The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth

We didn't have enough people to play D&D, so we tried out this boardgame touted as "DMless D&D". Well, the DM was actually an app on a laptop, telling us how to place new tiles on the map, along with interaction tokens and enemies. It also told us how the enemies fight. 

We assumed the roles of Aragorn, Bilbo, Gimli and Legolas and dove in. 

Review: Castle Ravenloft

Taking a break from our Dungeon of the Mad Mage campaign, we decided on a boardgame night, but still in-universe. Castle Ravenloft is a D&D themed-boardgame, with the miniatures actually usable in D&D, and many rules instantly recognizable to any D&D-veteran. 

I picked the wizard, and we started with the intro adventure: escape from Strahd's crypt.

Review: Vault of Dragons

 We did not have enough players to go for a D&D session, so we broke out this bad boy. 

Review: Alien vs Predator

Introduction

My second boardgame review, although Alien vs Predator: The Hunt Begins is a halfway cross between wargame and boardgame. There is a list building element to it if you buy more miniatures and expansions, but once you get down to business, there is a gameboard with fixed length moves. I played a match with only the starter set, so the default lists for each player.

Setup

We had all three factions played. 

The Predators were only two, but had mimicry tokens which can't be distinguished from actual Predators until in line of sight. Their objective was to plant explosives in 3 of the 4 big rooms.

The Aliens were most numerous. Their only objective was to amass 5 kills.

The Marines were 5, but had good shooting capabilities. They had to destroy all 4 vents on the map.

Playing the game

I played the Marines - it was terrifying. All I had was a lot of blips all over the map, with the Aliens closing in and Predators walking in the distance. My friends, we are way to squishy for this galaxy!

I quickly destroyed the two closest vents and scored a kill on the Aliens, securing the nearest corridors, while the other players just positioned their forces.

Soon I was under siege and fighting for my life against the Aliens. The Flamethrower could have worked wonders, but I rolled poorly. Lesson of the day: always take a smartgunner. Those rerolls on to hit, combined with a healthy rate of fire, did a lot of work.

The Aliens spent all their forces trying to kill Marines, but only managed to frag one due to a combination of poor rolling and tactical cards played. This held me up in my starting position, and by the time I could start advancing towards the other side of the map, the Predators had already planted two bombs.

In the end, it came down to a single round. The Predator smashed its way through the door I closed in front of him and ran into the third large room. My Marines were on sentry duty and fired everything at him, but even the combined firepower of the smart gun and a pulse rifle were not enough to take down a Predator in one turn. With their objective completed, the Predators won.

Aftermath

A somewhat complex game, but easy to grasp if you have experience with wargames. The to hit rolls and armor saves modified by the strength of the weapon are all too familiar at this point.

As we discussed, the key to a balanced a game would be that the Alien player should hold off until he's in a good position to assault both of his opponents. It is also paramount to kill one Predator before they plant many bombs to avoid situations like our own where it's practically an auto-win for the Predators at a certain point.

The miniatures are of good quality and they look awesome with the right paintjob.

Expansions could alter the game dramatically by introducing new models, abilities and mechanics.

All in all, a fun game worth a look.

Review: StarCraft: The Board Game

This is my first board game review. Sort of. I'm not going to duplicate the publisher's description of the game, nor am I going to take photos of every component. It's a 2007 game, so you can find all that on the internet. You can start on BoardGameGeek. I'm taking more of a wargamer's perspective here.

Introduction

I'm a huge fan of StarCraft. I own both PC games (and their expansions). It was only logical to jump on the occasion to play the boardgame version. The first attempt, however, failed. We made the mistake of starting at 00:30, after a large meal and a couple of beers. Explaining the rules took a very long time; there were some distractions; and we were very, very tired. We played the game halfway through, then quit around 03:00. I wasn't discouraged at all, though. In fact, I could barely wait for a second chance. This time, we started at around 16:30, and we were completely sober for the first hour or so. It went much better!

As a wargamer...

This game has a lot of miniatures!

Here you can see everything on display, for all 6 factions. You get 3 of each advanced unit, and a couple more of the basic units.
Obviously, the miniatures aren't "wargaming quality" - they are not as detailed, or precise. However, I'm thinking that this game could be an excellent hobby starter (much like Shadows over Camelot was for me). You could take them and paint them up as they look like in the PC game, with decals and markings making up for the lack of obvious distinction. It would be a great way to get into painting and learn the basic techniques.

Gameplay and impressions

You might have already guessed, but the ruleset is fairly complex, and not meant for casual gamers.
However, it's nothing compared to a wargame such as Warhammer. After the first round, we started getting into our regular boardgame-y mood (helped along with snacks, pizza, coke and whiskey). In fact, as we progressed, there were fewer and fewer rules mistakes! (Although, to be fair, unintentional mistakes, caused by being tired, did start creeping in.)

The second round of conquering the galaxy

Knowledge of the PC game helps a lot with the basic concepts. It will also produce tons of funny moments, quotes and sound imitations. (It will also annoy you, when you realize that you can't produce 12 Battlecruisers.)
Being a wargamer helps a lot with understanding moves, attacks and combat in general.

Arcturus Mengsk invades a world held by Judicator Aldaris...

Expect lots and lots of tactical moves. Foreseeing what your enemy will do and countering it, foreseeing how the enemy will counter your moves if you take first turn, and generally thinking ahead will be at the order of the day while playing the game.

... allowing Tassadar to hold on to his built-up forces.

Once you get the gist of it, the game is really deep and fun. We kept on going for about 5 matches, finishing around 03:00 in the morning!