playerwho was Mr. X wore a pair of sun-glasses instead of the visor. Thisdoes two things. One, it makes youlook like a cooler dork and two,nobody will accidentally see youreyes.

The board is a map ofManhattan that has subway, bus andtaxi lines that run to various pointson the board which are referred toas hubs. There are 199 hubs on theboard where Mr. X can hide. Duringthe game Mr. X can use the sub-ways, buses, and taxi lines to movearound the board. So even thoughtheir Mr. X is outnumbered, thereare a lot of places to hide in additionto various tricks he can use to eludethe other players. The detectivesalso use the subways, buses and taxilines to move around the board.

Each player that is a detectivestarts the game with 10 taxi, 8 bus,

and 4 subway tickets. The playersshare their tickets with one another.Mr. X gets 11 taxis, 7 buses, and 4subways. The 2X tokens allow Mr.X to take two turns without anydetective getting a chance to movebetween those two turns. The blacktokens are used to hide what modeof transportation Mr. X is usingwhen moving. Once a ticket or

ANY Chase, by Matt Dickinson

NY ChaseRavensburger


Presentation RatingsGraphics: 6Components: 6System RatingsOriginality of Mechanics: 8 GamePlay/GameFlow: 10End-game: 8Fun Factor: 9Gamer Rating: 82Overall Rating: 78


Luck Skill




I’ll Take Manhattan,I’ll Take Manhattan,But You Keep the HatBut You Keep the Hat


token is used by either the detec-tives or Mr. X it is out of the game.So tickets and tokens must be usedwisely.

At the start of the game, thedetectives are randomly given theirstarting positions on the board bydrawing cards. Mr. X is randomlygiven a starting position as well butit is kept secret.

During the game Mr. X writesdown which of the 199 hubs he ismoving to on his turn. The paper hewrites on is placed in a plastic hold-er separated into the the 24 roundsof the game. The hub where Mr. Xis moving to is kept secret, however,the mode of transportation that isused is reveled. Mr. X takes one ofhis transportation tickets and placesit on the plastic holder covering the

number of the hubhe has moved to.Except for rounds 3,8, 13, 18 and 24.During these rounds,the number of thehub where Mr. X islocated is reveled tothe detectives. So,for 19 rounds of thegame, the detectivesare trying to figureout where Mr. X isby the modes oftransportation that isused. For five rounds of the game,the detectives have a chance to zeroin on Mr. X..

Remember the, 5 black and 2“2X” tokens I mentioned earlier thatMr. X has? He can use these to get

out of situations wherehe may have to revealhimself if the detectivesare close to him. Sincethere are bus, taxi, andsubway lines connect-ing all the hubs, itmakes it harder to pin-point which way Mr. Xmoved even when thedetectives are close by.

The detectives havea couple of tricks theycan use as well. Theycan set up roadblocksthat prevent Mr. X fromlanding on those spaces.The number of road-blocks that are useddepends upon the num-ber of players; With 4or 5 detectives, thereare 2 roadblocks andwith 3 detectives thereare 3 roadblocks thatcan be used. The road-blocks can be placed on

any hub that a detective has just lefton his turn. Mr. X can still passthrough a roadblock; he just can’tstop there. The detectives also canuse a helicopter to quickly get tohub on a board. This is helpfulwhen Mr. X reveals himself and thedetectives are not near him. Onlyone detective can take the helicopterat a time and it costs two tickets ofany type to use it. It also takes twoturns for a detective to use the heli-copter. One turn is used to fly to anyhub on the board and then it takesanother turn for the helicopter toland. So, even though Mr. X mayhave revealed himself, he has twoturns to elude the detective.

This is a fun game. At first, itlooks as though there is a major dis-advantage for Mr. X in this gamebut I don’t think it’s a major disad-vantage. There are 199 possiblespots that Mr. X can be located. Andeven though he reveals himself fivetimes during the game, Mr. X stillseems to have enough tricks up hissleeve to elude the detectives. Ifound the teamwork aspect of thegame enjoyable. There aren’t manygames that offer that and it’srefreshing when you run across onethat does.

ReviewsNY Chase

Players Score RatingAndrew 16 4Dave D. 16 4Matt 16 5Bill 0 4


The search for a picture of people playing NY Chasewhere they look “cool” continues.

eythedral is the third inthe line of RichardBreese’s trilogy of games

centering around Keyland. In thisgame, players assist in construct-ing a Keythedral (or Cathedral) inthe town of Keytown in the land ofKeyland. The first two games(Keyland and Keydom) in the tril-ogy are rare self produced gamesthat had little distribution (thoughKeydom was modified and rere-leased as Aladdin’s Dragons).Keythedral is the first of the threeto be professionally produced (byProLudo) and widely available.

Before the game starts playerssetup the board and layout theirfive cottages and areas on theboard which produce differentresources. Once the board is laidout, players then send out theirworkers from their cottages togather the different resources need-ed to build the keythedral.

They then purchase seats onthe council with said resources,which gives players points. Onlyone level of the keythedral is avail-able to build at a time, so theupper levels, which are worthmore points are not revealed untilthe previous level is completed.These require different resources,craft cubes, like stained glass, goldand iron which have to be pur-chased by trading in resourcecubes. Additionally players areable to buy law cards which affectthe laws of Keytown and changethe rules in the game slightly when

the law is issued, or the card isplayed. For example, some lawsallow for double production orchanging of the Start order and canimpact the game in interestingways.

The first thing to note aboutthe game is the presentation. Ittruly is a charming looking game.The artwork is cartoony, but welldone and shows a lot of individualtouches. For example, each playerhas 9 workers in their color, andeach worker graphic is unique inall the different colors (meaningthere are 45 different workers). It’sa small touch but does add a lot tothe games overall presentation.There’re also the requisite woodencubes found in many euros.

Another interesting touch isthat the land pieces, which doresemble those found in Settlers ofCatan are octagons. This allowsthe placement of the cottages,which are square in between thecorners of the land tiles. The gameallows you to convert cottages intohouses by turning them over (thisallows you to bring out two work-ers instead of one). As the cottagesare between the land tiles you caneasily move the land pieces whentrying to get to the cottage, whichrequires rejoining the land tilestogether afterwards. It’s a veryminor gripe however and doesn’tdetract from the game.

Keythedral in some waysreminds me of Settlers. It looks abit like Settlers and it has similari-

ties in that your tiles produce vari-ous resources every turn, but itsresemblance is only skin deep. Itstands on its own as a great game.Each round there is a lot of inter-action between players in that theyare all vying for means to producegoods on land which can bordermany players cottages and,depending on turn order, playerscan block other players from pro-ducing in certain fields by placingtheir workers on those fields first.


K

A Breese of Fresh AirA Breese of Fresh AirKeythedral, by John Reiners

KeythedralR& D Games3-5 players



Luck Skill





Reviews

The start player places hiscylinder on one of 5 numbers. Thisdetermines which cottage pro-duces. He places one of his work-ers on that number cottage andthen everyone else places a work-er, if they can, on their cottagewith the same number. If they areable to get a house out they canbring out two workers and placethem on areas adjacent to thatnumber tile. This part of the game

can get very cutthroat and strategicas you try to place workers on anumber that gives you theresources you’ll need but alsowon’t cause other players whenthey place cylinder to block yourfuture workers placement. Onceevery player has placed all of theirworkers they gather resources onany land tile that has a worker onit.

Then the heart of the game

begins. Each player takes a turn toperform an action, then the nextplayer takes their action. Playerscontinue taking actions in a clock-wise fashion until they pass ordraw a law card which ends theirturn. However, only two law cardscan be drawn during that phase, sothere is a lot of tension during thisround.

Do you go for the law card andend your turn, or do you purchasea seat on the council which areworth points, but run the risk ofallowing another player to draw alaw card blocking you out of fur-ther law cards.

Finally, an auction is done todetermine the next start player forthe following round. The auctionitself is a little strange, in that thestart player marker is passed to theperson on the left before the auc-tion starts. Then the auction startswith the player on his left whomakes a bid. The next player hasto bid higher or pass, except forthe last player who can match thehighest bid. Whoever wins the bidpays the person to the left of thestart player. If that player wins thebid they pay the person whose bidthey matched. The winner of the

KeythedralPlayers Score RatingJohn 55 4Adam 54 4Chris 50 4Anna Maria 37 4


KeythedralPlayers Score RatingVince 59 4Bill 48 5Adam 41 4Jen 35 4


The great mechanics in Keythedral are separated into two acts. The setup of the boardis vitally important, as the places selected will affect the player the entire game. Duringthe game itself, the actions the player takes also are important, but those are contingenton the places selected initially. There’s no action or move that’s “not important.”

auction though will often give theplayer to his right the start playermarker. They will then go secondthe following round, but when theauction round starts they will againbe the person who can auction thestart player marker for the follow-ing round, thus earning money.

The rule is definitely a bitintrictate and confusing, when youfirst conduct the auctions, but oncethe game gets going, it becomesintuitive to grasp.

The game flows smoothly andquickly as players buy up the seatson the council which are worthgreater points as the game pro-gresses. The lowest level seats, ofwhich there are the most, areworth 4 points. The final seat isworth 12 points, and very oftengetting that last seat can make or

break your game, so there is a lotof competition for the high scoringseats. Some players ignore the lowscoring seats and concentrate onbuilding their houses and gettinglaws and craft cubes and then buyseats when they reach the 8 to 12point range.

However, in some of ourgames the winners were the oneswho concentrated on the 4 pointseats and a few of the higher scor-ing seats and were able to win thatway.

There isn’t that much luckexcept in the drawing of the lawcards, which are face down whendrawn. They can have a lot ofimpact on the game though, some-times in ways that might be a bitoverpowering. But this is mitigatedby the fact that drawing the law

card ends yourturn for thatround, whereasother players cancontinue to getcouncil seats andgather pointsinstead of draw-ing cards.

I liked theimplementationof law cards, andin many waysthey make thegame far moreexciting. Aseveryone movessequentially, youcan potentiallysee how the gameis going to endwhen the last fewseats are up forgrabs, exceptwhen a player

enacts a law card from their handwhich completely changes every-thing, and they are able to snatch acouncil seat out of the blue.

One of the more underutilizedstrategies in the game, which I’venoticed is the building of fences toblock opponents from placingworkers on certain areas. This is anoption during players’ turns, but inthe few games we’ve played wegenerally ignore fences for themost part. It’s another added wrin-kle to game strategy which mightbe utilized more as players getmore familiar with the game.

Overall, I was very surprisedby Keythedral, from the graphicsto the immersive gameplay. It’sdefinitely one of the better gamesof the last few years. It doesresemble a few other Euros in styleand mechanics, but has enoughdifferences to make the gameunique in its own right.

It’s not as cooperative as someEuros, which is a good thing.There are a lot of ways to hurtother players, from blocking offworkers, to building fences, to tak-ing council seats before they get tothem. There are a lot of choicesinvolved and some strategic depthand cutthroat possibilities.

But first and formost it’s just afun game. Though I haven’t playedthe first two games of the trilogy(though I have played Aladdiin’sDragons which I found veryimpressive as well), playing thisone has given me a hankering tospend more time in Breese’sKeytown. Between this game,Aladdin’s Dragons and ReefEncounter, Breese is proving to beone of the better game designersproducing games out now.


Because of the varied numbers of actions and ways to scorepoints, Keythedral is a very strategic game, that — thankfully— plays in less than 90 minutes. Thus, you get maximum strate-gy, with minimal time investment.


lmost exactly a year ago, Ireviewed this same gameSince then, my appreciation

has only grown.It is a small game, both in size

and length (the board is only 6x5,and a typical game lasts perhaps 20-30 minutes), and its rules and playare bare simplicity itself; pick andplace a tile on the board to changethe value of the corresponding col-umn and row, or place one of yourscoring tiles to score that columnand row.

Last year I noted that it sat onthe same spectrum of games thatincluded Go, but at the opposite endof the complexity scale. I still agreewith the placement of Kingdoms onthat spectrum, but I think to say thatit is at the far end is selling thegame short.

It’s easy to rate Kingdoms as a‘light’ game, because it doesn’t havelots of rules, action points, auctions,or phases, and because it can beplayed quickly and is fun. But justbecause a game is simple, doesn’tmean it’s light.

While the game is themed

medievally, with castles for scoringtiles and dragons, orcs, and goldmines on the value tiles, I’d almostprefer it if the game had been leftthemeless, and marketed as theabstract strategy game that it is atheart. With a plain wooden board,marked with black lines for the grid,and bare white tiles marked withjust number values, what at firstappears to be a simple exercise inbasic math (add and subtract thevalue tiles together, and multiply bythe scoring tiles) would more clearlyreveal itself as the subtle strategygame that it is.

Although there is certainly anelement of luck in Kingdoms that islacking in pure abstract strategygames, there is a variant rule forplaying with all tiles face up, so thiselement is removed. I still have yetto try the variant rules, but I suspectdoing so will only bring out thecomplexity and subtlety that lurkbeneath this deceptively simplegame. Kingdoms also has the addedbenefits of scaling almost perfectlybetween 2, 3 and 4 players. Thegameplay experience is unavoidably

different between a2-player and multi-player game, as youhave half the impacton the board youwould otherwise,and there are two orthree times as manytiles placed on theboard between anyof your turns andyour next turn, butthis only alters thecharacter of the

game, and not its quality. A 2 playergame of Kingdoms is more clearly agame of strategy. Still, Kingdomsretains its excellent playability evenwhen played with four.

In the four years I have ownedKingdoms, it has only hit the tableperhaps a dozen times. But giventhe number of games out there toplay, and the relative paucity ofopponents, that number is actuallyquite high relative to almost anyother game I own or play, and Iexpect that my play of Kingdomswill only increase over time.

A

An Abstract in Filler’s ClothingAn Abstract in Filler’s ClothingKingdoms, by Jarett Weintraub

Reviews

KingdomsPlayers Score RatingAdam 305 4Andrew 300 4Jarett 267 4


KingdomsFantasy Flight Games




Luck Skill





reckage strikes me as agame that really wantsto be good, but suffers

because the system was designedto not be too complex. The prob-lem is, to make a truly engaging‘Mad Max’-type game thatengrosses the players, there needsto be some level of complexity.Wreckage has nearly none.

Out of the box, I wasimpressed by how large the pieceswere — they may just be card-board, but each car was fairlylarge, and each player gets his own“dashboard,” where he can denotehis speed.

Gameplay is pretty straight-for-ward, drive around this track, lim-ited by your hand of cards (thatprovide directional options). Whenyou see someone else, you shootthem, because they will certainlyshoot you if they have the opportu-nity. Each ‘driver’ also is able to

‘customize’ his car, by selectingdifferent weaponry and/or defen-sive effects to differentiate hisvehicle from the others.

From setup, however, I suspect-ed this game would not be asenjoyable as I’d initially hoped.Perhaps, part of that has to do withmy own misperception – the gameis intended to be fast and bloody,with limited focus on ‘winning.’Thus, it seems to go almost too fast(but, then again, that’s almost cer-tainly the intent of the designer).

The ‘board’ — which is limitedreally, only by table size, nonethe-less, is a fixed amount. From ‘top’of the objectives to the bottom is,maybe, two feet. Now, it’s impor-tant to have a large playing sur-face, because cars WILL go offcourse and drive every which way;but the objective area is only a 2x2square, which is where, ideally, allthe action would take place.

The problem is, you can onlychange speeds when you take anaction to do so — if you turn yourvehicle, you cannot change yourspeed. This leads to a 1) frustrating,2) non-sensible, 3) nearly impossi-ble to control, chaotic game. Carsspeed off in all directions, TYPI-CALLY, away from the 2x2 centerthat contains the objectives.

The goal of the game is to col-lect three of the five ‘randomly’placed oil cans that are all within

W

The Name Says it AllThe Name Says it AllWreckage, by Chris Palermo

WreckageFantasy Flight Games

2-4 playersLIBO rating: 1.5 (1 play)



Luck Skill




Yep, this is as good as it gets. Not really a “board” game, Wreckage is a “tabletop”game. It sounds as though it should be large, but, in truth, the game NEEDS to belarger. There’s simply no strategy (or fun) in its current state.


that 2x 2 center. Alternatively,eliminating all the other cars willalso win a player the game.

On the other hand, there issome realism to the game – afterall, it’s fairly likely that firing arocket launcher at a vehicle would— in most situations — complete-ly disable the vehicle. That’s a farcry from many other games thatmight — in an attempt to keep thegame experience alive a bit longer— allow the target vehicle to prac-tically ‘shake off’ the attack.That’s certainly not realistic, either.

The net effect of all this, how-ever, is that the game is overalmost before it starts — taking 4(or more) drivers, and setting themup with a 2x2 area to fight over,with monumentally powerfulweapons will NOT lead to a longgame — and, that needs to beknown before starting. This is not askill game, or one that checks

‘driving prowess.’It’s kill or be killed.

Because of mymisperceptions, Idon’t think Ienjoyed the game asmuch as I wantedto. I never even gota chance to fire myweapon, I tookdamage when onedriver crashed intome, and then, tohandicap myselfeven more, Ipromptly drove, quite fast, into anobstacle, doing even more damageto myself.

By the time I was able to workmy way down to attack the loneremaining driver, I was practicallyrunning on fumes, and I was dis-patched easily.

I am not sure what Wreckageneeds — almost certainly a larger

play area (so that people actuallyhave an opportunity to DO thingsbefore being blown up), butbeyond that, I think the game isbasically sound, just not enjoyableto me. I’ll probably try it one moretime (because I hate to give up onany game), but my suspicion isthat this will be heading to the ‘forsale’ pile shortly after that.

Reviews

had the opportunity to play agame of AdvancedCivilization on my very first

“game day” with LIBO on aSaturday in what can best bedescribed as the late, late, late,late, late Iron Age (a.k.a. the Ageof Steel and Silicone).

It was to be a six player game:Jarett (Egypt) and I (Babylon) hadnever played the game before butwere well versed on the rules andunderlying strategy; Joe (Africa)

and John (Assyria) had prior gameexperience under their belts; Chris(Thrace) and Brian (Illyria) werethe seasoned veterans.

We played on the base map(without the western expansion.).

A note on the ‘trade rules’There appears to be two main

schools of thought on trading:“School A”: two of three cards areverbally disclosed and must beincluded as part of the trade – the

third card may or may not benamed and is generally anybody’sguess, and “School B”: three cardsare verbally disclosed and any twomust be included as part of thetrade. We went with the latter.

It should be noted that Option“B” allows for the maximumamount of “screwage”. It shouldbe further noted that there are twotypes of screwage inherent withoption “B”: “Normal” screwageand “Total” screwage. As an analo-

I

The Never-Ending Story...The Never-Ending Story...Of DisastersOf Disasters

Advanced Civilization, by Stephen Brewbacker

WreckagePlayers Score RatingBrian 3 1Chris 1 2Anna Maria 0 1John 0 2

Overall Rating: 1.5Our time: 40mRules explanation time: 30m


gy I offer the following: NormalScrewage is to the movieMonster’s Ball what TotalScrewage is to the movieDeliverance (or Pulp Fiction).

Actually — strike that analogy— “normal screwage” would beMonster’s Ball only if HalleBerry’s character gave Billy BobThornton’s character an STD…butI digress.

The best way to illustrate thedifference between the two is touse an example.

Example 1: Stephen promisesJohn gold, gems, and ochre inreturn for ivory and two timber.Stephen gets what was promised,and gives John gold and gems butslips him Slave Revolt in lieu ofthe almost worthless ochre.

This is ‘Normal Screwage’.John gets what he wants (gold andgems) and a little something thathe didn’t bargain for.

Example 2: Chris promisesStephen ivory, brass, and timber inexchange for gold, dye, and oil.Chris gets what was promised, butStephen gets “Totally Screwed”when he sees that he has receivedCivil Disorder, brass, and timber,but no gold!

Stephen not only got slammedwith a horrific calamity, but didn’teven get the gold he bargained for.

The above examples did in facthappen during the game and thenames were not changed to protectanyone.

In our session there were sev-eral other occasions where a playerwas “Totally Screwed” whichmade for some rather interestingdevelopments.

There is a lesson to be learnedhere: Normal Screwage is a part ofthe trade session and therefore a

part of the game, Total Screwage isalso a part of the game, but oneshould think twice before totallyscrewing the person who is writingthe session report!

My planAs a first time player I had

culled through all of the sessionreports and strategy articles I couldfind in a cursory search of theinternet (in particular BGG).

I came up with the followingplan:

Picking a culture — As a new-bie, try to get Babylon, Egypt, orAssyria.

Building Cities — Don’t builda city before turn 5. Turn #5 build2 cities. Turn #6 build 4 cities.Turn #7 build 2 cities. Turn #8build 1 city

Civ Cards — First Go for:Mysticism, Pottery, Literacy, andEngineering. Next: Agriculture,and Coinage. Then: Medicine, andDrama & Poetry. Ultimately: Law,Enlightenment, Theology, andDemocracy

And that’s about it, except forthat fact that I was fully preparedto throw my plan away – after all,“A plan is only good until youmeet the enemy.” In this case, sub-stitute “enemy” with “calamity”.

The set-up Each player placed one unit on

the edge of the board correspon-ding to their start area. (Duh!) Toreiterate: Egypt, Babylon, Africa,Assyria, Thrace, and Illyria werein play.

The Stone Age (roughly speakingturn 1-4)

Populations began to doublestarting in turn 2 and each civiliza-tion began expanding exponential-ly (literally) — doubling again inturn 3, and then again in turn 4,and again in turn 5 until every civ-ilization had 32 units on the board— except Babylon who managedto screw something up in turn 4and wound up with a population of30 after expansion in round 5.

Early in the game, before any screwage (normal or total) occurs. People are politeand cordial, sitting at the table, in a civilized fashion. This would change.


ReportsMy plan

I was lucky to have drawn firstfor choosing a culture and snaggedBabylon. (Check). I held off buy-ing cities in turn 4 and bounced onthe A.S.T. one turn. (Check).

So far my plan was goingflawlessly.

The Early Bronze Age (approxi-mately turn 5-8)

The first cities were built inround 5 – Egypt and Babylon bothbounced once on the AST markerafter round 4. The city buildingvaried from culture to culture.Babylon opened with 2 cities inturn 5; Egypt: 1 City; Assyria:declined to build; Africa: 4 cities;Illyria: 3 cities; Thrace: 2 Cities.

Each civilization had begun todefine their realms: Babylonstretched west to Damascus; Egyptpowered north to Jerusalem, andWest to meet Africa; Assyria thrustsouth to Aleppo and Antioch, andwest to Ankara; Africa spannedfrom Carthage to Cyren, Illyriaquickly occupied the Italian penin-sula and both coasts of the AdriaticSea; Thrace pulled up roots andsettled in the vicinity of Troy andSardinia.

By turn 6 Babylon had estab-lished 6 cities (including one inDamascus); Egypt had 5 cities(including one as far north as Tyre);and Assyria built 4 cities (includingone in Phoenicia). This was to bethe agreed upon border (withAssyria laying claim to Sidon andBabylon claiming the trio — Mari,Carrhae, and Ninavah.

Meanwhile, in the West, Africa(5 cities) had sailed to Palermo andSyracuse — but fell prey to thefirst calamity of the game:Treachery! Further North, Illyria (4

cities) was pushing into land thatwas still in dispute with Thrace;Illyria (4 cities) also continued itspush South-East towards Delphi,Corinth, and Sparta (home of the300!).

Thrace (4 cities) occupied whatwould have been Crete’s startingarea, and had established a pres-ence on both sides of the AegeanSea.

Turn 7 showed a modestincrease all around in terms of citybuilding. Most Civilizations hadeither 6 or 7 cities with the notableexception of Thrace (4 cities).Trading was robust and Babylonsought to succor favor from theother cultures by holding on to —not one, but two — calamity cards.Slave revolt and Barbarian Hordesleft Babylon with 3 cities and agaggle of barbarians with which tocontend.

As bad as Babylon had it inturn 7 with calamities, that wasnothing compared to the calamitiesunleashed around the known worldin turn 8. Babylon would be beset

by the effects of Treachery; how-ever, she would also be the benefi-ciary of the effects of civil warfrom Assyria (her neighbor to theNorth and West!)

Egypt would suffer fromFamine and Slave Revolt losing 3cites. Assyria, would fall victim toSuperstition AND suffer greatlythe ill effects of the Civil Warmentioned above – leaving Assyriawith two surviving cities. Africawould succumb to Epidemic andVolcano/Earthquake — leavingAfrica with one lone city and amere 10 population — truly cata-strophic! This turn saw Illyria (9cities) and Thrace (7 cities) bothavoiding the primary effects of anycalamities, and Babylon bouncingback to prosperity as a result ofAssyria’s Civil War.

My planAs far as the Civ Cards go, I

was a little ahead of plan. My firstpurchase was Mysticism, and Iwas fortunate enough in drawing atrading that I could afford

Thrace has already vacated his starting area, while Illyria has moved down into Italyand Greece, beating Thrace to the spot. In the east, all three civilizations are peaceful.


Engineering on my second roundof acquiring Civ Cards. I wasmoving along the AST nicely nowand would have no problems enter-ing the Late Bronze Age. I wasalso doing well on my city builds,two in turn 5, four more in turn 6.

I was able to bounce back inturn 8 from dual calamities in turn7 due to Assyria’s civil war; but bythe beginning of the seventh turn Iwas already deviating from theplan: I held back and only pur-chased 1 city due to concern over alack of city support (fallout frommy screw up in turn 4 mentionedabove). But by the end of the turn 7I had to pretty much scrap the plancompletely due to calamities. Well,at least it lasted through six turns.

The Late Bronze Age (vaguelyturns 9-11)

Turn 9 witnessed a new age ofprosperity for Thrace (9 cities),Illyria (8 cities), Babylon (8 cities),and Egypt (8 cities). The outlook

was not as rosy for Assyria (5cities) who was struggling torebuild after Civil War; and thingswere outright gloomy for Africa (1city) who remained crippled fromthe devastating effects of the priorturn’s calamities. A snapshot ofthis turn would foreshadow thefinal score at the game’s conclu-sion 5 hours later. Coincidence?Perhaps…

Turn 9 calamities were rela-tively few in number but punishingfor Babylon (Slave Revolt) andEgypt (Barbarian Hordes). Assyriaexperienced a Civil Disorder thathad little effect thanks to that cul-ture’s love for Music.

Up until turn 9 both Thrace andIllyria were primarily calamity free.That streak would end for both ofthem. In turn 10 Thrace was struckby Volcano/Earthquake. Illyria, onthe other hand, was the recipient oftwo untradable calamities. In a des-perate act to avoid Civil War, Illyriabegan trading with fervor —

attempting to absorb as many othercalamity cards as possible (we playthe rule that limits the maximumnumber of primary calamities at 2).Time ran out as Babylon was look-ing to trade Piracy to Illyria. As badas Piracy was for Babylon it wouldhave been a welcome site for Illyriawho randomly drew (out of the 5currently held cards) not only thedreaded Civil War she sought toavoid, but also Iconoclasm andHeresy.

This brought Illyria to her kneesas her western most territoriesseceded and joined Africa. After thedust settled, Africa’s empirestretched from the Eastern edge ofCyrene, West to Carthage, Northacross the Sea to the islands ofCarelia and Sardinia, continuouslyNorth all the way to Germany, andEast again to Scythia: a huge cres-cent-shaped empire governing theSouthwest, West, and Northwestcorners of the known world. Verystrange, indeed!

In turn 11 almost everyone wasat full strength (9 cities) except forAssyria and Illyria. Assyria hadclawed her way back from CivilWar and was up to 8 cities. Illyriawas reeling from the previous turnand could manage only 4 cities. Asfar as calamities — there was super-stition (Babylon), famine (Egypt),barbarian hordes (Africa), and flood(Thrace). [Yawn]. The famine inEgypt caused the most strife for anyof the cultures that turn.

My planThe acquisition of Civ Cards

was the only part of my plan thatwas salvageable. During turns 9,10, and 11 Babylon acquiredPottery, Coinage, Cloth Making,Drama & Poetry, Music, and

The game was marked by a great deal of trepidation by most players. Africa neverwent on the offensive, and Egypt and Babylon never attacked one another.

Architecture BUT could not attainthe ninth card and fifthcategory/color to advance to theEarly Iron Age. Babylon bouncedfor the second time on the AST.

The Early Iron Age (somewherearound turns 12-14)

Turn 12 was even moreuneventful than turn 11. Babylon(8 cities) was struck the victim ofPiracy for the second time in threeturns, but the experience was pay-ing off, and Babylon welcomed theopportunity to hit her neighbor’scoastal cities as well. The slaverevolt in Egypt wasn’t as devastat-ing as it could have been due tothe fall off in cities in Egypt fromthe Famine last turn and the newlyconverted pirate city (thanks,Babylon). All was quiet in theWest. (Assyria 7, Africa 9, Illyria7, Thrace 8).

By turn 13 the borders werefairly static.

In the west: Africa (8 cities)

still held the very unusual positionof the entire western edge of themap up to and including Thrace’sstart area, Illyria’s start area, Italy’sstart area, as well as it’s own.Illyria (7 cities) was centeredaround the Adriatic Sea basin.Thrace (9 cities) was doing arespectable impression of Creteand was centered around theAegean Sea.

In the East: Assyria (5 cities),Babylon (7 cities), and Egypt (8cities) were peacefully co-existingand Phoenicia/Damascus/Tyrewere once again held by therespective cultures.

War and conflict between cul-tures were practically non-existentin the game thus far (with theexception of a minor misunder-standing between Thrace and Illyriawhich was quickly ironed-out). Thetrading was spirited and it was achallenge for anyone to maintain 9cities for more than one or twoturns (except for Thrace who was

mercifully free of all but two minorcalamites up until this point.)

Turn 13 saw four more calami-ties. Two of which (Treachery andCivil Disorder) were absorbed byBabylon. Africa was hit (again) byVolcano/Earthquake. Illyria whowas not quite fully recovered fromthe devastations of civil war wasstruck by Barbarian Hordes. Thiscould have been a lot worse forIllyria, but Africa now occupiedthe area invaded by barbarians —greatly reducing the effects.

The net effect was nearlyeveryone was able to build up tonine cities in turn 14!

Turn 14 saw Epidemic infestBabylon (9 cities), Famine andCivil Disorder wreak havoc inEgypt (8 cities), Flood andSuperstition plague Assyria (7cities), and Piracy strike Africa (9cities). Illyria (9 cities) and Thrace(9 cities) avoided any calamities butfor secondary effects. Babylon hadminimal/no effects from Epidemic.Illyria, Babylon, and Thrace werein a close race for the lead in thepurchase of Civ Cards (each over1000 points), Illyria was one stepahead of Babylon and one behindThrace for first on the AST.

My planBabylon was finally able to

purchased Literacy – which ful-filled the last two requirements formoving into the Early Iron Ageafter bouncing on the AST for thesecond time this game.

As far as the Civ Cards go, atthe start of the Age I was more orless on target (as I suspect wereThrace and Illyria who were begin-ning to build a lead on me.) I hadfinally acquired Literacy — andAdvanced on the AST to EIA on


By this time, Thrace had completely isolated itself into the Mediterranean area. Manyother civilizations were affected (as victim or recipient) of the Civil War, which onlyserves to either reduce or fragment one’s population. Thrace’s avoidance of the CivilWar was a major key to victory.

Reports


turn 12; but later in the Age I beganto fall behind, only acquiringMedicine, Architecture, and Deism.

The Late Iron Age – (turns 15-17)

Turn 15 and the fall ofBabylon. Africa, Illyria, Thrace,and Babylon started the turn strongwith 9 cities each. Egypt was backup to 8 and Assyria 7; however,the mighty and proud culture ofBabylon was to be torn asunder byCivil War!

Even with 9 cities, Babyloncouldn’t sustain the effects of aCivil War at this late stage of thegame. Having drawn 3 calamitycards, Babylon traded for twomore hoping to draw somethingless maleficent (a strategy thatIllyria had attempted to employ invain back in turn ten). History wasto repeat itself: Babylon collected5 calamity cards and nonethelessstill drew Civil War (and SlaveRevolt).

In a sweet twist of cosmic

irony, Assyria benefited fromBabylon’s Civil War (a reversal offortunes from turn eight). Babylonwas ruined. The rest of the cultureswent largely untouched.

Babylon limped into turn 16building up to 4 cites, and she hadno choice but to attack two of therecently annexed cities in Assyria.One attack succeeded and onefailed. This was the first real play-er-to-player conflict of the gameand it proved to be of no help toBabylon. Desperate times calledfor desperate measures. In hind-sight Babylon would have beenbetter served not attacking at all;indeed the loss of units preventedthe support of more cities that mayhave been built elsewhere.

As for calamities — Treacheryhad no effect on Babylon’s 4 cities,Egypt-8 saw Epidemic, Africaexperienced Piracy. Thraceabsorbed two Calamities —Volcano/Earthquake and CivilDisorder. While these two had adefinite effect, Thrace had enough

momentum (and already possessedenough commodity cards) to pur-chase Civ Cards in sufficient quan-tity to move along the AST. Thracewould have to do little more than‘just survive’ to move to the finalspace on the AST next turn —ending the game.

For the rest of the cultures, itwas a race for points.

The last turn saw Babylonbuild up to 6 cities, Egypt-7,Assyria-9, Africa-9, Illyria-8, andThrace-6.

The trading phase began inearnest: everyone (surprisingly)making honest deals and maximiz-ing their hands. There were few, ifany, calamity cards being passed.It was doubtful that Babylonwould be able to catch up to Illyriaor Thrace, but everyone was jock-eying for position in this – the lasttrade session of the game. Thracealready had the points to finish thegame. The question was couldIllyria catch up — even thoughIllyria was one step behind on theAST?

Then we found out why no onewas trading calamity cards:Something bad had happened — toIllyria that is. Something reallybad. Bad, bad, bad.

Illyria had drawn 6 calamitycards! That may be an AdvancedCivilization record. The obviouseffect is that Illyria had a lot ofCalamity cards. A less obviouseffect is that Illyria had difficultytrading due to a dearth of tradablecards. An even less obvious effectwas that everyone else did nothave any calamity cards; ratherthey had fairly fruitful draws.Illyria was not able to managemore than one or two trades. Thenet effect of all this was that Illyria

A close-up of the region that saw the two contenders battling it out. Yellow (Illyria)had taken most of the Italian peninsula, while green (Thrace) had crossed over thewater to take some of Assyria’s land.


would not be able to make anysubstantial gains and would notclose the gap on Thrace’s lead.

My planThe devastation from turn 15

prevented Babylon from collectingany Civ Cards worth more thanfour points. This loss of bargainingpower translated into a loss of buy-ing power, and the result was thatBabylon did not have enoughpoints to Advance on the AST andwould bounce again before enter-ing the Late Iron Age at the end ofturn 17.

As far as the Civ Cards go:Enlightenment, Law, Astronomy,Theology, and with the last points Icould scrape together:Metalworking. I was never able toacquire Democracy [sigh]…orPhilosophy for that matter. I held1800 points total in Civ Cards.

The finishIn racing parlance, Illyria, spit

the bit AND threw a shoe comingdown the final stretch, but herrider would hang on for second

place. In AdvancedCivilization terms,the gods haddescended from theheavens, damnedthe nation of Illyriaand proclaimedThrace their chosen.

ConclusionThrace pulled

out a decisive victo-ry, but only after latecollapses by Illyriaand Babylon. Africa,which is alwayshard to play, suf-fered greatly from a seeminglynever-ending series of calamities.Egypt and Assyria who were alsofighting to rebuild from calamitiesmost of the game, came on espe-cially strong in the Early Iron Age.Thrace, occupying the center of theboard, was most notably free fromserious calamity during the firstthree ages and was able to finishstrong, playing an all around wellbalanced game.

Egypt seemed to attract Famine(three occurrences) andSlave Revolt (two occur-rences) like sugar attractsflies; between whichwere sandwiched CivilDisorder, Epidemic andBarbarian Hordes.

Assyria had earlytroubles, crippled byCivil War andSuperstition; and later byFlood and Superstition.Not to mention an occa-sional incursion of Piracy.

Africa was hit early,often and hard byTreachery, Epidemic andVolcano; then experi-

enced a rebirth at the expense ofIllyria’s civil war; then once againsuffering through BarbarianHordes, Volcano (again) and twoacts of Piracy! Sheesh!

Illyria escaped the wrath of thegods until turn 10 when Civil Warand Iconoclasm & Heresy splin-tered the empire. In turn 13 shewas visited by Barbarian Hordeswhich took out their wrath on theannexed territories now underAfrica’s control. Illyria felt the fullire of the gods in the last turnwhen she was besieged by CivilWar (again), and Famine just toadd insult to injury. (Boy werethose gods an angry bunch).

Thrace managed to escape mostnatural and man-made calamitiesuntil turn 10 — much like Illyria toher west, but the Volcano/Earthquake had a far less malignanteffect than Civil War! Flood visitedher the next turn — also with mini-mal effect. The only other distur-bances witnessed by Thrace were inturn 16 when both Volcano/Earthquake and Civil Disorderstared her in the face, to which,Thrace looked back and laughed.

By the end of the game, only a few nations still werein contention. Nevertheless, players still tried to max-imize their score, performing careful calculations.

ReportsAdvanced Civilization

Players Score RatingChris 4048 5Brian 3653 5Steve 3526 4Jarett 3214 4John 3212 4Joe 2729 5



he scene: The center of anon-descript medieval vil-lage; by the town well,

three heroes talking. Two are tall,well-built women. The third isnone of these. And he’s green.L: So, we’re all supposed to goand kill a pair of giants that areharassing this town, eh?RS: Yep.L: Okay, so, then I guess weshould get introduced. You are?RS: Red Scorpion.B: (speaks in a hissing voice,hoarse with menace) And I’mBogran, the Shadow. Who are you?L: I’m…Lyssa.B: Lyssa? That’s it? Just…Lyssa?Lame!Bogran and Red Scorpion start tolaugh; Lyssa whips her right armup from her side so that the sunglints off the sharp metal tips ofher tekko-kagi.RS: Oh, wait, did you say Lyssa?

Sorry, thought you said somethingelse; no, that’s a great name, really.So, nice weapon you got there.I’ve got, hmm, let’s see. A bow.Also, I can spend fatigue to healmyself of wounds, or vice-versa.L: Nice ability. No way any mon-sters could ever kill you while youhave that power.B: Good use of ironic foreshadow-ing! They all high-five.L: Thanks. I also have a nicesword, some heavy armor, and canforce my attacker to re-roll dice.Bogran and Scorpion stareblankly. I mean, dodge; yeah, I candodge attacks really well. Andwhat about you Bogran?B: Me? Oh, you know, the usual. Ideal two extra damage when Iattack someone who wasn’t in myline of sight when I started tomove, I get two extra surges whenI do a ranged attack with my long-bow, I can recover fatigue pretty

much any turn, Idon’t fatiguewhen I run, andI’m wearingspirit armor thatlets me spendfatigue to pre-vent damage.Oh, and did Imention that Ican run fourteenspaces in a turn?RS: Hm, no pos-sibility for mas-sive abuse there.L: Alright, moreironic foreshad-

owing! They high-five again. So,how are we getting to the giants’lair?B: We just walk through that bigshining circle over there and tele-port to the giants’ lair.L: Wait. Let me get this straight.The village wants these giants tostop bothering them, and they havean open teleportation gate thatleads from the giants’ lair right tothe middle of town? Have theyever considered just, um, closingthe gate? Bogran and RedScorpion stare blankly again.*sigh*. Okay, let’s go.The three heroes walk toward thegate. Cut to: The inside of an underground cave.It’s dark, it’s slimy. It smells.Misshapen heaps lay scatteredabout, and the light flickering fromwall-mounted torches is justenough to catch the occasionalglint of what may be rusting armor,or perhaps exposed bone. A flashof light sweeps the room as ourheroes enter via the teleport gate.L: I’m just saying that all theyhave to do is seal the gate, and …ick. What died in here?RS: More like who. We’re not thefirst heroes to try this. Weaponsup!As the heroes draw their weapons,four shadowy figures rise up, as iffrom out of the rock floor itself,and start to close in. Three of themmove to surround Red Scorpion.Lyssa moves up and strikes one,wounding him.B: Not a problem, I’ll just hop

T

The Well of DorknessThe Well of DorknessDescent, by Jarett Weintraub

Our valiant heroes struggled through a variety of encountersand monsters, and STILL never lost their senses of humor!


over here, and shoot this guy whowas blocked by Scorpion. With myextra damage, there’s no way I canfail to kill him. *SNAP * B: Hmm. My bowstring broke.Good thing I keep an extra one inmy pocket, and can totally restringmy bow before these guys canswing their weapons. *SNAP*. B: Hm. Okay, well, I’ve got yetanother bowstring here in my bag,and can restring it again beforethese guys can swing theirweapons more than once, soScorpion should be fine, what withher healing power and all.The three attackers strike RedScorpion, killing him.B: Huh. Guess not. Well, I can stillavenge his death. Eat arrow death!*SNAP*B: Oh, come on! Fine. I’ll just takea spare bowstring from Scorpion’scorpse, then.Lyssa kills one attacker whileBogran re-re-re-restrings his bow.

Red Scorpion reap-pears in a flash oflight. The figuresmove to surroundhim again.RS: Oh no youdon’t! Red Scorpion chopsoff an enemy’s head,while Lyssa andBogran finish offthe other two.L: Okay, thatcould’ve gone bet-ter.B: You’re telling me. This must bethe most unreliable bow in theworld!L: I was talking about RedScorpion getting killed, you green-skinned dope.B: Oh, yeah. That wasn’t so great.RS: So what’s next?L: Well, we’ve got four doors, onein each wall. Two of them arerune-locked, and we haven’t gottenany rune-keys. So let’s try one ofthe others, shall we?

The heroes walk to thenorth door and open it.At the end of a longhallway sits the giant,Munkar. He rises, andbegins to walk slowlybut menacingly downthe hallway towardsthem. Four sorcerersfall in behind him. L: Ooookay, maybe adifferent door, then?B: Nah, not a problem.You guys give me atwo-second head start,then close this door andrun back to the centralroom.Bogran runs down thehall, dodges the giant

and sorcerers, grabs a treasurechest under one arm, and leapsthrough a teleporter gate.RS: That was impressive.L: Impressive? That was ridicu-lous. Are there teleport gates allover this dungeon? What kind ofmoron leaves open gates scatteredaround like that? These must bethe laziest pair of giants in theknown universe. I’m amazed thetownspeople haven’t just dumpedbarrels of flaming oil through thegate and burned them to death.RS: Um, Lyssa, I hate to interruptyour rant, but the giant’s gettingawfully close. Perhaps we shouldrun away now?L: Oh, yeah. The two heroes run to the center ofthe room just as it is again lit by aflash of light.B: Hi. Miss me? Look whobrought presents!Lyssa grabs a set of plate mail,and Bogran tosses Red Scorpion amagic bow.L: Nice! Is this enough to defeatthe giant?B: Screw the giant. I also got this!Bogran holds up a rune-key. Thethree heroes run towards the eastdoor and open it, just as Munkar

Once again, Andrew, as the Overlord, did NOT haveone of his better days.

ReportsDescent

Players Score RatingJarett 10 4John 6 3Adam 3 3Andrew 0 3



charges at them, striking andwounding Red Scorpion.B: Dude, no more dying!RS: Trust me, I’m doing the best Ican on that.Lyssa turns and slams the doorshut behind them. As they turn,hear a rustling of leathery wings.In front of them stand a pair ofrazorwings. Behind them is a cavelion. Behind him is a sorcerer.Behind him is a troll.L: So, this is much better. Nowwe’re gonna get creamed fromboth sides.RS: No, not really. See, the giantcan’t get us once we’re throughthis door.L: Come again?RS: Yeah, see, the door’s locked.He can’t get in.L: I know it’s locked. But isn’t thishis dungeon? I mean, shouldn’t hehave the key or something?Bogran and Scorpion stareblankly. Look, suppose this wasyour house, and someone raninside and locked the door.Wouldn’t you… never mind. Let’sjust kill these guys, ‘kay?

Lyssa hacks the Razorwings topieces while the others shoot holesin the lion and sorcerer. The trollis last, but he too falls before ahail of arrows before he can evenget within striking distance.RS: Hm, I thought some of theseguys could regenerate after beingkilled. Looks like none of themdid. Soft weeping is heard. Didyou hear that?B: Hear what? RS: Probably nothing. Man, my +1magic bow was awesome, thanksBogran! I’m amazed you didn’tkeep this for yourself, I mean whatwith your old bow having all thattrouble before.B: Uh, yeah, well, you know me.I’m a giver.RS: Say, what’s that you’re hidingbehind your back?B: Uh, this old thing? Quicklystuffs his shiny new +3 longbowinto his pack. Nothing; so, whatwas that sound you heard?The heroes rummage through theroom, finding gold, treasure, andMunkar’s heart.L: Huh, you’d think he’d need this.

Or that he’d at least hide it better.She sticks her sword through it.Okay, so that should make thingseasier. Now we just have to do afrontal assault on the giant and hisfour sorcerers via a narrow corri-dor, and only kill him once.B: Look what I found, anotherteleporter! Now we can pop backto town, sell our treasure for somehealing potions, and pop back intothe dungeon and attack Munkarfrom behind! More weeping isheard, slightly harder this time.Did you guys hear that? No? Okay,so off we go then!Postscript: The rest of this sessionis hardly worth detailing, asBogran’s abilities, combined witha plethora of teleport gates and abow that adds two surges andPiercing:3 made it a completeslaughterhouse. Even with theback-to-back-to-back Xs he rolledon three separate occasions. TheOverlord only stopped weepingwhen he found out that FantasyFlight had since FAQ’ed the rulesfor both teleporters and lockeddoors in dungeons.

t a recent game day,Dave Metzger, DaveDenton, Natasha, Bill

and Chris played the classicEurogame Die Macher. As wewere starting late and most hadnever played before, we opted for

the 5 round shorter game variantdescribed in the new Valley Gamesedition.

The first four regions set outon the board gave the players a lotto consider in their preliminaryplacements. The first election was

to be held in Freistaat Thüringenwith 26 votes; the second was thecertain-to-be-a-fierce contest forNordhein-Wesfalen with 80 votes;the third was for the 54 vote dis-trict Baden Würtemberg and thefourth was for Brandenburg’s 28

A

Winning throughWinning throughCoalitions & BackstabbingCoalitions & Backstabbing

Die Macher, by Bill Herbst


Reports

votes. Although the players did notknow it at this point, the fifth andfinal district to be contested wouldbe Schleswig Holstein with 32votes. Given the distribution, itwas not surprising that nearlyeveryone invested rather heavily inthe 80 point second election.

Dave M, Bill and Natasha allplaced party meeting markers inthat district and most players putmedia markers there as well. Billplaced two media markers in theregion and wound up beginningthe game with media control ofthat election. Chris and Dave Dalso invested some seriousresources in the first election in thehopes of beginning the game witha strong showing and thus accumu-lating enough money to keep themafloat in the later contests. Therewas also some investment in the54 point third district on the part ofDave D and Dave M.

The first election saw Chrisedge out Dave D. in a tied electionwith both parties having achievedthe maximum number of votes inthe district. They each were able toplace a media marker on thenational board and Chris was able

to place an opinion card on thenation board. With Chris and DaveD collecting 26,000 euros in addi-tion to their national party enroll-ment money, things looked grimfor Bill, Dave and Natasha whoeach had 8,000 euros or less toinvest on the next turn. Of course,the three players who trailed finan-cially were able to recoup theirfinancial losses by taking politicalcontributions at the cost of several

national party members at the veryend of the turn.

The second election saw someof the wildest swings of fortune inthe game. Natasha began aggres-sively playing shadow cabinetcards in various regions in order tosecure her position. She managedto remove Bill from media domi-nance and ultimately swung theregion’s opinion strongly in herfavor by exchanging an important

Die MacherPlayers Score RatingBill 324 4Chris 297 4Dave M. 277 3Dave D. 225 4Natasha 201 3


Die MacherPlayers Score RatingDave D. 219 4Chris 203 4Steve 203 4Andrew 144 4


The first game of Die Macher was a heated affair, even for a short (5-round) game.There was loads of negotiation and bluffing, and ultimately, Bill emerged victoriousby 27 points over Chris.


opinion card at the end of themedia phase. She also outbideveryone for control of the opinionpoll, although the card chosen wasnot able to do too much damage toher primary rivals in the region.She and Dave M. had bothachieved the plateau of 80 votes inthe region but the pair was outdoneby Chris who formed a coalitionwith Bill and once again won theelection. Bill and Chris were thusable to place media markers and anopinion card on the national board.Dave M. and Natasha still walkedout of the election with 80 voteseach and 80,000 euro but Bill had72,000 votes and Chris had25,000. Dave D. had spent the turnangling for control of the next dis-trict and wound up earning 0 votesin this district.

The third district machinationsbegan with aggressive shadow cab-inet card play that swung controlof the media in the region aroundthe table. When the chaos ceased,both Bill and Dave D. had nomarkers left in the district whileNatasha and Chris were tied withtwo each. This meant that DaveD.’s planned coalition with Chris,who appeared to be leading thegame at the time would leaveChris with a third media marker onthe national board in three roundswhile Dave would not be able toplace a marker at all.

Bill and Dave D. thus cookedup a plan to act as spoilers andscuttle the chances of anyone get-ting a marker on the national boardby forming a coalition. Chris andNatasha formed a coalition of theirown in opposition. Ultimatelydespite losing control of the opin-ion poll, Bill and Dave D. wereable to win the district because the

card didn’t particularly helpNatasha or hurt Dave D. or Bill.

The 28 vote fourth electionwas something of a non event afterthe previous two brawls. Bill hadbeen investing heavily in partymarkers and he held media controlfor the past three turns so the dis-trict’s opinions matched nicelywith his own party platform. Hemade a large bid (13,000 eurosbeyond the next highest bidder) toensure that he could chose withwhom to form a coalition first andhe took his closest rival in the dis-trict, Dave M. into a partnershipwith him. They went on to win thedistrict by a wide margin as noother coalitions could be formed.

The final election then tookplace immediately afterwards andmost people had been gearing upfor it by their plays in the previousround. Dave D. won it outrightwith a strong second place show-ing by Natasha. By this point,

there had been a developing simi-larity among most people’s partyplatforms and there was no cardavailable in the exchange pool thatgave Dave D. a clear cut advan-tage on the national opinion board.So he made a single adjustment tothe national board and we wentinto the scoring phase.

Dave M. had managed to earnthe highest total number of votesdespite on sharing the win in oneof the five elections. Chris, DaveD. and Bill had made strong show-ings in the media marker depart-ment by managing to place mark-ers in several electoral victories.Bill and Chris had managed todevelop their party numbersbeyond their competitors by hav-ing identical party platforms thatclosely matched the national boardin the final rounds. This alsoserved them well in the scoring forcoincidence of national opinionwith their platform.

For being considered the precursor to the Euros of today, Die Macher is a bit of anodd duck. It’s lengthy, has LOADS of pieces, and is very heavy mathematically.However, it stays true to the Euro “doctrine” — there is no player elmination (even ifyou wish there was!)


ndrew, Bill, Matt andDave recently playedNexus Ops. This is a rela-

tively quick little science-fictionthemed combat game in whicheach player attempts to win battlesand fulfill secret missions toachieve ten victory points.

The game began with Bill andAndrew jumping out to a smallvictory point lead by initiating sev-eral small conflicts and wrappingup some easy secret objectiveswith relatively weak units.

Dave built carefully, protectedhis mines and gradually increasedthe power of his army by purchas-

ing a number ofpowerful unitsincluding a host ofSpiders and LavaLeapers.

Matt made anearly charge to seizethe Monolith in thecenter of the boardand managed tohold it for almostthe entire game.

This netted hima large number ofpower cards butunlucky drawsensured that they were not of any

great help to him in securing hissecret missions.

Bill had a three point turn inwhich he initiated and won twosmall battles that opened up hislead and put him within strikingdistance of winning the game.

By this point, each player haddragons and the relatively quietMonolith which Matt had dominat-ed since the early stages was beingviewed as a target.

On the final turn Bill foughttwo battles including a large meleeon top of the Monolith. Helpfulpower cards and lucky dice rollspropelled him to victory in theMonolith battle and he was able toend the game before some of theother players were able to turntheir financial advantages, largearmies and careful developmentinto victory points.

A

Hey! Guess Who WonHey! Guess Who WonAgain?Again?

Nexus Ops, by Bill Herbst

Nexus OpsPlayers Score RatingBill 12 3Andrew 9 4Dave D. 7 4Matt 6 4


Reports

Nexus Ops was one of the better designs from the seemingly defunct Avalon Hill linefrom Hasbro. While never up the the gameplay performance of its ancestor: TheAvalon Hill Game Company, this offering was still a good game in its own right.


Unreviewed GamesUnreviewed Games

Princes of FlorencePlayers Score RatingBill 67 4Vince 56 3Adam 55 3Jen 44 3


BattlelorePlayers Score RatingBill 5 5Andrew 3 5



Unreviewed GamesUnreviewed GamesFeatures

LifeboatsPlayers Score RatingMatt 28 4Dave D. 26 3Andrew 24 4Bill 22 4


ShogunPlayers Score RatingAndrew 47 5Jarett 40 5Bill 38 5Michael 33 --Chris M. 29 --

Overall Rating: 5.0Our time: 3h-30mRules explanation time: 1h


Here are the top players in six games played by LIBOin February & March

Advanced Civilization Cleopatra and the Society of Architects KeythedralAvalon Hill Score Plays Days of Wonder Score Plays R&D Games / Pro Ludo Score PlaysChris Kamm 0.17 1 Chris Palermo 0.70 1 Vince Medordi 0.29 1Michael Albergo 0.13 3 Anna Maria Palermo 0.63 1 Andrew DiGregorio 0.19 1Chris Palermo 0.09 4 Dave Denton 0.32 2 Bill Herbst 0.13 2Brian Stone 0.06 4 Brian Stone 0.07 1 Chris Palermo 0.02 1Andrew DiGregorio 0.04 1 Andrew DiGregorio 0.01 2 John Reiners 0.01 3Stephen Brewbacker 0.04 1 Matt Dickinson -0.05 1 Adam Lopuch 0.00 2Bill Herbst 0.04 1 Bill Herbst -1.00 1 Brian Stone -0.17 1Jarett Weintraub -0.05 1 Jarett Weintraub -1.00 1 Anna Maria Palermo -0.19 2Joe Dozier -0.09 4 Jen Medordi -0.23 1John Reiners -0.15 4Aaron Hacker -0.29 1

Kingdoms Marracash Princes of FlorenceFantasy Flight Games Score Plays Kosmos Score Plays Rio Grande Games Score PlaysJarett Weintraub 0.06 2 Debbie Dozier 0.72 1 Bill Herbst 0.24 3Adam Lopuch 0.05 1 Dave Denton 0.26 1 Chris Palermo 0.08 4Andrew DiGregorio 0.03 1 Jeremy Waite 0.14 1 John Reiners 0.02 1Joe Dozier 0.01 1 Chris Palermo -0.05 3 Vince Medordi 0.01 1John Reiners -0.04 1 Andrew DiGregorio -0.10 2 Chris Kamm 0.00 1Bill Herbst -0.18 1 Joe Dozier -0.27 1 Adam Lopuch -0.01 1

Anna Maria Palermo -0.50 1 Brian Stone -0.03 3Joe Dozier -0.06 2Anna Maria Palermo -0.07 1Aaron Hacker -0.11 1Jarett Weintraub -0.18 1Jen Medordi -0.21 1Jeremy Waite -0.30 1

Unreviewed GamesUnreviewed GamesSaturn

Players Score RatingAndrew 34 3Bill 26 4Dave D. 26 4


SaturnPlayers Score RatingBrian 34 4Jarett 32 5Matt 21 4



LIBO RatingsLIBO RatingsName Rating PublisherBattlelore 5.0 Days of WonderShogun 5.0 Queen GamesAge of Steam 4.8 WarfrogYspahan 4.8 Ystari GamesAdvanced Civilization 4.5 Avalon HillHacienda 4.4 Rio Grande GamesBlue Moon City 4.3 KosmosRailroad Tycoon 4.3 Eagle GamesNY Chase 4.3 RavensburgerBlokus 4.2 Alary GamesKeythedral 4.1 R&D Games / Pro LudoMarvel Heroes 4.1 Fantasy Flight Games

Top Overall Rated Games

Top Rated Games Top Rated Games (2+ Plays)

Worst Rated Games

Games Matt Plays Best(2+ Plays)

Games Matt Plays Worst

2007’s Top Rated Games

Name Rating Publisher PlaysIliad 4.8 GDW (Game Designers Workshop) 3Puerto Rico 4.8 Rio Grande Games 16Settlers of Catan 4.8 Mayfair Games 9Hammer of the Scots 4.8 Columbia Games 2Advanced Civilization 4.7 Avalon Hill 4El Grande 4.7 Rio Grande Games 9Age of Steam 4.7 Warfrog 9Battle Line 4.7 GMT Games 16War of the Ring -FFG 4.7 Fantasy Flight Games 2Goa 4.7 Rio Grande Games 5Power Grid 4.6 Rio Grande Games 3St. Petersburg 4.6 Rio Grande Games 4Tigris & Euphrates 4.6 Mayfair Games 5

GAME NAME PUBLISHER RATE PLAYSBattle Line GMT Games 5.0 1Betrayal at House on the Hill Avalon Hill / Hasbro 5.0 1Cleopatra and the Society of Architects Days of Wonder 5.0 1El Grande Rio Grande Games 5.0 1NY Chase Ravensburger 5.0 1Yspahan Ystari Games 5.0 1Circus Maximus Avalon Hill 4.5 2Atlantic Storm Avalon Hill 4 0 1

GAME NAME PUBLISHER RATE PLAYSBattle Line GMT Games 5.0 1Betrayal at House on the Hill Avalon Hill / Hasbro 5.0 1Cleopatra and the Society of Architects Days of Wonder 5.0 1El Grande Rio Grande Games 5.0 1NY Chase Ravensburger 5.0 1Yspahan Ystari Games 5.0 1Circus Maximus Avalon Hill 4.5 2Atlantic Storm Avalon Hill 4.0 1Blue Moon City Kosmos 4.0 1Corsairs Rio Grande Games 4.0 1Democrazy EuroGames / Descartes 4.0 1Dungeon Twister Asmodée Editions 4.0 1Evo EuroGames / Descartes 4.0 1Jungle Speed Asmodee 4.0 3La Strada Mayfair Games 4.0 2LifeBoat Fat Messiah Games 4.0 1Lifeboats Z-Man Games 4.0 1Louis XIV Rio Grande Games 4.0 1Nexus Ops Avalon Hill 4.0 1Oasis Uberplay 4.0 1Odin's Ravens Rio Grande Games 4.0 1Saturn Theta 4.0 1Taj Mahal Rio Grande Games 4.0 1Titan: The Arena Avalon Hill / Fantasy Flight Games 4.0 1Traumfabrik Hasbro 4.0 1Union Pacific Rio Grande Games 4.0 1Vinci EuroGames / Descartes 4.0 1We The People Avalon Hill 4.0 1

GAME NAME PUBLISHER RATE PLAYSParis Paris Rio Grande Games 1.0 2A Game of Thrones Fantasy Flight Games 2.0 1Ave Caesar Asmodee Editions 2.0 1Emperor of China Dynamic Games 2.0 1Bazaar 3M 3.0 2Great Wall of China Fantasy Flight Games 3.0 1Loco AMIGO Spiel 3.0 1Mall of Horror Asmodée Editions 3.0 1Memoir '44 Days of Wonder 3.0 1Samarkand Rio Grande Games 3.0 1Slapshot Avalon Hill 3.0 1

GAME NAME PUBLISHER SCORE PLAYSLa Strada Mayfair Games 0.02 2Paris Paris Rio Grande Games -0.35 2Jungle Speed Asmodee -0.40 3Bazaar 3M -0.48 2Circus Maximus Avalon Hill -0.63 2

GAME NAME PUBLISHER SCORE PLAYSA Game of Thrones Fantasy Flight Games -1.00 1Mall of Horror Asmodée Editions -1.00 1Circus Maximus Avalon Hill -0.63 2Slapshot Avalon Hill -0.63 1Corsairs Rio Grande Games -0.53 1Battle Line GMT Games -0.50 1Bazaar 3M -0.48 2Ave Caesar Asmodee Editions -0.45 1Yspahan Ystari Games -0.43 1Louis XIV Rio Grande Games -0.42 1Jungle Speed Asmodee -0.40 3Paris Paris Rio Grande Games -0.35 2

Member of the Month’s Ratings and Stats

To see more of Matt’s statistics (and all of LIBO’s), just turn the page.

Statistics


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Stephen Brewbacker 50% 9 50% 8 3.50 12 100% 1 154 2 172 2 20h-30m 22h-52m 4.75 3 2.25 12 2 11 2 7 8 11 25.0% 7Dave Denton 100% 1 75% 4 3.38 16 100% 1 70 16 87 15 24h-35m 30h-20m 4.10 14 2.14 16 8 2 5 5 3 8 21 5 38.1% 4Matt Dickinson 50% 9 33% 10 3.71 7 93% 13 76 14 89 14 17h-45m 20h-52m 4.21 12 3.14 3 3 9 1 11 7 3 14 8 21.4% 12Andrew DiGregorio 100% 1 100% 1 3.70 10 97% 9 89 9 109 9 48h-57m 60h-5m 4.06 17 2.76 9 4 6 11 1 9 1 33 2 12.1% 16Joe Dozier 50% 9 0% 11 4.50 1 100% 1 219 1 239 1 14h-35m 15h-55m 4.75 3 3.75 1 1 14 3 8 4 14 25.0% 7Bill Herbst 88% 4 100% 1 3.76 6 100% 1 79 12 97 12 44h-45m 55h-2m 4.09 15 2.18 15 15 1 6 4 7 3 34 1 44.1% 3Stephanie Kadin 25% 12 0% 11 4.40 2 100% 1 72 15 82 16 6h-0m 6h-52m 4.80 2 3.20 2 1 14 1 11 2 10 5 13 20.0% 13Chris Matusiak 0% 17 60% 7 3.83 5 100% 1 84 10 104 10 9h-46m 12h-8m 5.14 1 2.86 7 2 11 1 11 2 10 7 12 28.6% 6Jen Medordi 13% 16 50% 8 3.50 12 75% 14 78 13 94 13 5h-10m 6h-15m 4.25 8 3.00 4 1 14 2 10 4 14 25.0% 7Vince Medordi 25% 12 75% 4 3.50 12 100% 1 82 11 102 11 13h-38m 17h-0m 4.70 5 2.20 14 5 4 2 7 2 10 10 10 50.0% 1Dave Metzger 25% 12 0% 11 3.50 12 75% 14 125 4 155 4 8h-18m 10h-18m 4.25 8 2.00 17 2 11 4 14 50.0% 1Natasha Metzger 25% 12 0% 11 4.00 3 75% 14 125 4 155 4 8h-18m 10h-18m 4.25 8 3.00 4 1 11 2 10 4 14 0.0% 17Anna Maria Palermo 63% 8 0% 11 3.71 8 94% 12 49 17 61 17 13h-51m 17h-24m 4.12 13 2.94 6 4 6 2 7 9 1 17 7 23.5% 10Chris Palermo 100% 1 100% 1 3.70 9 96% 11 98 8 117 8 44h-1m 52h-28m 4.37 6 2.41 11 6 3 10 2 5 6 27 4 22.2% 11John Reiners 75% 6 0% 11 3.63 11 100% 1 110 6 131 6 34h-50m 41h-32m 4.32 7 2.79 8 3 9 5 5 5 6 19 6 15.8% 15Brian Stone 88% 4 0% 11 3.17 17 75% 14 131 3 156 3 26h-12m 31h-13m 4.25 8 2.25 12 4 6 2 7 2 10 12 9 33.3% 5Jarett Weintraub 75% 6 67% 6 3.86 4 96% 10 100 7 119 7 46h-31m 55h-31m 4.07 16 2.57 10 5 4 10 2 6 5 28 3 17.9% 14

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Stephen Brewbacker 0.29 1 42.9% 15 50.0% 6 7.1% 5 21.5% 15 0.0% 16 21.5% 2 67.9% 3 2-6- ######Dave Denton 0.23 5 53.2% 3 61.9% 2 8.7% 4 26.6% 3 14.3% 15 12.3% 3 61.8% 2 8-10-3 49.5%Matt Dickinson 0.13 8 48.3% 9 28.6% 14 -19.8% 15 24.2% 9 50.0% 3 -25.8% 14 33.9% 8 3-4-7 27.9%Andrew DiGregorio 0.19 7 52.4% 5 45.5% 9 -7.0% 12 26.2% 5 27.3% 8 -1.1% 9 41.2% 7 4-20-9 26.8%Joe Dozier 0.14 7 43.3% 14 25.0% 15 -18.3% 14 21.7% 14 75.0% 1 -53.3% 17 25.0% 10 1--3 25.0%Bill Herbst 0.24 4 52.8% 4 61.8% 3 8.9% 3 26.4% 4 20.6% 11 5.8% 5 63.3% 1 15-12-7 52.6%Stephanie Kadin 0.08 9 42.0% 16 40.0% 12 -2.0% 9 21.0% 16 40.0% 6 -19.0% 12 40.0% 5 1-2-2 27.1%Chris Matusiak 0.24 2 40.0% 17 42.9% 10 2.9% 6 20.0% 17 28.6% 7 -8.6% 11 54.3% 4 2-3-2 35.4%Jen Medordi 0.21 4 47.5% 12 25.0% 15 -22.5% 16 23.8% 12 50.0% 3 -26.3% 15 37.5% 6 1-1-2 30.6%Vince Medordi 0.20 5 44.0% 13 70.0% 1 26.0% 1 22.0% 13 20.0% 12 2.0% 8 69.7% 2 5-3-2 55.6%Dave Metzger 0.22 3 55.0% 1 50.0% 6 -5.0% 10 27.5% 1 0.0% 16 27.5% 1 75.0% 1 2-2- ######Natasha Metzger 0.00 10 55.0% 1 25.0% 15 -30.0% 17 27.5% 1 50.0% 3 -22.5% 13 31.3% 9 -2-2 ######Anna Maria Palermo 0.17 6 50.4% 7 35.3% 13 -15.1% 13 25.2% 7 52.9% 2 -27.7% 16 35.8% 7 4-4-9 29.1%Chris Palermo 0.25 3 47.8% 11 59.3% 4 11.5% 2 23.9% 11 18.5% 13 5.4% 6 55.4% 4 6-16-5 34.7%John Reiners 0.22 6 48.1% 10 42.1% 11 -6.0% 11 24.0% 10 26.3% 9 -2.3% 10 41.8% 6 3-11-5 28.3%Brian Stone 0.27 2 48.9% 8 50.0% 6 1.1% 8 24.4% 8 16.7% 14 7.8% 4 58.8% 3 4-6-2 44.4%Jarett Weintraub 0.30 1 51.4% 6 53.6% 5 2.1% 7 25.7% 6 21.4% 10 4.3% 7 49.8% 5 5-17-6 32.5%

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Stephen Brewbacker 21.5% 15 0.3 7 3.5% 4 5.3 2 0.09 2 2.21 1 0.39 2Dave Denton 26.6% 3 2.4 3 11.5% 2 5.8 2 5.8 2 0.10 3 0.10 3 1.48 6 0.33 6Matt Dickinson 24.2% 9 -0.4 12 -2.7% 9 3.8 7 -0.25 9 1.15 7 0.28 7Andrew DiGregorio 26.2% 5 -4.7 17 -14.1% 7 4.0 7 4.0 7 -0.10 7 -0.10 7 1.28 7 0.31 7Joe Dozier 21.7% 14 0.1 8 3.3% 5 3.8 7 -0.19 8 1.36 6 0.25 8Bill Herbst 26.4% 4 6.0 1 17.7% 1 6.2 1 6.2 1 0.11 2 0.11 2 1.54 5 0.35 5Stephanie Kadin 21.0% 16 -0.1 10 -1.0% 7 4.5 5 -0.36 10 1.15 8 0.22 9Chris Matusiak 20.0% 17 0.6 6 8.6% 3 5.2 4 0.19 1 1.97 2 0.34 4Jen Medordi 23.8% 12 0.1 9 1.3% 6 3.5 9 -0.06 5 1.64 4 0.35 3Vince Medordi 22.0% 13 2.8 2 28.0% 1 7.3 1 0.08 3 1.52 5 0.31 5Dave Metzger 27.5% 1 0.9 5 22.5% 2 5.3 3 0.08 4 1.07 9 0.28 6Natasha Metzger 27.5% 1 -1.1 14 -27.5% 10 2.5 10 -0.08 6Anna Maria Palermo 25.2% 7 -0.3 11 -1.7% 8 4.3 6 -0.14 7 1.78 3 0.39 1Chris Palermo 23.9% 11 -0.5 13 -1.7% 4 5.4 3 5.4 3 0.08 4 0.08 4 2.02 3 0.37 4John Reiners 24.0% 10 -1.6 15 -8.2% 6 4.3 6 4.3 6 -0.05 6 -0.05 6 2.55 2 0.38 3Brian Stone 24.4% 8 1.1 4 8.9% 3 5.3 5 5.3 5 0.17 1 0.17 1 3.45 1 0.47 1Jarett Weintraub 25.7% 6 -2.2 16 -7.9% 5 5.4 4 5.4 4 0.02 5 0.02 5 1.88 4 0.43 2

Through Games of April 21, 2007

volume 55 advanced civilization

Documents