Some people don’t have that problem or enjoy unpacking their army and they don’t have this problem. Unfortunately, I am not in a position to leave my army out in the open or to store entire units, as I play Warhammer in our local gaming club. If I would be playing it at home I think I would store entire units and then it would take 3 minutes to deploy entire army on the table. Another reason for not leaving your army in the open is dust. In just a few weeks, no matter how often you play, your entire army will be covered in dust, and you don’t want that, unless you are playing with Tomb Kings and you are going for that dusty look.

That is why I like to use paper units from time to time. You don’t have to place every model into unit, you can start the deployment instantly. It is quite easy now days to make your units in different computer programs. All you need are squares or other model shapes with the right dimensions. Later you will cut that unit with scissors and you have your unit. During the game just use a pan to mark units that have been killed. In order to make it easier for myself and the opponent I use lord and hero models, so that there is no confusion where they are and how they are placed in the unit.

It might seem ugly and many people would rather spend more time to get their entire armies out of their cases, but it is also very effective for other things. When you are preparing for tournaments and you play a game every day there is a high chance that you will get bored unpacking your army every day. Another reason for using paper units is that you can try to play against every army when preparing for the tournament. It is likely that in your gaming community you have all armies but it is difficult to find people to play with you. Some people don’t feel comfortable giving their armies to others to play. When you think of it, would you give something to someone that is worth a lot of money? With paper models you can play against all the other armies and you can do it with just one player. Paper units are great for quick battles, trying new armies, new lists, and different tactics and so on.

Recently I decided to start collecting Warriors of Chaos. As I decided to take this one slow and to buy new models only when I finish painting those that I have bought, it will take some time before I have a fully assembled army. So in order to try this army and not just to wait for entire army to be ready I decided to try it with paper pieces. Although I believe that I will stop using paper once I have entire army ready as there are not so many units and models in the army in comparison to the Skaven army.

What I was actually looking for was the army that would be dedicated to the Chaos and have hard hitting units. Well, Warriors of Chaos have few of those and to tell you the truth I was quite surprised. It is never the same until you play with the army. I always knew that they were strong but I never paid any attention to them as when I was playing with the Skaven, Warriors of Chaos were the least of my problems. That is what I found out few days ago. I decided to play against a friend who plays with Warriors of Chaos, but instead he used my Skaven army and I used his Warriors of Chaos army. It quite unpleasant to be on the other side. He managed to kill almost everything I got, mainly using shooting and magic. My unit of Chosen of the Tzeentch never saw a combat, as they were removed entirely by the Skaven 13^th spell. After that game I decided to play another one as I never had a chance to feel the strength of Chosen and Warrior units.

My next game was against Bretonnia. This time I decided to use the 8^th edition horde rule. I made three units of 40 Marauders. Although they hit hard, they are quite squishy. If you manage to survive long enough to hit back, there is little chance that something will survive. It turned out to be a very interesting game, although Bretonnia lost losing every single unit.

What I wanted to try were Warshrines and their ability to boost one of your units. With two Warshrines and a unit of Chosen I managed to create deadliest unit I have ever played with. As the Chosen roll on the Eye of the Gods table at the beginning of the turn and both Warshrines can give them another boost from that table, I managed to create a unit with +1 attack, +1 strength and 3+ ward save that is stubborn. All I can say is that it killed both Grail Knights and Knights of the Realm packed with lords and heroes.

Best way to learn all the different things about Warhammer is to play as much as possible. Playing with different armies will definitely help you improve. Paper units are great for that so try to play with armies that you don’t have. I understand that it is not what real Warhammer player is looking for but it definitely helps sometimes.

So, in these days of giant books and crunchy games, it is very interesting to stumble upon a role playing game that tries to give you everything you need in just 20 pages! You don’t believe me? Well it’s true! It’s Dungeonslayers. Do you want to play a role playing game with simple, yet elegant rules? A game of old fashioned “go down into the dungeon, kill some monsters and take their stuff”? Dungeonslayers is definitely the game for you!

As you can see, Dungeonslayers is a game of heroic, fantasy, dungeon-delving and monster-slaying! It is a game in which you can create a character in about 10 minutes and join the action right away. The characters are not as complex and deep as in other games, but this doesn’t mean that they are any less fun.

Character creation includes a couple of simple steps. The first thing that you do is distribute points in your character’s main attributes and abilities. Each character in Dungeonslayers has three attributes: Body, Agility and Mind. Each of these attributes has 2 abilities associated with them that further define your character and his capabilities: Strength and Toughness for Body, Reflexes and Dexterity for Agility, Reason and Aura for Mind.

The mighty trio of monster killing!

The next step is calculating your Combat Values. These are the values that you will use very frequently in the dark dungeons filled with scary and terrible monsters. They are all calculated by adding together some of your attributes and abilities. So, what combat values will you be using in the dungeon?

Hitpoints – this is a measure of how much damage you can take before your character is in trouble and falls unconscious. As long as you have at least one hitpoint remaining, you can function normally.

Defense – A value that lets you resist some of the damage that those pesky monsters and traps deal to you. Better armor gives you better defense.

Melee Attack – Your ability to swing stuff at your enemies and hit them. Swords, maces, spears and even fists all fall into this combat value.

Ranged Attacks – Striking and throwing things at your enemies from a safe distance. Bows, crossbows, slings, throwing axes and knives and everything else that you can throw falls into this combat value.

Dodge – This one is real simple, avoid getting hit! No matter the protection that you have, it’s always easier to stay alive if you don’t get hit by a giant axe! Heavy armor actually reduce this value, as they hinder your mobility.

Spellcasting – The combat value that mages prefer. The ability to cast normal (non targeted) spells that do not require a specific target.

Targeted Spells – The second mage combat value, this one is for casting targeted spells. Your ability to unleash fiery (or watery, or airy, or whatever you like) hell on your enemies!

There a couple of supplements on the site

After the combat values, you get to pick a race and class for your character. There are three races and three classes to choose from. The races are Human, Dwarf and Elf. Each race gives you a small benefit or two, and if you need more races, it’s very easy to come up with new ones. The classes that you can choose from are Fighter, Scout and Spellcaster. The perfect trio for a simple game of killing things in a dungeon! If you create a spellcaster, you have to select if you want to be a Healer, Wizard or Black Mage. Your race and class will give you additional bonuses to your attributes and abilities.

After this you get some starting money in order to equip your character (you wouldn’t go into a dungeon without some rope, would you?), and if you are playing a spellcaster you get to select one spell that you know from the beginning. Your character is ready! It’s that simple! And if your character manages to survive a couple of dungeons, he will start to grow in experience, allowing you to grab some new spells and talents for him. Talents are cool advantages that will make your characters learn new tricks and combat moves. Simple characters, many options!

The system that Dungeonslayers use is based solely on the twenty sided die (the d20!). Your party will usually move through a dungeon, and when they enter a room with some monsters, it’s time to bash some skulls! When you want to attack an enemy you roll the d20! depending on your weapon of choice, you will either use the Melee Attack, Ranged Attack or Targeted Spell combat value. All you need to do in order to succeed is to roll under your combat value! Now this is the cool part, if you are successful in your attack, that is the number of damage points that you will inflict upon your enemy! Another simple and elegant mechanic! The enemy then gets to roll against his defense combat value, and if he is successful, the result gets subtracted from the damage inflicted. So wear a lot of armor if you plan to survive the hordes that await you in the dungeons!

If you like the game, you can pick up the physical copy and support them

Dungeonslayers… An awesome and fun role playing game! Because it is so easy to learn, anyone can play it and it makes a fantastic entry game into the world of role playing. And the best part, this game is completely free! That’s right, free! If you like what you read here, hop to their site, download it and start playing! www.dungeonslayers.com , trust me, you won’t be disappointed. The current edition of the game is 3.5, but 4th edition is in the making and, I suspect, it will be even better!

So…. here we are back on my territory, my natural habitat with Caylus Magna Carta. Name of the game may sound familiar to you because there is a game named simply Caylus. It is the board game version of this game, which actually came out first. After they made quite a success with Caylus, Ystari Games and its creator William Attia simplified it a bit and made card game out of it. Final product was a complete success, just like its predecessor.

I said “card game”, which it certainly is, but it is actually somewhat more than that. When I explained what types of card games exist and what criteria a game must meet to be considered a “card game”, I said that you’ll often find additional elements of the game, besides cards. That is the case with Caylus. When you open a game box you’ll find not only cards but several types of tokens and wooden cubes as well. Despite this, this is still considered a card game.

In this game players take the role of a master builder building the Castle by supplying batches of resources to obtain Privilege Points. Throughout the game, players use resources to make buildings along the road to the castle. Players place their workers in these buildings to obtain resources. These resources are used to build further buildings. The game ends once all of the Privilege Point tokens have been given out. The player with the most Privilege Points wins.

Now, let’s see the basic rules!

Each player starts with 2 food cubes (pink), 2 wood cubes (brown), 4 denier (coins) and their 4 worker tokens. Each player’s deck is identical and it consists of 12 building cards. It is shuffled and the top three cards are drawn to make each player’s starting hand. A number of pink cards (which depends on the number of players), the castle card and the bridge card are laid out on the table so that the pink cards form a road leading from the castle and the bridge.

At the start of each turn, each player collects two coins as income and then players take turns executing actions until all players pass. An action consists of either:

* Paying a coin to draw a card
* Paying a coin to refresh your hand (discard all your cards and draw the same number from your deck)
* Paying a coin to put a worker token somewhere on the road
* Construct a building by paying its construction cost and placing it at the end of the road, extending the length of the road by one card.
* Pass. The player places their Passing Marker on the lowest numbered space on the Bridge card. The 1st player to pass earns 1 coin.

Once all players have passed, each building in the road that has a worker token on it is executed in turn left to right. Most buildings produce resource cubes. Some buildings produce coins. Some let you exchange cubes or coins for different cubes or coins. Many buildings offer a primary effect for the person who put their token on the building and a secondary effect for the player who built the building. All buildings are worth a certain amount of victory points at the end of the game for a player that built the building.

After all of the building effects are executed players may choose to contribute batches of cubes toward the construction of the castle. Each batch of three different cubes (1 food, 1 wood, 1 stone; gold cube can replace any other cube!) contributed to the castle earns a castle token. Castle tokens are divided into Dungeon tokens (worth 4 prestige points), Wall tokens (worth 3), and Tower tokens (worth 2). Since the Dungeon tokens are taken first, contributing to the castle early is more valuable than contributing late. In each round, whoever offers the most batches to the castle (in case of a tie, winner is a player who passed first) earns a bonus of one gold cube.

That is the end of that turn, and the next turn begins.

The game ends when all of the castle tokens have been claimed. At that point, player with the most prestige points wins!

These are the basic rules. There are also an advanced rules that include a special token called – Provost. He starts from the utmost left building, but after all players passed each player(in pass order) can pay up to 3 coins to move Provost up to 3 spaces in any direction. After all players passed here as well, activate workers but only the ones LEFT from the Provost token! This adds an additional aspect to the game which can be very, very swingy.

So, there it is, fantastic game of Caylus Magna Carta. Artwork is beautiful, very colorful and vivid. Wood pieces are quality made and long-lasting. Of course, that is not all. Game itself is very fun to play, very competitive and mind-provoking on a couple of different levels. If you ask me, overall a superb product!

After playing so many board games I discovered that what makes me play more is the thrill of learning new mechanics and discovering new ones. What makes every game great is how it plays. You can have great illustrations with amazing tokens and miniatures, but if your gaming system is bad, then that board game is probably not going to be that popular. I don’t say that games should not look good, on the contrary, they should but they should also have great mechanics as that is where you benefit the most.

When it comes to choosing a new game I always try to find that has something new in it or at least something new for me. There is a little chance that I will buy a game that has similar mechanics to a game that I played and was not very enthusiastic about. And there is also one very important thing when I choose my next game. I am always looking for a game that has very little or none random factor. I am not really a fan of dice rolling so cards and precise actions in the board game work perfectly for me.

As I said before, I am looking for new mechanics and new gaming experiences. I am not picky when it comes to choosing a game type. I like fantasy, WW2, management, family games, and military theme and so on. I am always willing to try something new even if I am skeptical about it.

As I always have a short list of games I want to buy I have to set some priorities. I always tend to buy newer games before I move to the ones that are quite old. I don’t know why, but I just do. Don’t think that old games are bad. There are some games that will never get old and that are among the best games ever. It doesn’t mean it is good if it is new.

In this article I will mention few quite new games that I tend to buy as soon as possible. So first of all, a game that I already ordered is Dungeon Petz. To be honest I ordered this game without even knowing what kind of game it is. I ordered it because it was made by the same guy that made Dungeon Lords and the same guy did the illustrations. I love Dungeon Lords and I hope that this game will be as good as its older brother. After I ordered Dungeon Petz I decided to download rules and read them so that I can get myself familiar with this game. I always tend to read and learn rules even before I buy a game. That is actually how I decide whether I like it or not.

In Dungeon Petz you take a roll of imp family that breeds different monsters. Graphics are just insane. From what I could read from the rules, this game is similar to Dungeon Lords but it has its own flavor. This is a management type of game without combat, so quite peaceful. Well, depending who you play it with. I can’t wait to get my copy of this game.

Another game that I ran across is also made by the same guy that made Dungeon Lords and Dungeon Petz. It is called a Mage Knight the board game. It is an RPG game but with some of the best mechanics I have ever seen in RPG game. It uses cards and different tokens. Although it has few dice there are not used when you want to do something but rather at the end of your turn as they represent some sort of mana. What I do like about this game is that it lasts long and you are able to modify your character quite a bit. I never liked RPG games where you finally make a good champion and then the game ends. As I understood in this game you are already a hero and you are just becoming stronger, unlike in some games where you start as nobody. It is quite a complex game, which I like, so I am not able to judge it just form reading the rules. I believe that it is going to be money well spent.

After playing Twilight Struggle I was always looking for something similar to that. And I found it. Another GMT game 1989: Dawn of Freedom was made by the same guy who made Twilight Struggle. What I understood this game has similar mechanics but also has something new in it. After reading the rules set and reading some comments on the internet from people who also read the rules, this game might even be better then Twilight Struggle. It is about a battle between Democrats and Communists in the 1989 in Eastern Europe. I found this theme quite interesting as I come from these parts. However, last information that GMT games gave us was that this game will be released in the second half of April.

Another very interesting game also coming from GMT games is the Labyrinth: War on Terror. It has very interesting mechanics and very interesting subject. Some people started protesting as they find this theme quite offensive. War on terror is a part of modern history that is still lasting.

If you have some doubts about which game to buy first, try reading the rules or search the internet for different reviews. I believe that people on different gaming forums are more than glad to help you choose between two games. But be careful as we all tend to like different things.

Isla Dorada! An awesome little boardgame in which the players will become explorers of a long lost island. It is playable by 3 to 6 players and it guarantees fun every time you play it. The goal of the game is very simple, have the most treasure! But to claim the most treasure is going to require some effort.

The components of Isla Dorada!

Isla Dorada has one big difference from other games. In this game not everyone controls their own figure or playing piece. Instead all the players share one figure! Sounds interesting? Oh yeah, it is. This represents all of you exploring the island together as one big party. In a way, it seems that you are playing together, but far from it. Every players has their own maps (represented by treasure cards) which gives him the locations of valuable artifacts. To gain these treasures, you will have to guide your exploration party in the direction that you need to go. Ok, so now it starting to sound fun!

As I already mentioned, the game takes place on a lost island, which is beautifully represented on the playing board. In fact, all of the illustrations in this game are top notch. Besides the board, the game uses only three figurines: two monsters (the Bigfoot and the Leviathan) and the explorers themselves. The figures are also very beautiful and give of a humorous vibe. I love how the explorer figurine looks like a totem of funny people stacked one on top of each other.

Figurines and cards

But the cards are the coolest! Besides having nice illustrations, everything they do is explained by pictures without any text, and it is all very easy to learn! Because of this there is no language barrier in this game, anyone can just pick up and play (providing, of course, that at least someone has read the rules, which are very light and easy to remember).

I have said all of these nice things about the game, but let’s see how do you actually play it! Let me explain the different types of cards first. Isla Dorada uses four types of cards:

Treasure cards – These cards represent your secret maps and locations of valuable artifacts and treasures. They are kept hidden from other players and when you reach a destination that is shown on them, you get to flip them and claim points for them.

Curse cards – These cards are the opposite of treasure cards. They work identically, but instead of a bonus, flipped curse cards lower your scores, so you will have to avoid places that make you flip them.

Destiny cards – These cards represent secret missions that can grant you a lot of additional points if you manage to complete them during the game. They might require you to visit some places on the map, or to travel along sea paths a couple of times, or even collect different types of treasures.

Adventure cards – These are the cards that form the players hands in the game. They are used for many things during the game, but their main purpose is to use them while biding to move along the path that you desire.

Treasures, curses and the rest...

So, at the beginning of the game, everyone gets a couple of these cards, which are all kept in secret. The game is played for 16 rounds after which all the scores are checked, and the player with the highest number of points wins.

Every round consists of 6 simple steps:

1) Bidding – In this phase the players bid one against each other to determine the path that they will take this round. To simply explain it you do this by moving the explorer figurine on the path that you wish to take and saying a number (this number represents how many adventure cards of that type you will invest). To move along different paths, you need different cards, so you have camels for desert paths, giant gorillas for jungles, yaks for mountains and kayaks for rivers and seas. There are also birds and zeppelins for air travel.

2) Moving – The player who won the bid becomes the leader of the expedition and the whole party is moved along the winner’s path. The leader gets to bid first in the next bidding phase.

3) Being Cursed – After moving, every player checks his curse cards if they match the location that the group is standing on. If someone has a corresponding curse card, he must play it face up and it remains in play, giving negative points to that player. Ouch! There is no way to get rid of these, so be careful.

4) Finding Treasures – After the curses, every player checks his treasure cards. Like with curses, if a treasure card corresponds to the location that you are on, you get to play it face up for a bonus!

Awesome illustrations!

5) Receiving Cable News – On the 4th and 9th turn of the game, players receive news about new treasures that are hidden in the island. Everyone gets to draw additional treasure cards.

6) Drawing Adventure Cards – At the end of the round each player, starting with the leader, gets to draw an adventure card. After this he can pay one gold to draw another one. Oh yeah, gold! Every player starts the game with 10 gold pieces. You can never get more gold so spend it carefully because every gold piece that you save at the end of the game gives you an additional point.

And that is Isla Dorada! As you can see it is a very fun game in which you have to outwit and outsmart your opponents in order to get to the place that you want. And the greatest thing, everyone can play! Whether you are looking for a family type game or a “beer night with your friends” game, this will be the game for you!

2)

Frenzy. Name of the game sounds pretty good, right? Must be something exciting, something fast & furious. It’s a card game, OK, fine, that is right in our alley, up until now every game I reviewed was a card game, so again, nothing unusual there. It’s apparently some kind of fantasy battle as well – sure, most of the games are settled in some fantasy World one way or another, and vast majority of them depict battle/war of some sort.

But wait, what’s that right there…. Real-time?! What do you mean, real-time? We know what RTS or real-time strategies on PC are, but how could a card game be real-time? Let’s dig deeper.

Because the game is played in real time, you can play cards as fast as you want without having to wait your turn.

Yep, that’s correct, you can play cards from your hand at your will, as fast as you want to, there’s absolutely no need to wait for your opponent! I’m pretty sure this concept looks intimidating if not terrifying (but amazing at the same time) for a player who never stumbled across this kind of game before, so I’m going to explain every last detail of this concept in this article.

Drums are pounding like the feet of a thousand soldiers. Swords and armor glisten across the horizon. War cries rise all around, the pulse quickens, adrenaline flows, and the frenzy is upon you!

First of all, Frenzy is a game for 2 players, and can be played in 5-10 minutes. There are 4 different Frenzy decks: Knights, Orcs, Dwarves and Undead. Mechanically, they are very similar with the difference of one special character in every deck (read on).

Each player have a starting deck of 40 cards at his disposal. Starting deck looks something like this:

Every one of the 4 decks looks closely similar to this. There are cards with numbers 1 – 4 and cards with knife and fire symbol in all of them (both called Heroes). Number of those may vary from deck to deck, and only one big difference is special character card (on this picture that’s a card with horse head). Every special card has a unique ability I’ll explain a bit later. They are also considered a heroes.

So, how is it played? The most important thing in Frenzy are the battle lines. Take a look at this example:

There are 3 battlefields on which you’re fighting against your opponent. On each of them every player has it’s Battle line and Supply line. Your playing area is divided into 7 regions. During a round of Frenzy, you may play cards into any of these regions. There are 6 battle regions (battle + supply line) and Headquarters. You may place any card in battle regions, but only heroes at the headquarters.

At the end of the turn, highest number in any of the three battle lines wins battle in that line and he takes both cards from supply lines that supply that battle lines. So, if you have number 3, and I have number 4 in my battle line, I’ll take both cards from supply lines. Highest number always win, with this exception: Assassin (Hero card with knife mark on it) kills number 4, but loses to all other cards.

Wizard(Hero with fire mark) can also be places in battle line but his strength is always 0. Power of a wizard comes when you place him in your supply line. If an opponent wins a battle with a wizard in your supply line, you get to discard any card from your opponents score pile and remove it from the game.

Round ends when either:

* 3 Hero cards are placed in any Headquarters

or

* Any players deck is depleted.

When that happens, all the battle lines are resolved and supply lines are scored. After all 3 Battlefields have been resolved, any cards in your Headquarters are removed from the game. All remaining cards in your Battle Lines and Supply Lines are shuffled back into your deck. Then, round 2 can start.

The game ends at the end of 3 rounds. Both players count up the total number of points in their respective score piles. The player with the most total points wins. If there is a tie for most total points, the player with the most cards in his score pile wins. If even this is a tie, then the game ends in a stalemate.

And don’t forget – during all of this, you can play cards from your deck as fast as you want to. Just turn them and play them, turn them, play them!!! Avoid Wizards in opponents battle lines (lose those battles), kill opponents 4′s with Assassins, and try to end the round when that suits you!

It is recommended for the beginners to play this game with only 8 hero cards (4 Assassins and 4 Wizards), and add additional 3 Heroes later on when you master the game and want to add something new.

Every one of those 4 Heroes is different:

Knight(humans): When played in your Battle Line, the Knight wins against all other Heroes (it ties against another Knight or the Undead’s Lich) and loses to all Warriors. If your Knight wins a Battlefield, you score the top two cards of each Supply Line pile in that Battlefield (instead of just the top card). A Knight in your score pile is worth 0 points.

Ogre(orcs): When played in your Battle Line, the Ogre wins against all Warriors, and loses to all Heroes (including the Assassin and the Wizard). An Ogre in your score pile is worth 0 points.

Bodyguard(dwarves): When played in your Battle Line, the Bodyguard duplicates any other card in your Battle Line. When the round is over, before a Battlefield with a Bodyguard in it is resolved, you must choose which of your other cards in the Battle Line the Bodyguard is duplicating.

Lich(undead): When played in your Battle Line, the Lich wins against all other Heroes (it ties against another Lich or the Human’s Knight) and loses to all Warriors. If your Lich wins a Battlefield, any Wizards you score in that Battlefield are removed from the game and have no effect.

And that is the game of Frenzy. When I look at this game, and after I played it couple of times, I have to say one thing. I may have used term “dynamic and fast paced game” describing some other games too lightly before. They all pale in comparison to Franzy. If you want to try out something REALLY dynamic, this game is truly second to none!

]]> http://www.tabletophell.com/2012/02/frenzy-real-time-fantasy-battle/feed/ 2 http://www.tabletophell.com/2012/02/a-game-of-thrones-tactics-and-houses/ http://www.tabletophell.com/2012/02/a-game-of-thrones-tactics-and-houses/#comments Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:57:52 +0000 Floigl http://www.tabletophell.com/?p=3471 In my last article about A Game of Thrones the board game I reviewed the differences between the second and the first edition and different things that make the second edition much better. The main characteristic of the second edition is that it is better balanced then the first edition. Although, each expansion made the first edition better and fixed different bugs and introduced new elements, it still had few problems and few ways to win easily if your opponent is reckless. In the second edition you can also win easily if your opponents are making stupid mistakes, but for some reason I have a feeling that here you have just enough time to try and save yourself after you have made a mistake.

One of the biggest changes and probably the part I like the most about this game are combat cards. I love the fact that in this game there is no random factor when it comes to combat. You can always know whether you will win or lose, as it is very easy to calculate. You are allowed at any time to see what cards you opponent has in his hand and what he is able to play. This way it is very easy to calculate the outcome of the battle. Difference between the first and the second edition cards is that in the first edition there were cards that made no sense. You had a card with strength 4 and two or three towers. Strength 4 is the strongest card you have and towers protect your units if your opponent played a card with swords. Each tower negates one sword icon. So if you play your strongest card you probably are going to win. In that case there is absolutely no need for tower icons, as you will not lose any units. And if you are aware of the fact that you will lose anyway, it would be better to spend a cards with low strength and useless effects, so that you have stronger cards later. Almost all of the cards have been changed and those that did not need to be changed remained the same in the second edition. This is one of the most important improvements in the second edition.

Ports are very useful in this game and were introduced in the expansion for the first edition. Without ports players had trouble controlling or even fighting in the sea. Without ports, once your opponent takes a sea area around your castle or stronghold you are unable to master any ships in that area. Ports allow you to maser these ships as they belong to the cities you are mastering from. Ports cannot be attacked and you always have a connection to a sea area, so you can never be cut away. In the first edition this was a very big problem for House Lannister, as they were close to House Greyjoy and almost always would lose the sea area connected to their capital city. Another good thing about ports is that if you have a ship in your port you can assign a consolidate power support token in order to gain a power token later in the turn. Some Westeros cards also grant you a power token for every port where you have a ship, so I always like to keep at least one ship in a  port so that I can gain at least one power token every turn.

Now let us move over the House strategies that players can try. I’ll move from the North to the South, so our first House is Stark. In this game Starks have the most passive position in the entire board game. Your only neighbors are Baratheon and Greyjoy. With the Baratheon player you will probably form some sort of alliance or at least you won’t attack each other until the last few turns. On the other hand, Greyjoys will be your biggest problem. Almost from the beginning, starting from the second turn you will be fighting them and mustering units so that you can keep what you have conquered. Try to be better than the Greyjoy and your victory is easily achieved.

House Greyjoy is probably one of the strongest houses in my opinion, although they are all well balanced. You will have a lot of potential targets early in the game and a lot of choices to make. Your greatest advantage as the House Greyjoy is the water. You should control as much as possible sea areas as it will make you very flexible. Starks are not your biggest problem, but if played well, they are not a problem at all.

House Lannister is very interesting and you can do really well if you form an alliance either with Tyrell or Greyjoy, so that at least one of them is not going to attack you until the end. That way you can focus on attacking Baratheon and gaining control over areas that provide a lot of supply. Your easiest target is Tyrell player, as he will be under pressure both from Martell and Baratheon at some point. One of your biggest advantages is your house card that threats all of your footman units in combat as knights.

House Baratheon is very interesting. In your first turn you are able to take the Kings Landing. However, their biggest problem is the lack of supply. I always have a problem with a supply. The only solution to this problem is if you manage to convince Stark to let you take few of the supply areas over the bridge. However, Stark player is likely to ask you not to fight for the time and to let him take the Eyre.

House Tyrell has a lot of resources in the area and should take them and protect them as soon as possible. Another very important thing is to always control a sea area around your House area. Martell, Lannister and Greyjoy can easily attack you there if you are not controlling the sea area connected to your capital city.

House Martell has a very interesting position and they have a number of choices to make. Gulf that is connected directly to their capital can be used as a bridge and take control of some of the most important castles and strongholds both important to Baratheon and Tyrell. Tyrell is likely to be your worst enemy, but with the right strategy I believe that it should not be an unsolvable problem.

These are the stories of the World of Darkness role playing game. It is a game of horror, mystery and the supernatural. It’s goal is to let you experience an existence much like our own but much darker. In my previous posts, I told you about making a unique character for the game. Combining mechanics like attributes, skills, morality and more, you can truly develop any kind of character in this game.

Now it’s time to talk about the system. World of Darkness uses ten sided dice (d10) for every check in the game. Usually a check will involve adding up the scores of an attribute and a skill, taking that many ten sided dice and rolling them. Every result of 8 and more counts as an “success“. Successes represent how well you performed in a situation or a task. So, for example, let’s say that you want to lockpick a lock. You would add up your dexterity attribute and your larceny skill and roll that many dice. Pretty simple, isn’t it?

Weird places...

Most of the tasks will require only one success in order for you to pass the check, but some tasks could require more. Back to the lockpicking example, it could be a complex lock for which your game master would require 5 successes to break it open. Not all tasks have to be done in a single roll. Every roll that you make for the lock, could represent a minute of work in the game, and if you managed to get the 5 successes in three rolls, you needed 3 minutes to get it open in the game. These kinds of checks are called “extended checks” in the game.

Of course, not all rolls will be a simple attribute + skill check. Sometimes the environment works against you, your character might be tired. Maybe you lack the proper tools for the job. All of these situations can give you bonuses or penalties to your roll. What I really like about this mechanic is that all bonuses and penalties actually take away or add dice to the number of dice that you will get to roll for the check (dice pool). A set of excellent lockpick tools could give a +2 dice bonus to your character when he is trying to pick that pesky lock.

As I mentioned in my  previous post, combat in World of Darkness is a very deadly ordeal, not to be undertaken without thought. Your characters can die very easily in this game and charging into every encounter with a knife is a sure way to make that happen quickly. Always try to think your way out of nasty situations, this is a storytelling game after all!

Many will try to hinder your investigation

Of course, combat will happen! A street gang will try to kill you, demons will try to take your head off and vampires will strike from the darkness. When that happens, it is better to be prepared! The combat mechanic is basically the same as the skill check. Depending on the attack (unarmed, melee or ranged) you will add up an attribute (strength for melee and unarmed attacks and dexterity for ranged attacks) and a skill rating (weaponry for melee, brawl for unarmed, firearms for shooting and athletics for throwing). The weapons damage rating is also added to this dice pool as a die bonus, and the enemies defense score and armor will be subtracted as a penalty. After this, you roll the dice and check how many successes you got. Each success will inflict a point of damage to your foe. As regular people have seven health points on average in this game, it won’t take a lot to make someone drop.

Another interesting thing is that World of Darkness uses different types of damage. I really like this, because it gives a dose of realism to the game. There are three types of damage: Bashing, Lethal and Aggravated! Bashing is the damage that can mess a guy up, shake him up and give him bruises, but it’s not deadly (at least in small doses). It is the type of damage that fists, clubs and bats inflict. Lethal damage is very dangerous and takes a longer time to heal. blades, bullets and everything that can cut you, or cut of pieces of you inflict lethal damage! Aggravated damage is very rare and it heals very slowly. It is the kind of damage that ravages and destroys your soul as well as your body. Only supernatural things, creatures and spells inflict this kind of damage. I love how this damage system makes you fear even a simple weapon like the knife very much! Even one slash from a knife could mean the end for your character, so be very careful!

Are you ready for the World of Darkness?

This is the World of Darkness! It is a place full of dark stories, mysteries that you have to discover and solve. It is a world that never sleeps and where the supernatural walks among the mundane. Do not believe your eyes, for they might deceive you! But the world will not fall into horror and darkness as long as there are brave people ready to stand up for it!

Well, there’s gonna be something very similar today, I promise. There’s going to be some boxed, preconstructed goodies, ready to be opened by your skillful hands and used on the spot. Only, this time, playing experience will be much, much different! Some would even say – infinitely more fun.

I’m speaking about a certain Magic the Gathering format called Elder Dragon Highlander, or Commander as it is known this days.

But, let’s start from the beginning. What is Elder Dragon Highlander?

Elder Dragon Highlander is the most popular casual format in Magic the Gathering. It’s loved all over the world, especially among casual players and judges. Magic judge Sheldon Menery is the man responsible for bringing EDH into the public eye and spreading the word about it.

Man responsible for creation of EDH

Rules are not strict and unified, people all over the world use their own house set of rules. But there are some general rules that applies to almost any game of EDH, wherever played:

* An EDH deck must contain exactly 100 cards, including the General.

* General’s colors are the colors of that deck

* A deck may not generate mana outside its colors; anything which would generate mana of an illegal color generates colorless mana instead.

* Deck may not contain any cards with mana symbols not present on your General. Hybrid cards can’t be used as well.

* With the exception of basic lands, no two cards in the deck may have the same name.

* Players begin the game with 40 life.

* Players must choose a legendary creature as the “General” for their deck.

* Generals are announced and placed in the command zone before shuffling at the start of the game.

* General resides in the command zone. While a General is in the command zone, it may be played. As an additional cost to play your General this way, you must pay 2 colorless mana for each previous time you have played it this way.

* If a General would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, its owner may put it in the command zone instead.

* If a player suffers 21 points of combat damage from a single General, they lose. This is similar to poison, and this damage can not be undone or healed in any way. This damage counts as a normal damage as well.

* The first time player takes a mulligan, he draws 7 cards (instead of 6). The second mulligan is to 6, and so on.

There are also some banned cards as they are not fun to play with:

* This cards may not be used as Generals:  Braids, Cabal Minion; Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary

* All cards that are vintage legal can be played in EDH, with the exception that these cards are banned:

Balance
Worldgorger Dragon
Biorhythm
Sway of the Stars
Upheaval
Panoptic Mirror
Crucible of Worlds
Kokosho, the Evening Star
Limited Resources
Riftsweeper Karakas
Ancestral Recall
Black Lotus
Mox Sapphire
Mox Ruby
Mox Pearl
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Time Walk
Library of Alexandria
Yawgmoth’s Bargain
Coalition Victory
Recurring Nightmare
Protean Hulk
Grindstone
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Time Vault

Also, Shahrazad is legal in EDH although it’s banned in vintage.

In time, Wizards saw the economic potential this format had and, of course, decided to exploit it to the max. They simplified the name of the format and shortened it to simple COMMANDER.

Well, this brings us to the beginning of this story. There are 5 preconstructed EDH decks created, build and published by Wizards. Among cards used in those decks there are a lot of cards printed throughout long and rich Magic history, but there are also some cards created especially for this occasion which can only show us how serious Wizards are about this product. For one, ALL the commanders (legendary creatures) in this decks are completely new. And there are not one, but three of them in every deck, so you can choose which general suits you the best.

I must tell you, this Commander preconstructed decks are very hot product, sold out in many stores, so try to get your own before its too late. Also, some of the cards from these decks are pretty expensive and can go up to 15-20 bucks.

The most valuable and sought after deck is probably the one called Devour for Power. So I’ll use that one to show you just what exactly can you expect to get when you buy this big box.

Here is the card list from Devour for Power(click on the card name to see the card itself):

Commanders:
1 The Mimeoplasm
1 Damia, Sage of Stone
1 Vorosh, the Hunter

Creatures:
1 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
1 Riddlekeeper
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Eternal Witness
1 Troll Ascetic
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Brawn
1 Wonder
1 Sewer Nemesis
1 Gravedigger
1 Lhurgoyf
1 Dreamborn Muse
1 Mortivore
1 Desecrator Hag
1 Mulldrifter
1 Acidic Slime
1 Vulturous Zombie
1 Dark Hatchling
1 Extractor Demon
1 Scythe Spector
1 Wrexial, the Risen Deep
1 Vorosh, the Hunter
1 Triskelavus
1 Slipstream Eel
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Patron of the Nezumi
1 Szadek, Lord of Secrets
1 Avatar of Woe
1 Artisan of Kozilek

Artifacts:
1 Sol Ring
1 Dimir Signet
1 Golgari Signet
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Simic Signet
1 Oblivion Stone

Enchantments:
1 Vow of Wildness
1 Vow of Flight
1 Vow of Malice
1 Memory Erosion
1 Grave Pact

Instants:
1 Tribute to the Wild
1 Spell Crumple
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Relic Crush

Sorceries:
1 Minds Aglow
1 Shared Trauma
1 Sign in Blood
1 Stitch Together
1 Cultivate
1 Windfall
1 Buried Alive
1 Syphon Mind
1 Unnerve
1 Rise from the Grave
1 Syphon Flesh
1 Living Death

Lands:
1 Barren Moor
1 Command Tower
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Dreadship Reef
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Rupture Spire
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Svogthos, the Restless Tomb
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Tranquil Thicket
8 Forest
8 Island
11 Swamp

This decks are pretty well tuned, but, of course, feel free to experiment and improve them as you wish. I hope you have a great time playing this format!

Then I thought about collecting Orcs. However, they might be fun to play and all, but I never really enjoyed playing with them, probably as they reminded me of Skaven, as they are strong in numbers and in shooting with different machines. I was looking for something different, something where each unit matters and an army that can hit hard and be tough. Skaven are all except that. Don’t get me wrong, I love Skaven, but you need to take a break from something from time to time.

When the new Ogre Kingdoms army book was published I thought that it was it. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the looks of the models and their new units are quite good. What I don’t like is that they are all fat, big and stupid. Another very important thing is that with this 8^th edition Games Workshop is forcing players to buy big monster that look amazing, but most of them are totally useless in your army. Ogres got few of these.

Recently, the new Vampire Counts army book was published, and after reading it I realized it is a blast playing with them. And now I had to make a decision. Whether to start collecting Vampire army or something else? I was always more of a Chaos player. I never liked playing with good guys or humans in that matter. I was probably going to choose Daemons of Chaos but for some reason I don’t really like how they work. After playing with Skaven, I was going for something totally opposite of what they do. So no more heavy shooting and more hard hitting units. That is when I decided to go with Warriors of Chaos.

When I choose an army to collect besides the characteristics and the play style, I always look for an army that I visually like. I love well sculptured miniatures and I like to have a nice looking army. Warriors of Chaos have amazing models. All of their miniatures are really nice and high in detail. Heroes and Lord are very good and I have a problem fitting all of those I would like into my army. Besides the Chosen, which look amazing, I have to say that my favorite models in Chaos army are Knights of Chaos. These look really good.

What is also very interesting is that it has a very good battalion that you can buy. Most of these battalions have units that you will probably not use, but Warriors of Chaos battalion has all the units you will use. Ten warhaounds are great and you should always have at least two units of 5 in your army. They are great for diversions and they are great for out deploying your opponent. Battalion also comes with 20 Marauders. There is no way you will make your army without them. Now with the 8^th edition rules you are looking for big units that you can take as a horde. Unit consisting of 40 Marauders is quite deadly and can stop anything for at least one turn. Equipped with great weapons they can make some serious damage to your opponent.  In order to have all you need it is enough to buy another Marauder box set, or a second battalion. That way you will have 40 marauders and enough Warhouds and Knights. What you will have to add are Chaos Warriors, but no more than just one box set in order to have a very playable army.

I believe that there is no point in taking more than 5 Knight into your army. Although I don’t play with them, as I thing that there are better options to fill their points, they hit hard and can withstand even the strongest opponents. Even if you are not going to use them, 5 Knights from the battalion can be used for different conversions as they simply look awesome.

Besides the Knights, Warhouds and Marauders you also get 12 Chaos warriors. This is your hardest units, well, besides Chosen. Two units of 15-20 Warriors in your army should do the job. I like taking 18 Warriors and 15 Chosen. Mark of Khorne is always welcome as your Warriors will have one additional attack. Mark of Tzeentch is also very good as it will grant you with Ward save. Chaos Warriors are easily converted into Chosen of the Chaos. So if you take two battalions you will have to add just one box of Warriors and with just a little work you can have both Warriors and Chosen made out of the same models. Chosen models look amazing but they are quite expansive to buy as they come in 5 model box sets.

There are a lot of different models of heroes and lords to choose from. You can pick a champion dedicated to each of the four Gods. There are also mounted characters that look amazing. However, I have to say that I am not really impressed with the dragon model they got, but I could not really find any purpose for the dragon in 8^th edition, unless you are playing with 2500+ points.

One of the very interesting units is Chaos Warshrine. There is no model for this units, but you can easily make one as it is not really said what it actually is. It is some kind of shrine pulled by whatever you wish. Very useful unit and there are different tactics to be used with it.

I hope that there will be a new army book for Warriors of Chaos soon. Actually, that might not be that soon but still. There are other armies that should be fixed first like Bretonnia and Wood Elves. We can only imagine what kind of new units they will have.