Polyhedron Collider

I wanted to offer a big thank you to everyone who has visited Polyhedron Collider. I should be thanking you more often but today is a bit more special. A year ago I set myself a modest goal to try and expand the blog further, and set myself a target of achieving 100,000 page views in 2015. It’s a not a big goal, other gaming websites do this kind of audience in their sleep (The Dice Tower just announced 100,000 views in a day!) but for me this was a significant increase on last year’s numbers and I wanted to offer a big thank you for making that possible.

The Marcy Case is the first Expansion for T.I.M.E Stories, though I really wish it had been included in the base game. It's a set of large format cards that add a completely new time travelling adventure to the original game. You'll be sent back to 1992 to find Marcy, a young girl who for some reason is important to the future world.

The aim is to keep this review spoiler free, but some mild spoilers will have to creep in to discuss the expansion. So from this point often there will spoilers, you have been warned.

Codenames isn't the kind of game I would normally play. It hasn't got miniatures, dice, Cthulhu or light sabres. It doesn't involve controlling territory, raising armies or levelling up. Instead Codenames is a simple game about word play and I'm beginning to think it's the best game of the year.

The LCG System is Just as Broken as Random Booster Packs

I don't usually try to be negative but I wish to make a criticism of the Living Card Game, or LCG, system. It is something that has been bugging me for some time but discussions all over the internet about the distribution method adopted for T.I.M.E Stories and my recent review of Doomtown Reloaded have brought it to the forefront of my mind. The issue is that I believe the LCG system is just as broken and a cash grab as the traditional collectible card game format, it's a controversial view but hear me out.

Welcome to Gomorra, the weirdest, wildest town in the old west. The Ghost Rock rush has attracted all kinds to this dusty town; bandits and crazy inventors all want a piece of Gomorra, there's a tent full of crazy clowns turned up and the lawmen are just trying to keep the peace. The word is definitely weird, with demonic circus troupes, spells, clockwork horses and sacred six shooters in this expandable card game.

Doomtown Reloaded is a remake of the Deadlands Doomtown, a collectible card game from many years ago. AEG have released this two to four player game as an expandable card game, which simply means you buy expansions in known packs of cards rather than random booster packs, similar to the LCG system.

I feel as if I must apologise to you dear reader. Not only did it take me far too long to write up my initial thoughts on the International Spiletage as Essen, but then it was so bug I had to break it into two parts. I then spent too long writing up this, the follow up to part 1! So, sorry about that. I also wish to apologise about the initial tone of this article, because the first thing I’m going to do today is complain. Oh well you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth.

Ever played a game that feels like another, a game that has completely different mechanics and theme yet somehow manages to evoke the same emotional response? Because Breaker Blocks make me think of Housing Crisis, a Kickstarter game I reviewed last year that I still don't think made the light of day. The two games are completely different, but evoke the same, and I think that's a good thing.

How in the name of all that's unholy do you review a game like Escape the Nightmare? It's completely unlike any other game I've played and as such its really difficult to suggest a point of reference. It's less a game and more a group stress test, where your heart is pumping and your brain is confused, because Escape the Nightmare is a game that purposefully messes with your head.

When reviewing a game, I generally play the game enough times till you feel like you know it. It’s important to have seen everything the game can offer before committing your thoughts to the internet. But in the case of TIME Stories I'm writing this review after just one play through because I now can't play this game again until I buy the first expansion. It results in what could be the most controversial game of 2015, but could also be one of the best games of 2015.

The Banner Saga has to be one of my favourite video games of recent years. Norse Mythology, half giants, tactical combat and decisions so difficult you cannot make the right one, only one that feels right for you. That’s why I was really pleased to hear that MegaCon games, the chaps’ behind Mercs and Myth, are making a board game version.

So far details have been sparse, apart from the odd low resolution image there’s been very little to go on. Apparently MegaCon have been working closely with Stoic, the original video game developers, for nearly a year and the plan is to launch a kickstarter on the 12th November.

Richard K Morgan, A Land Fit for Heroes Interview

You may know of Richard Morgan as a writer, responsible for The Steel Remains series of dark fantasy books. You may also have seen Richard’s name associated with video games, writing the story for some high profile games. But Richard has just released a combination of the two. A Land Fit for Heroes is a new interactive game book from Liber Primus Games. You may have read our previous articles were we talked about the Narborion Saga. These digital adventures replicate the old magic of choose your own adventure style books, but can take the game much further than a book ever could.

A Land Fit for Heroes takes place within Richard’s dark fantasy trilogy of the same name, as three unlikely heroes’ paths cross in an adventure where each is tested to their extreme. You will take the roles of these heroes and you will decide their fate. I was able to put a few questions to Richard about writing such a different media.

It's now been a few weeks since the largest gaming convention in Europe, and arguably the largest board gaming show in the world; International Spieltage in Essen Germany.

First off I wish to offer an apology, the whole trip to Essen, the excitement, the lack of sleep and my subsequent daily commute to the day job have meant that I've struggled to write this up.

As is usual, there's so much to see at such a large convention that you can't possibly see everything. But let's not dwell on the negatives (at least for now) and let's have a look at everything we saw at the show.

Deck Maniacs - Magic The Gathering - Unboxing Part 2

Yesterday we posted up a review of Deck Maniacs, a loot crate styled subscription service for Magic The Gathering and Pokemon. I wanted to go a little deeper into the contents of the box and see what the value of any rares or epic rares would be compared to the cost of the box.

Deck Maniacs Magic The Gathering Box Review

I’ll be honest with you; I’ve never really seen the appeal with Loot Crate. I know it’s cool to feel like it’s your birthday every month but you usually end up with a lot of tat. Now what if you could get a box delivered to your door every month full of tasty gaming goodness? Well that’s exactly what Deck Maniacs is all about, and about feeding your card game addiction.

Happy Otter Games have taken the Pixar approach when making Creature College, by trying to design a game that is squarely marketed at younger gamers but has more than enough strategy to keep grown-ups happy, and do you know what, I reckon they've pulled it off.

At its heart Creature College is a bidding game. You will bid on a variety of creatures available each round and at the end of each term (three rounds) you'll send your creatures off to battle. There's also a simple dice system that gives you a random choice of some juicy bonuses to acquire.

On the surface it's a very simple game, bid on the creatures you want, win points for being victorious in battle and get some extra points for a secret, set collection mission. But scratch beneath the surface and there's a lot more game underneath.

It’s less than one week until Internationale Spieltage 2015, more commonly known as Essen, arguably the world's largest board game convention. For the first time ever I will be visiting Germany to soak in the cardboard heaven and so, more than ever, I've been keeping a careful eye on the games that are going to be available.

The sheer number of games previewing at Essen is staggering and to cover them all would be a mammoth task, so I’ve handpicked a small selection of games that I think are worth a look. This preview covers not only the big, hot off the press, games that everyone will be wanting to buy, but also those intriguing looking hidden games, those games from small European publishers that you will probably never see outside of mainland Europe.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Wrath of the Righteous Review

Wrath of the Righteous is the third boxed set in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game series, and with the announcement of Hell's Vengeance a few weeks back for the Pathfinder Role Playing Game I don't see any sign of it stopping. If you've played a Pathfinder Adventure Card Game before, either Rise of the Runelords or Skulls and Shackles, then you'll know what to expect here. Wrath of the Righteous offers some new mechanics into the mix, but doesn't shake up the concept too much, it's the campaign based deck building game you're already used to. We'll go through these new mechanics a little later but if you have already played and enjoyed the two previous boxed sets then you should just go out and buy Wrath of the Righteous.

I’m a sucker for great artwork on a board game. The saying goes you should ‘never judge a book by its cover’ and the same goes for board games. Just because the publishers had sense to hire a decent artist it doesn’t mean they employed a decent game designer. It was the artwork that first hooked me into Heroes, by Lion Games, when it was shown off on Boardgamegeek’s 2014 Essen Preview. Heroes proved to me not once, but twice that you shouldn’t judge a board game by its box art.

I should probably start this review by stating that I am not a World War 2 nut, I really couldn’t tell you the difference between a Sherman and a Tiger and put a Spitfire and a Hurricane in front of me and I couldn’t tell you which one is which. However, there are people in this world who are, and I can tell you that Fog and Friction has been designed for those people. The reason I know this is because I played Fog and Friction with one of these WWII aficionados and he was very pleased with the historical accuracy. I’m now going to ruin that sentiment by saying that Fog & Friction plays a lot like Warhammer 40,000 Conquest.

Are you a storyteller, a yarn spinner, a master of dungeons? Do you create worlds, forge landscapes or sculpt characters? Have you ever peered over the top of your Game Master's screen and thought "this needs to go wider than this paltry group of adventurers"? If so then Liber Primus Games, wants to speak to you about their latest series of game books.

Who ate all the pies? Who ate all the pies? You fat Halfling you fat Halfling, you ate all the pies! Which in Halfling Feast is actually a good thing, because the aim of the game is to cram as much food down your face hole as possible.

Halfling Feast is a game about a hairy footed eating contest, you have to scoff the most dishes without getting full and avoiding your opponents' sneaky tricks. It's an unbelievably simple game to play and goes faster than a tray of hot cakes due to its limited ‘take one action per turn’ aspect of the game.

Did you know that Obsidian Entertainment, the people behind games like Knights of the Old Republic 2, Fallout New Vegas and South Park the Stick of Truth, are making a digital version of Pathfinder the Adventure Card Game? Well there are and we have some tasty screenshots of the upcoming game.

Armello is a new breed of game, a video game that takes everything we like about physical board games and transcribes them into a virtual world, too complex for mere mortals to handle on the table top. At least that’s the theory. This isn’t a videogame port of your favourite board game, no this is a board game that’s been designed from the ground up to be played on a PC or tablet. It certainly looks beautiful but can this young upstart stand up against its cardboard cousins.

Like an anthropomorphised Game of Thrones, Armello is all about different factions vying to seize control over a corrupted King, who is slowly being killed by the dark Rot that is infesting him. The corruption leads to multiple paths to victory; kill the king, gain enough prestige to succeed the throne should the King die of his ailment or cure him of his blighted infestation.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is still a few months away, but huge swathes of licensed products are just around the corner, September the 4th to be correct. We already know this means more ships for Star Wars X-Wing Miniature Game, and possibly Star Wars Armada, are on their way, not only because Mr Christian Peterson of Fantasy Flight Games told us but because some of the new ships leaked on line last week.

So with what little we know about The Force Awakens can we start predicting which ships will make it to X-Wing and Armada? Of course we can, let rampant speculation commence!

A review of Star Wars Imperial Assault could simply read thus: Its Descent 3rd Edition with Star Wars.

This straightforward statement sums up the entire experience and easily works better than any review score. If you liked Descent Second Edition and you like Star Wars then go out and buy this game, seriously, you don’t even need to read the rest of this review.

Not only does Imperial Assault beautifully combine these two elements, it improves upon the older game, making for a tighter, more rewarding experience with a an extra two-player miniatures skirmish game added for free.

Star Wars the Force Awakens X-Wing Core Set

Update 2: Force Friday has been and gone and now Fantasy Flight Games have officially announced the Force Awakens Core Set.

Update: Images of the Pilot Cards for both ships have been leaked, see below.

Original Story: Based on the talk from Fantasy Flight Games' Inflight Report at Gen Con, we knew we were getting new X-Wing ships from the new Force Awakens and that all the parts had been manufactured already. Well now we have proof as images of a new Force Awakens X-Wing core set have been leaked.

I’m always a bit unsure about storytelling games, it’s not that I’m afraid of the concept I’m more afraid of the implementation. Dungeons and Dragons is, at its heart, a storytelling game but can easily turn into a tactical battle game. Getting players to let go and make up stories is always something I am worried isn’t going to happen. I thought this may be the case with LUGU, a story telling card game from Card Tower Games and Modiphius, but LUGU showed me that storytelling is not only natural, but bloody funny at the same time.

Dungeon Calling: The Forgotten Realms Rabbithole

So we’re a few weeks into our Mines of Phandelvar adventure and I wanted to make a small sidetrek, partly because I want to leave a few weeks gap between adventures and write ups so that my players don’t get the adventure spoiled and partly because something has been bugging me right from the start, the Forgotten Realms.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against the Forgotten Realms as a setting, it has become the de facto standard for Dungeons and Dragons for many years, even way back in mid-nineties when my previous D&D sessions where in full swing, the Forgotten Realms where still the primary setting that TSR focused on. While it was true that TSR supported a veritable menagerie of settings, the Realms always received top billing.

Gen Con 2015 is in full swing and, as is the custom, Fantasy Flight Games’ Inflight Report outlined several upcoming releases. Not least was X-Wing Wave 8 and some of the ships might look familiar to you if you’ve been paying attention.

Games Workshop has officially heralded the Age of Sigmar, the age of strife is over and after 32 long years and 8 different versions Warhammer, or Warhammer Fantasy Battles as it’s more commonly known (WHFB for the acronymically inclined) is no more.

So where does that leave all the fans of the original rank and file fantasy war game? What do you do if you have hundreds of painted regiments of Skaven, Elves and Chaos Warriors?

Well you could burn them, but that seems a tad extreme, so let’s have a look at the games you can play with your beloved fantasy army.

In last week’s Dungeon Calling I wrote about how I was making a return to Dungeon’s and Dragons with the new Starter Set. I must admit I was equally excited and nervous about returning to roleplaying games; it used to be one of my favourite hobbies and I was scared to see how the two new players would take to it, especially as one was my wife and had voiced some apprehension about the process.

We played the first session of The Lost Mine of Phandelver, the Cragmaw Goblins. I am going to try and keep spoilers to a minimum but there is a good chance I may spoil some of the Dungeons and Dragons Starter Set for you so if you plan on playing it, you have been warned.

When I was a teenager everyone at my school was into Oasis, I wasn’t I was into Metallica. This may seem to be an odd way to start a review but this how I feel about Summoner Wars, because everyone seems to rave about how good Summoner Wars is, and I really can’t stand the game.

On paper Summoner Wars sounds like my kind of game, you take a deck of cards to represent your faction of fantasy creatures and then play out combat over a strategic grid. The aim of the game is to kill the opposing summoner and you do this by summoning units to the battlefield, casting spells and careful manoeuvring. In short, Summoner Wars is a cross between Magic the Gathering and Warmachine, which sounds awesome.

Unfortunately I really don’t like Summoner Wars, I’ve tried but the whole thing just leaves me cold, so let’s see if we can work out why.

Dungeon Calling: Returning to Dungeons & Dragons

It has been 15 years since I last played a roleplaying game and around 17 years since I last played Dungeons and Dragons, but this weekend I’m dusting off the dice, hunting down my favourite dungeon master’s screen and poring over monster stats, as this weekend I will be returning to one of the games that marked the start of my journey into gaming, Dungeons and Dragons.

At the UK Games Expo we managed to get our first glimpse of Dropfleet, the upcoming space combat game from Hawk Wargames. With a little help from the UK Gaming Media Network I got the chance to speak to Dave from Hawk Wargames about the new game and building a huge replica of the smallest ship in the game.

Fantasy Flight Games’ Star Wars X-Wing miniatures game is quite possible one of my favourite games of all time. Not only did it beautifully capture the look and feel of the Star Wars films that have been my geek passion for years, they also managed to skilfully capture the dogfighting and manoeuvring aspect of the attack on the Death Star in A New Hope (or just Star Wars when I first saw it).

When Wizkids took the same system and transferred it to Star Trek, to me, it just didn’t feel right. X-Wing was about dog fighting, Star Fleet should be about careful manoeuvring of massive dreadnoughts. Well Fantasy Flight Games have done it again because Star Wars Armada takes the space battles from my favourite space opera films and scales it up so we can now blast each other with Star Destroyers.

At the UK Games Expo 2015 I got to speak to Rob from Prodos Games to talk about their highly anticipated release of Alien vs. Predator: The Hunt Begins. You may remember at last year’s Expo we spoke to Rob about Prodos Games and it makes an interesting listen to hear how the company has progressed over the last twelve months.

A real time strategy videogame, translated into a dice based board game? Where do I sign up? Well Kickstarter in fact, as Ether Wars promises to bring together the hectic balance of strategy and unit building that games like Command and Conquer and WarCraft brought to life. The concept ticked plenty of boxes for me, having spent too much time playing Red Alert and lining up my Siege Tanks in StarCraft, so I spoke to the Spanish development team.

MAGE Games are currently blasting through their latest Kickstarter for 12 Realms: Bedtime Stories. Chock full of miniatures and tokens, Bedtime Stories is the third expansion for 12 Realms and takes the number of Realms available to play up to the titled 12.

Artist Spotlight: Héctor Sevilla Luján, aka "elsevilla"

Middara is a multiplayer cooperative storytelling board game on Kickstarter now. The first thing you notice about Middara isn’t the bucket full of miniatures or the intriguing storytelling gameplay concepts but the amazing anime artwork that has been used to bring the concept to life.

These vividly coloured and beautifully detailed pieces of artwork are the product of Héctor Sevilla Luján, more commonly known as elsevilla. This breath-taking imagery brings the characters and story of Middara to life.

I believe that the artists are some of the unsung heroes of table top gaming and so managed to secure a short interview with elsevilla and took it as an opportunity to spotlight his art.

Sandcastles is a surprisingly cut-throat game of building the best sandcastle before the see comes in and destroys it. At the UK Games Expo 2015 I spoke to Andrew Harman from Yay! Games about getting sand in your eye.

Frankenstein's Bodies is a grisly game of patching up and animating body parts to impress Dr Frankenstein himself. At the UK Games Expo 2015 I spoke to Andrew Harman from Yay! Games about his diabolical creation.

Dust Tactics has had a rocky time over the last year or so, the vanishing of Dust Warfare and the controversy of Operation Babylon have not helped but Dust Knights are a new organisation promoting Dust Tactics in the UK

Together with the UK Gaming Media Network, we managed to catch up with Alan Davies to talk about the current state of Dust Tactics, Dust Knights' convention and Tesla Coils.

The UK Games Expo may be over for another year, but I’m stilling catching up on all the sleep I missed and trying to digest everything I saw and everyone I spoke to. Polyhedron Collider is obviously growing because a lot of lovely game designers and people I spoke to had heard of my little corner of the internet, the reaction from the guys at Quirkative was probably a highlight for the weekend.

The UK Games Expo 2015 was bigger and better than ever with over 7,000 unique visitors and a total of 14,000 visitors over the three days! I cannot possibly cover everything that happened at the Expo so here are some of the few things that really stuck with me.

Modiphius Entertainment have had one hell of a year. It was this time last year that they announced the Thunderbirds Board Game and since then they've announced a score of roleplaying game systems and supplements and had huge success with the Thunderbirds Kickstarter.

Together with the UK Gaming Media Network, we managed to catch up with Chris Birch to talk about Achtung Cthulhu board games, Thunderbirds and Mutant Year Zero.

It’s been a busy few days over at the UK Games Expo, interviewing game designers and publishers from all over the world, but the Expo is full of delights, from the chance to get your hands on early demos of massive games to meeting small independent publishers. One of those little gems is Square Hex, maker of all manner of simple roleplaying game aides but their latest Kickstarter is for something a little different (though just as cool).

Sultan’s Library is a card game about the golden age of knowledge in the Middle East, when rich Sultans where thirsty for information and would send their emissaries far and wide to accumulate learning and create the greatest libraries in the world. Sultan’s Library is published by Photon Games a Canadian based company working with South African game designers and artists, and I had the opportunity to speak with Ryno Lourens, the driving force behind Photon Games and designer of Sultan’s Library.

Update: We've added two new roleplaying game supplements and a puzzle game to the list.

Original Article: The UK Games Expo 2015 is less than a week away and I’m like a kid at Christmas. There’s going to be so much going on it will make your dice bag explode with excitement. You may be heading there for all three days or only able to make a single day, so it’s best to be prepared. Here are some of the games that are making their first public appearance at the Expo so keep an eye out for them.

Making your roleplaying game experiences more atmospheric has been the aim of many a Dungeon Master, it aids the players’ immersion in the experience. Actually attacking a player with a sword or making a poison dart trap for the players to disarm may be going a bit far and will usually end in a trip to the local Accident & Emergency ward so the next best thing is to add some atmospheric music to your gaming session and that’s what Battlebards is there to do.

Update: Bad news people, the Blackout Kickstarter has been cancelled. The good news is that its back with better shipping rates and EU Friendly shipping (which means no nasty import tax surprises). Not only that but the new version of the project reached its funding goal in a matter of hours!

To view the new project go to this link.

Original Story: Seriously game designers you really do know what I’m a sucker for don’t you? I mean look at Blackout; post-apocalyptic, vampires, strategic miniature based combat, it’s like you somehow hacked into my mind and found all the things that tickle my acquisition disorder.

For many gamers roleplaying games begin and end in the Tolkien-esque fantasy setting of Dungeons & Dragons. Even if the classic rules system isn’t your cup of tea there are still a stack of RPG systems that replicate the high fantasy of dwarves, elves and magic swords. Crestfallen is different. Crestfallen is a bronze age roleplaying game powered by the FATE system, that bases itself on the mystical and shamanistic nature of our own history and blends it into a setting like no other.

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