Fantasy Flight

Fantasy Flight has been teasing something new. Normally I would think they’d tease this about GenCon time. But they are announcing some new things now just because GenCon has been pushed back to September.

Firstly, we have the Mad Titan coming to Marvel Champions. This is going to be a campaign expansion coming like the Rise of the Red Skull and Galaxy’s Most Wanted. This one is giving you Thanos and a bunch of his minions like Proxima Midnight, Black Dwarf, and more to face off against. Definitely interested to get this one and cool to have an announcement for.

But that’s not the only thing that Fantasy Flight is teasing at this point. They are also teasing some announcement coming next week. Now there is a lot of speculation what this might be. From what we can see, I think there are two likely ways that we can go. Firstly this might be the solo/story driven stuff they have been hinting at for Keyforge. In fact, that’s the most likely thing, I believe. But people are also speculating this might be a reword of Battlestar Galactica. There was a “leak” of an Arkham Files game using the BSG traitor set-up on BGG at one point in time. I won’t be holding my breath for that, but I can hope.

Welcome To

Now, this one, I am having trouble finding a ton on. I’ve seen artwork posted on Facebook but no links yet for it, but a new version of Welcome To. This time Welcome To … The Moon. I am not going to be surprised if there are more versions of this roll and write coming out. Welcome To… is a very successful game that has a ton of expansions. And Welcome To New Vegas is one that I own but I need to play still. It makes it more complex but keeps some of the basics of the game.

I am definitely interested in this one as the artwork gives you a nice look at a rocket ship that it looks like you are filling out. It has some of that retro look that you get from the other games as well. So I hope it succeeds because I want more roll and writes and more Welcome To.

That’s it for the news today. What do you think that Fantasy Flight is teasing?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

The Game

Floor Plan, like I said, is a roll and write game. This one is actually a roll and write versus a flip and write, which are part of the roll and write family. So you can get a lot of interesting combos of dice. The dice are used to do one of a few different things. You can use the dice combo to create rooms. So if you roll and 2 and a 6, you can create either a 6×2 living room or washroom. The 2 is for the washroom and the 6 is for the living room. Or in the rooms and as landscaping, you can place things like doors, trees, furniture, windows decking and more.

Placing all of these things is how you complete your ideal building objectives. So, someone might want a pool in their place. So you get a set number of points of you create a pool with a deck around it of the right size outside of the house. And there are five of those objectives that you can score multiple times. You also score points at the end of the game for a certain criteria, such as doors with a stone outside of them or doors with decking outside of them. And the scoring changes each game.

At the end, the player with the most points wins. Or in my case, since I play solo on Malts and Meeples, I was going for a high score. Overall a fun game, it is a bit silly you don’t need doors in your room, but everyone wants some house projects, right?

The Beer

So, of course on Malts and Meeples we are going to drink a beer as well. Last nights beer was a tart ale from Surly Brewing Company based out of Minneapolis, MN. Grapefruit Supreme is definitely what it sounds like. A beer with a lot of grapefruit flavor that has been added. Now added fruit flavor in a beer is generally not my favorite, but I do like it in Surly’s tart ale collection. Mainly because a lot of tart beers can end up being too tart so this balances it out. On the flip side, a lot of beers with fruit can be too fruity, so this also balances out because of the tartness.

Upcoming Videos

Thanks to everyone who is checking out the videos. I hope that you are enjoying them. I am thinking about adding in another stream that is maybe done once or twice a month on the weekend. The idea would be to create more of a chat type of scenario versus game play. I love doing the game play and getting in 3 games for my trek to 365 plays this year is nice. But I don’t always engage with the chat as much.

So I was thinking, maybe a series of videos talking about some Kickstarters, or maybe some board game news and then dropping into a topic, talking about a game or a genre of games and just chatting about that. Of course, if people join live I’ll be interacting with the chat, answering questions and seeing responses. I will probably try this out soon, but let me know if this is something that sounds interesting.

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

The Game

A game of Claim is split over two phases, or hands. In a normal trick taking, each hand scores, but that isn’t the case with Claim. The first hand builds your second hand. You play out cards in normal trick taking fashion, but you play for a card in the middle of the table. Whomever wins the trick takes that card and puts it into their hand for phase two the other player blindly gets a card from the top of the deck.

In phase two, you play out tricks again like normal. However, you play for the majority in a suit. So you want to win more of the five suits than you lose at the end of the game. This is all done with a fantasy theme. So most of the suits have specific rules that go with them. This adds even more of a twist to the game. In the end, the more tricks you can win and the more of the suits you can win, that wins you the game.

What Didn’t I Like?

There can be blow outs in Claim. And honestly, this is fairly true for any trick taking game. Claim actually offers more to mitigate then most of them do. Because you build your phase two hand, you can try and throw the bad cards, low numbered, to your opponent if one is flipped up. But since there is a random element of building that second phase hand half blindly between the two players, someone could get lucky and pull high number cards and dominate. This is a negative, but a small one because the game is extremely fast.

What Did I Like?

Speed

The speed of the game is amazing. I taught the game and we played four times in the span of maybe an hour to an hour and fifteen. When you know the game, you can get through both phases in 10 minutes. I have seen other games that add in twists to trick taking that make it much longer, Claim is extremely fast. Major selling point for me. This also helps with the luck factor negative. I could get a bad pull, but in 10 minutes I can reset and play again, it doesn’t matter as much.

Suit Powers

I also like the powers in the game. Each race has it’s own power and they can really change things up. In the base game, Undead get added to scoring in Phase 1. Dwarves go to the loser of the trick. Knights always beat Goblins if they are played after them. It creates a ton of weird situations. Claim 2 adds more races/suits to the game. You pick and choose which ones you play with, so you can create a ton of possibilities. It reminds me of how Silver does the game thing. I even own three more expansions that give even more variety that we didn’t play with.

Tactics

My negative was that the game can be random and it can be. But you pick some of that randomness. Phase one allows you to pick and choose what cards you get. At least you pick to some extent. So the decisions you make are important. Especially when you decide what cards to throw away. If a zero goblin is flipped up, I want to lose that one. So how do I throw it away? Sometimes, though, all the good cards play out in phase one, so every card you bid for is a low value. That can mess things up for the players.

Final Thoughts

I like trick taking games. And I like games with a lot of variety. Claim with it’s expansions, give tons of variety. Some games give a lot of variety but take a long time to play so you never see it all. Claim is very fast, so I can create a ton of different combos of races/suits in one sitting. And the two phases work extremely well. It cuts down on randomness and gives the game a unique feel. I think that Claim can work well for most people who like trick taking games. The concept is simple but offers something new, which is rare for a type of game that has so many different iterations.

Overall Grade: B
Casual Grade: B
Gamer Grade: B

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

The Games I Played

I’ve done a big board game battle with these three games before. I talk about them all in some detail and about what my favorites of them are. Really all three of them are good games and they use the same mechanic, roll dice three times, keeping one die and getting rid of all the lower ones. Then on the opponents turn, all the dice they didn’t use, you can use one. And as you fill in things, you get tons of combos which will give you more ways to fill things in.

Ganz Schon Clever

The most straight forward of the three. Ganz Schon Clever follows the basic rules that I described above. It has the simplest game play because the other two add in additional mechanics. That, however, makes the game easier to learn than any of the others and faster to play because the decision space is a bit more limited. I really like this one solo or at any player count.

Doppelt so Clever

I’d say that Doppelt so Clever is the most complex of the three of these games. The play is basically the same, and you have a new ability of unlocking. In the stream, my score is way above anything I’ve scored before. My previous best was around 230, I scored almost 300. Doppelt so Clever definitely scores higher at lower player counts because you can manipulate the dice more.

Clever Hoch Drei

Clever Hoch Drei is up there with Ganz Schon Clever as my favorite. You can get extremely high scores in the game. I really like it, because there are so many combos and the combos are fun. The game does have a few more complex rules than Ganz Schon Clever, but the basics are easier to understand than Doppelt so Clever, in my opinion.

Which of the three is your favorite?

Next Weeks Stream

My plan, as of right now, is to stream two handed play of Marvel United. Now, if that goes fast, I might play solo as well, demonstrating how that goes. The question that I have is, what heroes should I play. Right now only the base box is out there, so I can choose from the likes of Iron Man, Ant-Man, Wasp, Captain America, Hulk, Captain Marvel and Black Widow.

Who should I play as?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

Claim Expansion Bundle

Claim is a trick taking game that I need to get to the table. I want to get more trick taking games in general to the table, and Claim does something interesting. In it you take tricks over two rounds, the first round you are taking tricks to get your choice of cards for the next round. It uses a mechanic like The Grimm Masquerade where you might either get the card on top of the deck or one face up, and you might push your luck if you don’t like the one face up. Then you play another round of trick taking as well as set collection for the suits, monster races, to score the most points at the end of the game. This adds in some new mechanics in three smaller expansions, I’m excited to see how it can grow the game, though this is a game that I want to really dive into and explore soon.

MonsDRAWsity + Expansion

This one the theme just sold me on it. We’re all Paranormal Sketch artists who are trying to get as close to the monster that’s been described by the person who is it. This is one of those party/group type games where the points don’t matter and it’s all about the laughs that you get out of it. Compared to something like Stipulations where you need to be able to come up with ideas on the fly, I think this game will be more accessible. I also think that it will be more replayable than something like Cards Against Humanity because the people playing it are creating the jokes, and by that I mean drawings. I’m guessing that this game would even work via Zoom for a game night, depending on how fast it comes.

Shadows in Kyoto

I mentioned EmperorS4 because I picked up a game, it was on sale for $4.99, that Deep Water games is distributing. This has a similar aesthetic to Hanamikoji and is also a two player only game. In this one you are protecting your shogun. But what really interested me was the different ways to win. It almost has a Stratego type feel, but you can win by capturing two opponents agents who have some real intelligence on the enemy shogun. You can get an agent of your own with real intelligence to escape, or you can get your opponent to capture three of your agents with fake intelligence. I like the deduction and bluffing nature of this. It seems, like Hanamikoji, to require you to read your opponent which is something that I find interesting. It is going to feel abstract, but should work nicely, I think, in my collection.

Those are the three different bundles or games that I picked up. I’m excited for all of them obviously, and they’ll join Floor Plan, Welcome To…, Welcome To New Las Vegas, Claim 1 & 2, and Hanamikoji in my collection. If you haven’t checked out Deep Water games, they are definitely a company that puts out smaller games, but really interesting ones.

Which of these games would you be most interested in?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

From Deep Water Games: Claim 1 & 2

Claim is a 2-4 player trick taking game. You need both 1 and 2 to play it four player, and I do like trick taking games quite well. This one does something interesting in that you play through once gaining cards which will be your next hand and then you play through the second time trying to collect like fantasy race groups of cards. This one is really interesting because that first time through you are playing to win (or lose) a trick to get either a card off the top of the deck, if you lose, or a face up card if you win. But you might try and lose a hand because that face up card won’t do you any good, even if it’s a good card you might be trying to short suit yourself or something like that.

From Mythic Games: Super Fantasy Brawl

Imagine a game where crazy fantasy creatures are pulled from the past and all across the realms to face off, that is what Super Fantasy Brawl is. This game is about knocking your opponent out to get trophies as well as completing objectives. I like this one because it seems pretty simple but also very tactical. On your turn you play down three cards, one red, one blue, and one yellow, and you activate the character on those cards to move, push, attack, and what not. You have a team of three, so you might activate each person once, or, you might activate one character several times. And you can determine your plan of attack with that. You can also use cards to sort your deck, or as a reaction to something that your opponent is doing. It has almost a little bit of Magic the Gathering sort of feel to it as you do a number of things with cards, but lighter since you don’t have a massive card pool, you just get the cards for your characters.

Thunderworks Games: Roll Player: Monsters and Minions and Fiends and Familiars

These are the two expansions for Roll Player. In the base game you are drafting dice to build your best Dungeons and Dragons style RPG character. you get more points for having certain colors of dice in certain spaces on your character sheet, plus you are looking for certain numbers, for strength, dexterity, etc. The expansions add more, my one knock on the base game is that it felt a little bit like playing half a game. You just created your character and now you’re doing nothing with them, you just score it up and see who wins. Now you can face off against monsters, plus there are just more things going on in the game beyond even that with minions, fiends, and familiars getting added into the game as well. Overall a really good game, and I was able to get the Monsters and Minions expansion with store credit which is always awesome.

Floodgate Games: Sagrada Life

So, I love Sagrada, even though it’s been a bit since I’ve played it. It’s such a simple and well designed game that offers interesting challenges as you draft dice. Apparently I like buying stuff for drafting games. Sagrada Life is a small box expansion that adds in some new things to do. I don’t know everything it does in particular, but it adds in news ways to manipulate dice that seem very interesting. I need to play with the expansions to experience them and see what they add or change up, but they seem like a lot of fun.

Kolossal Games: Western Legends & Ante Up

Western Legends is a game that has been on my radar since the first Kickstarter for it. It is a sandbox style Western game that allows you do do anything that you want. If you want to be a bad guy, you can be, if you want to gamble, you can gamble, if you want to sell cattle, you can sell cattle. But everything gives you points and you can pick whatever you want to do. I like how everything seems balanced, and if you want to be a bad guy for a bit until you get caught, you can then be a good guy after that, it’s up to you. This game also has you playing and facing off by using playing cards, which have a wonderful old west look. Ante Up is an expansion that gives you even more that you can do. It increases the ante so to speak, and does that by giving you a train that you can rob which moves around the board. There are a lot more expansions too, but I’m really excited to try this game and have been kicking myself for not picking it up before.

Which of these games sounds the most interesting to you?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here

Deranged

So Deranged is the biggest one, this is a great free for all sort of game where you’re in a village and you are cursed. You have three days to escape the village or everyone loses, however, there can only be one winner. So you need to get rid of your curses. However, that can be easier said than done because there are monsters roaming the town, and they can get you, and if they do, they don’t knock you out of the game, but you will be cursed again. And then every night you have a chance of becoming deranged, a monster in your own right, and the only way to break that bigger curse is to try kill another human. The game is kind of a take that type of game because you are attacking the other players to get them more curses if they manage to get rid of theirs also while you’re trying to lift the curses on you and then race for the exit. The game was a ton of fun at GenCon, and I have just kind of described the theme, the game actually uses what I’d call a brilliant card mechanic where you can use the card to take actions, but if you spend a good card for that, you won’t then have that good card to play to defend if a monster or another player is going to attack you, so it offers a lot of interesting challenges, and then when you’re deranged you still use the cards, just in a slightly different way. This has a feel of something like a Betrayal at House on the Hill theme, but very different in terms of mechanics, almost has some of the vibe of the haunt, just everyone is the traitor.

Codenames: Pictures

Now, if you’ve read my Codenames review, you’ll know that I don’t like that game. I think that the one with words is pretty dull and while you can get creative and massive clues to work once in a while most of the time you’re giving a clue that ties maybe two words together or at most three. In Codenames: Pictures, you can use much more creativity when coming up with your clue. I’ve said “Flight, 6” and it worked, and in fact I could have said “Flight, 7” and that would have worked as well. So having those bigger clues to give is just great. Codenames: Pictures also is less language or knowledge dependent because it’s just a picture that’s a mash-up of two things. Whereas for regular Codenames, people need to know what the word means, and while the words aren’t the most out there, it is from CGE (Czech Games Edition), so not all of the words are the most common. But this will work well as another one of those bigger group games for a board game night where you don’t feel like splitting up, and one that I can play with family easily as well.

Welcome To… New Vegas

Welcome To… is my favorite roll/flip and write game, so when they came out with a new version of it, where you’re building up the Vegas strip, I was interested. When I found out that it was more complex, I wasn’t sure how interested I was going to be, because Welcome To… is a medium weight flip and write game. However, when I saw it played on Game Night by Board Game Geek (BGG), it looked like a lot of fun. It looks like it gives you a ton of choices, and I can see how it would build upon what people know from Welcome To… in a really good way. Plus, I’ve really been digging roll and write and flip and write style games because you can play some of them via streaming without much issue. This one might be too complex for streaming, but will work well in person. Again it’s a game that can handle a big group, which is a lot of fun to have games like that in the collection for when you don’t want to split up at a game night.

Tiny Towns

This game was so hot last year. And I can see why, it’s been one that’s been on my radar for a while. Cool Stuff Inc. has it for less than the standard MSRP, so I decided it was time to grab it. In this game you are building up a little town, to do that, you’re putting resources in a grid, going for certain patterns that then allow you to build a farm, tavern or other buildings and you score points depending where the buildings are built. There are a few interesting things about the game. First, when you build, you have to build in one of the spots that you removed one of the cubes from. So you have to plan your buildings well, because you don’t want to create pockets that are too small to build in. The other thing is that you pick the color you want to build on your turn. So you might want a red cube, that means everyone else has to put down a red cube somewhere on their grid as well. But it might not be useful for them, so you can balance really helping yourself or hurting another player, just don’t hurt yourself at the same time. That means, that only when you are it are you guaranteed of getting what you want. I like that, because it doesn’t mean you can plan it out perfectly, which means you need to adjust and adapt on the fly. The game seems simple but thinky.

Those are the ones that I’m picking up in this order. Which one sounds the most interesting to you?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.