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Board Game Spotlight - Tides of Madness from Portal Games

6/29/2020

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Board Game Spotlight is where we take a look at games that we have come across. We share a bit about the game and our thoughts are on it. This week we are looking at

Tides of Madness from Portal Games

Players: 2 players | Playing Time: 20 min | Age: 10+
Designer: Kristian Curla 
 |  Publisher:Portal Games

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Players will be playing cards in order to score points against their opponents. The player at the end of the game with the highest score wins. Players will have to watch that they don’t gain too much madness and go insane causing them to lose the game. 
The game has a draft mechanic where players play a card, pass the cards to the next player. Once each player has 5 cards revealed the end of the round begins. Players gain madness tokens for each card with tentacles on them. The player with majority of madness tokens from the round may gain 4 points or discard 1 madness token back to the supply. Each card has a scoring ability across the top. For each card that has it’s scoring satisfied players gain points listed on the card. Typically these cards deal with the suits that the cards have. After scoring if anyone has 9 or more madness tokens they lose the game. It is possible for both players to lose the game. Play continues through two more rounds as long as a player doesn’t go insane with madness tokens. 
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​This is a quick fun little game. If you have about 30 minutes this is a fun one to pick up. The artwork is very much lovecraft. It is well designed and easy to read. The symbols for scoring could have been made just a bit bigger for ease of seeing. The cards are tarot sized so there is a lot of room for play. Gameplay wise the game is very simple. It can be difficult to know what scoring method to go after as your cards will change through each draft phase. If an opponent gets wind of what you are looking for and are ignoring their own scoring they might try to thwart your gameplay.



Game or Developer Games - https://portalgamesus.com/
Board Game Geek - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/195544/tides-madness
Overland Gamer The Podcast: Episode 15
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Shad0fx

Joseph William DeMarco

Author:
Joe DeMarco a single father, freelance writer, game designer, quality assurance software tester, and business analyst. I am a big-time gamer, and really enjoy checking out all kinds of games available. Putting my curiosity to the app store I find random games to check out.
If you have a game you'd like me to review, contact me and let us see how we can work together.
Follow Joe on Twitter @shad0fx that’s S H A D ZERO F X

​
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Board Game Spotlight - Wingspan from Stonemaier Games

6/15/2020

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Board Game Spotlight is where we take a look at games that we have come across. Today we're looking at Wingspan from Stonemaier Games. 

Players: 1-5  |  Playing Time: 40-70 min  |  Age: 10+
Designer: Elizabeth Hargrave
Artist: Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo, Natalia Rojas, Beth Sobel

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Wingspan is a beautiful game where players will acquire resources and bird cards to play into their habitat preserve. It is an engine building hand management game. The goal of the game is to have the most points at the end. Players gain points through the game by playing birds down, activating different abilities of birds, collecting eggs, and points gained from end of the round effects. 
In wingspan players begin with a number of cards in their hands and some resources used to play the birds through the game. Three of the four player actions are divided into habitats. The Forest habitat is where players can choose the gather food action. This allows players to gain food resources that come into play when playing birds. The prairie habitat is where players can play eggs on their birds. Eggs are worth points at the end of the game, and are also used to play birds. The water habitat is where players draws new bird cards. The fourth action is playing a bird into one of 3 habitats. The cost to play a bird is the food they need and may include an egg cost. When a player plays a bird in one of the 3 habitat areas the next time the player uses the action in that habitat it changes based on what is printed on the game board, and what abilities the birds played down have. 
Besides the point value each bird has it’s own abilities. Some abilities trigger when you choose the action in their habitat. Some abilities may trigger when other players choose an action. Some abilities may trigger at the end of the round. Some abilities may trigger at the end of the game. 
A round of Wingspan ends when all players have used their action cubes. Players see if there are any end of round actions on birds they have played. They will then consult the end of round board to see how many points they gain. Losing one of their cubes to the end of round board. 
Play continues across 4 rounds. 
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This game was a surprise to us. I first saw it pop up on the various board game facebook groups I’m in. I thought it was just a silly simple game. I got to play it and had a really good time with it. It has some educational elements to it as all the bird cards have the scientific name of the bird printed on the cards along with the region the birds are from on the very bottom of each card. The game is simple enough to pick up and has a lot of strategy depending on what direction your bonus cards give you. 
The artwork on this one is fantastic. Each bird has a lifelike appearance. So far the dice tower bird feeder has withstood many games. The wooden dice are a nice change from normal dice. The eggs are a thick plastic which is nice. They have a flat spot on them so they won’t roll all over the table. 
There is one expansion for this one available that brings European birds to the game. 

Board Game Geek - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/266192/wingspan
Stonemaier Games - https://stonemaiergames.com/games/wingspan/

Overland Gamer: The Podcast Episode 4
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Author: Joe DeMarco a father, freelance writer, game designer, quality assurance software tester, and business analyst. I am a big-time gamer, and really enjoy checking out all kinds of games available. 
If you have a game you'd like me to review, contact me and let us see how we can work together.

​Find out more here. 

Follow Joe on Twitter https://twitter.com/Shad0fx
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Board Game Spotlight - Dark Souls: The Card Game from Steamforged Games

6/8/2020

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​Board Game Spotlight where we take a brief look at games that have come across our table. Today we're taking a look at Dark Souls the Card Game from Steamforged Games.
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Dark Souls: The Card Game
Players: 1-4
Playing time: 45-60 Minutes
Ages: 12+ - Dark themes
Designer: David Carl
Artist: Tom Hutchings
​Publisher: Steamforged Games

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Inspired by the video game from Bandai Namco and From Software, Dark Souls: The Card Game is a challenging deckbuilding card game. Choose your hero, “adapt your deck, evolve your strategy, and prepare to die!” 
From the publisher “Players use unique decks of cards to fight the many enemies that lie within before ultimately confronting the powerful bosses. Using souls gathered from vanquished foes, players will expand and evolve their decks, making them more powerful. But time is of the essense; the spark dwindles. Each time a player dies you must return to the bonfire to regroup- and the bonfire won’t burn forever.” 
In dark souls players will start each with a deck built for a specific type of character. The base game comes with an Assassin, A herald, A knight, and a Sorcerer. A player will choose one of these character types to adventure forth against challenging foes. Through the course of the game these decks will evolve by adding treasure cards that provide armor, weapons and abilities cards. Stamina cards may also be added to the deck to improve the abilties one does. 
Combat in the game is unique in the sense that where you place your character and where enemies are placed on the battle board can determine who is attacked when. This strategy is important when moving around the battlefield and hitting your opponents. 
The bonfire is the games way of telling time and progressing forward. If a player is defeated they lose the souls and treasures gained in the fights. If players choose to rest at the bonfire players may acquire the treasure and souls they earned in previous fights. 
Overal the game is very challenging and fun. There’s a lot of strategy in building your deck. The game plays very well in solo mode or in cooperative mode. It is very important that players work together on acquiring cards, combat, and resting in order to progress the story forward fast enough before the bonfire goes out. The game is very thematic. I have not played too much of the Dark Souls video game but the videos I have watched of it makes this card game seem to have a lot of connection to the difficulty of that version of the game. 
The artwork is very dark and grim. Something that drew me into the game right away. It has a lot of story potential hidden with it. While the story isn’t narrative driven it can come from the cards encountered throughout gameplay. 
This is definitely a unique game to bring to the table. 
More information can be found at 
Game or Developer Games - https://steamforged.com/dark-souls-the-card-game
Board Game Geek - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/242667/dark-souls-card-game
Overland Gamer: The Podcast Episode 12
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Author: Joe DeMarco a father, freelance writer, game designer, quality assurance software tester, and business analyst. I am a big-time gamer, and really enjoy checking out all kinds of games available. 
If you have a game you'd like me to review, contact me and let us see how we can work together.

​Find out more here. 

Follow Joe on Twitter https://twitter.com/Shad0fx
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Board Game Spotlight - Before There Were Stars from Smirk and Laughter Games

6/1/2020

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Before There Were Stars
Smirk and Laughter Games

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​Players: 3-6
Playing Time: 40-60 minutes
Age: 10+
Designer: Alex Cutler, Matt Fantastic, Alexander Wilkinson

Artist: Marthy Angue, Lisa Falzon
Publisher: Smirk and Laughter Games.

This game is all about playing cards, telling stories, and sharing in the experience. Players will roll dice, draft star constellation cards. Then  players will go around telling stories that go with the constellations that they have collected. After all stories have been told players get to secretly place scoring stones into the other players scoring bags. Play goes through several rounds building constellations into your story library. Once 4 rounds have passed final scoring takes place. The player who earns the most points wins. Though the game is more about enjoying the stories told amongst each other. 

This game has been a great addition to my library. It says it plays 3-6 but the story building concepts can be played with 1 or 2 players. Just eliminating the score keeping aspect and have fun telling the story. 
The artwork on the cards is well crafted. Each constellation is thematic and imaginative. With 80 constellation cards and 2 versions of stories to be told the game has a wide range of possibility. My 9 year old was even able to craft an interesting and funny story with the game. 

More information can be found at Smirk and Laughter Games’ website at https://www.smirkandlaughter.com/
And board game geek’s site https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/243780/there-were-stars

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Overland Gamer: The Podcast Episode 9 - Before There Were Stars
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Joe DeMarco a single father, freelance writer, game designer, quality assurance software tester, and business analyst. I am a big-time gamer, and really enjoy checking out all kinds of games available. 
If you have a game you'd like me to review, contact me and let us see how we can work together.

​Find out more here. 


Follow Joe on Twitter https://twitter.com/Shad0fx

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    Shad0fx

    Joe DeMarco (Shad0fx) is a father, writer, game designer, and podcaster. 

    Find out more
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