RISK Legacy Description:

RISK Legacy is an innovative take on the RISK franchise and boardgaming in general. The more you play the game the more it evolves.

RISK Legacy plays like the original RISK. You gain troops based on the map spaces you control, attack and then can maneuver your troops. When you attack you compare your dice with the defender’s dice, whoever rolls highest wins. Ties go to the defender.

RISK Legacy changes things by allowing you to customize your copy of the game. Right out of the box you make decisions that make your copy different than others. Throughout the first fifteen games you play with your copy of RISK Legacy you’ll change and customize it.

The game also plays quicker than the original. You win once you have four red stars. You headquarters counts as one. If you have not won on the board you get a red star to start. So if you can capture two opponents’ headquarters you win.

When you win you sign the board and get to customize the game. Just surviving when someone else wins let’s you customize the RISK Legacy.

As you meet certain requirements you open more packs of cards. These packs contain rules you add to the rulebook, event and mission cards and more stickers to add to your board when you win.

First Impression of Risk Legacy:

I am calling this a first impression as I still have yet to open some packs of cards. There is more customization to come to my RISK Legacy game. The game is definitely innovative. It grows and changes as you play it.

It is great that RISK Legacy is quicker. You start with less troops and only one territory. You will find yourself risking victory by pushing your troops to reach that last headquarters you need to win.

And even though most of our games have been won by the player starting in Australia, that is about to change. You can make that strategy much harder by adding scars to Australia and weakening it.

At the end of the day RISK Legacy is still RISK. There are some good things about that and some not so good things about that. The great thing in RISK Legacy is your ability to edit and customize your game. You’ll want to play it just to see what happens next.

I plan post again once we have finished the fifteen games in my board. If I have something else worthwhile to say about RISK Legacy, I might post sooner. In the meantime you should try it out.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 6 out of 6
Replay Value 6 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6

No related posts.

Description:
Flash Duel 2.0 revamps the previously released Flash Duel. The basic gameplay is not effected but there are new modes of play and fighters to choose from.

If you are unfamiliar with the rules of the original you can read my review Flash Duel here. I am mostly going to talk about the new elements that Flash Duel 2.0 brings to the table and assume you know the basics of the game.

Opening the box you’ll instantly see one of the changes, a board. The board is similar to the cards that made up the sparring area in the first game only better. You also get pawns and tokens to track who has won a round.

There are seven different ways to play Flash Duel 2.0. This includes the two from the original, simple and full, and adds solo, team, and 2,3, or 4 players vs 1 player. And while a couple of rules are added for the different modes the gameplay is basically the same.

Rules additions include a dashing block in team play and a traitor mechanic if 4 players choose to fight Deathstrike Dragon. In video game terms Deathstrike Dragon is a boss and is tough to take down. You can fight him in solo mode or in team play he can be controlled by a human player. No matter how you fight him though he is tough.

Next you’ll notice that there are 20 characters to fight with. This adds to the replay value of Flash Duel 2.0. With new characters come new special abilities. You can choose a favorite character and master their moves. Another new thing id the art, it is now chibi style.

The last thing I want to mention isn’t new. Flash Duel 2.0 still everything the original did. It comes with a card box full of the characters, number cards and card-based track. That means Flash Duel is just as portable as ever.

A Quick Review:
Flash Duel 2.0 takes the original game and adds a ton of great new elements. The new components alone make this a good upgrade. More modes of play and new characters make Flash Duel 2.0 an excellent upgrade.

I am not a big fan of the new art but I know that is just my personal opinion. Many fans love it and it takes nothing away from the game. This upgrade shows a commitment to excellence from Sirlin Games. There was nothing wrong with the original Flash Duel but 2.0 has a ton of bells and whistles.

If you were thinking of picking up the original Flash Duel, forget it. Just buy Flash Duel 2.0 and get all the original had and more.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 6 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 2 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6

Related posts:

1. Flash Duel Review
2. Mousquetaires du Roy Review
3. Thunderstone Dragonspire Review

Entry
You can earn up to 3 entries into this giveaway, one for each of the following:
• Become an email subscriber of play-board-games.com
• Follow the play-board-games.com on Twitter
• Like play-board-games.com on Facebook

If you are already an email subscriber, Twitter follower or like play-board-games.com then you can get your entries by replying to this post in the comments section.

Rules/Restrictions
• You must be 18 or older

• Only one set of entries per household.

• The winner will be contacted via their means of entry. They will have 48 hours to respond. This means you need to leave an email address (twitter or facebook account) you actually check and that you need to check it before February 20th to see if you won.

• All information you provide as a contest entrant will be kept private.

• An international winner will have to help pay for the extra shipping (any amount above $15 US)

• The winners will be picked using a random number generator.

Ends
This giveaway ends on February 18, 2012 @ 11.59 PM EST

Related posts:

1. What’s Yours Like Giveaway
2. Nightfall Promo Cards Giveaway
3. Thunderstone Promo Pack #3 Giveaway

Description:
Pastiche is a board game about painting. You must complete commissions to score points. But first you must mix the palette required to paint the masterpiece.

You start the game with two commission cards, two palette hexes and one card of each secondary color. These represent the works you are to replicate. Each commission card shows the colors needed to paint it.

You must mix colors by laying one of your palette hexes next to an existing one. Depending on how the dabs of blue, red and yellow on each hex line up, you’ll mix different colors.

After you collect the appropriate colors cards, you can trade color cards with other players or the bank. If you want you may also exchange one of your two commission cards with one from the public gallery.

Next you may complete any commission cards in your hand or the public gallery. Place completed commission cards face-up in front of you. Show the colors you used to complete the painting and return them to the color palette board. Then replace the commission card whether it was from your hand or the public gallery. You finish your turn by discarding down to eight color cards and drawing a new hex palette.

The game end once players reach a certain number of points based on the number of players. You score your completed commission cards getting bonus points for completing more paintings by the same artist. You also gain points for color cards in your hand that could be used in your personal commission cards. Highest score wins.

A Quick Review:
Pastiche is gorgeous, accessible and fun. It is great for families and non-gamers (especially if they like art). Pastiche is easy to teach and learn.

The components in Pastiche are awesome; thick cardboard, cute easels and simply beautiful art and design. The rules are easy to understand and follow. They even include some color theory.

That leads me to the next excellent part of this game. It is educational. This can help kids learn about mixing colors and the works of art. Each commission card gives the name of the piece, the painter, their nationality and other great details.

Pastiche works great as a gateway game. It features tile-laying, trading and set-collection. There is thought and strategy involved, but not so much to overwhelm non-gamers.

If you enjoy art and board games you should check out Pastiche. This game is excellent for families and can be enjoyed by a variety of ages. You might even learn something.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 3 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 2 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6

Related posts:

1. Asara Board Game Review
2. Seven Dragons Review
3. Pergamon Game Review

Description:
The Heavens of Olympus is an abstract area control game with simultaneous action selection. You are an unknown god trying to win Zeus’s favor by lighting up the night sky. Gain the most prestige in five days and win!

Heavens of Olympus is broken up into five days. You score prestige points at the end of each day based on your planet placement and the number of planets you have lit. Days are also divided into three phases. You secretly choose one of four actions each phase. You may choose to: place new planets on your personal board, move planets from your personal board to the main board, pay to light your planets or swap the position of any two planets on the main board.

If you and another player choose the same action, you must pay a competition cost in power. This cost is based on the total number of players that choose that action. If you are unable to pay the costs associated with an action players can trade prestige for power.

When you place planets you gain power. Your planets are placed on a four ring orbit in three to five regions, depending on the number of players. If some your planets are not lit, you do not score the unlit ones. Your lit planets score you prestige points for having the most planets on an orbit, the most connected planets and one prestige point per region a player’s planets occupy. You may cash in your leftover power at a three to one ratio for prestige points. Lastly, two bonus prestige points are given to the player with the largest connected group of planets.

After the five days are over the player with the most prestige points has won Zeus’s favor and the game.

A Quick Review:
Heavens of Olympus is a fun, medium-weight, abstract board game. You need to manage your power, be mindful of your positioning and keep your planets lit.

While not overly complicated, you do have a lot of options and things to consider each turn. If you are playing with someone that suffers from analysis paralysis Heavens of Olympus might take a while.

The rules for this game are short but thick. You may have to read through them twice to be sure you understand everything. You might even want to play a couple sample rounds after the first read through and then revisit them. The art is pretty good but the theme is definitely pasted on. The components are middle of the road but none of them make the game unplayable.

My biggest complaint might be the box and insert tray. The board sits loosely in the box and none of the compartments of the insert seem to fit the components well. These things don’t take away from the game play which is solid.

The interaction and tension ramp up the further into the game you go. Empty spaces are filling up and someone is sure to take your best option.

Heavens of Olympus has familiar mechanics and can draw comparisons to many different games. If you like abstract games or area control games that require some thought you should give this game a try.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 2 out of 6
Player Interaction 5 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6

Want a second opinion? Check out Josh’s Heaven of Olympus review.

Related posts:

1. Urban Sprawl Review

Description:
The Manhattan Project is a board game about making bombs. You must gather resources, build buildings and get the manpower necessary to build bombs. At the same time you can develop fighter planes and bombers to attack your opponents. And in the end victory points are all that matter.

At the start of The Manhattan Project you have a small untrained workforce and small air force. Your turn consists of placing workers or retrieving all your workers. If you don’t have any workers left to place you must retrieve your workers. When placing workers, you may place one worker on an empty space on the main board and as many workers as you like on empty buildings on your personal board.

You have three types of workers: laborers, engineers and scientists. Some action spaces and buildings require using a scientist or engineer. Others can be used by any type of worker.

On the main board there are spaces to gain money, build aircraft, mine yellow cake, train more workers, launch an air strike and build or repair buildings. These actions may be taken by any worker type. There are also spaces to design a bomb or create plutonium or uranium these can only be accessed by engineers or scientists.

Buildings act as your personal action spaces and can do most everything the spaces on the main board can do and usually more efficiently.

You can stop other players from using their buildings by bombing them with your bombers. But first you must clear out their fighter planes. You can even access their buildings by using the espionage action.

You score victory points in The Manhattan Project by building bombs. Bombs come in two flavors, Enriched Uranium and Plutonium. You need scientists and engineers and either plutonium or uranium to build bombs. The bigger the bomb (in points) the more workers and radioactive elements you need. Plutonium bombs are worth more points once you have tested one. And though this will lose you the points for blowing up the test bomb, it can gain you a lot of points on other plutonium-based bombs you’ve built.

The Manhattan Project ends once you reach a certain number of victory points based on the number of players. Reach the required number of victory points and you win!

A Quick Review:
The Manhattan Project seems a lot more complex than it is. Build bombs and score. There are several paths to accomplishing your goal. There is a great blend of mechanics in this game and they all play well together and form a really fun final product.

You are able to affect your opponents by blowing up there buildings, or just placing your workers on their spaces using Espionage. So you have a bit of “take that” in The Manhattan Project.

You must manage your resources well and try to build bombs with the most efficiency. Some action spaces help you but also help the other players and you must be smart about when to use them.

The components are fantastic for this game (I love the little worker dudes) and the rules are easy to follow. There is a lot going on in The Manhattan Project but it is actually a fairly straight forward board game.

If you play with someone with analysis paralysis this game might irritate you. With so many choices and so much going on there is a lot for players to analyze.

I think anyone who likes worker placement games will really enjoy The Manhattan Project. And anyone given the chance should give this game a try.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 3 out of 6
Player Interaction 6 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6

Related posts:

1. Civilization: the Board Game Review
2. 7 Wonders Game Review
3. Pantheon Board Game Review

Description:
U-Boat Leader is a submarine simulation board game. You must choose your fleet and take on enemy ships. The better you perform the higher you score.

U-Boat Leader is published by DVG and is the latest release in their Leader series. If you have played other games in the Leaders series then you are already familiar with the basics of U-boat Leader. For those of you who have not, I’ll go over the basics now.

U-Boat Leader is campaign based and you can choose whether you’d like a short, medium or long campaign. You have access to different ships and Special Option points to spend on them based on the campaign map and campaign length you choose.

U-boats come in different experience levels and some have special abilities. The more experienced a u-boat is the better it attacks and deals with stress. Stress will affect your u-boat negatively. Each u-boat has three states: okay, shaken and unfit. If your u-boat is shaken it will be less effective when attacking and evading. An unfit u-boat cannot attack or perform special missions.

Leftover Special Option points may be spent on upgrading your torpedoes, get extra supplies and help you search for enemy convoys. These points may also be spent on Special Missions. Special Missions allow you to gain victory points in exchange for ammo.

As you move u-boats around the map you draw Event Cards. Event Cards may add stress to your units, halt your movement or even get you more victory points.

After moving your u-boats can search for convoys to attack. These battles are placed on the tactical map. Sometimes convoys have escorts to deal with u-boat attacks and in later campaigns they even have tactics to help improve their odds.

If there are other ships in your area you can radio them. You roll a die and if successful, form a wolfpack. The ships that hear your call are placed on the tactical map and join the attack.

Escorts try to detect your u-boats. If they find you all ships with guns attack you. You are harder to hit if submerged and can attempt to perform evasive maneuvers. Failing the rolls you need to take evasive action adds more stress to your crew though. If you don’t evade and are hit by the enemy you take stress damage. An enemy that rolls high enough may even sink your u-boat.

Finally you get to attack any ships in your range. If you are on the surface you may fire both your ready torpedoes and your guns. Sinking enemy ships will get you victory and experience points.

Once all your units search their areas you can refit them. Any boats that gain enough experience can level up. You can load torpedoes from your stored area to your ready area, recover from stress and go to port. Going to port will end a patrol. The number of times you may patrol is determined by the campaign and campaign length.

You continue to move and search for enemies until your last u-boat is at the patrol limit or sunk. Then you tally your victory points and see how you rate. Different campaigns have different rating scales.
A Quick Review:
U-Boat Leader is pretty complex at first, but once you have gone through a couple turns you should have the flow of the game down. You should probably keep the rules close by as there is a lot to keep track of. My description above really is just the basics and does not go too deep into U-Boat Leader.

That said U-Boat Leader is not complex for complexity’s sake. The rules make sense and fit well with the theme. You’ll just want to read the rules then play a round or two with the rules close by before trying a full campaign.

The components and art are excellent and the rule book is easy to understand. Unfortunately there are some errors in the rulebook, but you can download an updated rulebook from the DVG website.

The tension in this game makes is very exciting. You’ll spend turns hoping to not be detected by escorts then unleash a flurry of torpedoes. After attacking you are easier to detect and you may find yourself running from many attacks once detected.

It is also nice how you have control over the length and difficulty of U-Boat Leader. Later campaigns are harder and victory points won’t come easily.

If you enjoy naval battles and themes or WWII war games you should try out U-boat Leader. Fans of the Leader Series should enjoy this one too.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction N/A
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 5 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6

Related posts:

1. Field Commander Napoleon Review
2. Pirate Versus Pirate Review
3. Wrath of Ashardalon Review

Description:
7 Wonders is card game about building a civilization. You might even build one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.

7 Wonders has won a bunch of awards since it came out. So I thought I should finally write my own review of this award-winning game.

You begin 7 Wonders by randomly selecting a wonder. Each wonder is different and gives you bonuses based on which stages of the wonder you have built. The wonders are double-sided to for some added variety. You also get three dollars.

The game is broken up into three ages. You start each age with 7 cards. On your turn you will build one of the cards and then pass the rest to the player on your right or left (depending on the age). Your only other option is to discard a card for three dollars. Once you have built six cards the age is over.

There are 6 different types of cards to build: resources, victory points, military, market, science and guilds. Most buildings cost resources or money to build. Each round, your resource buildings produce a specific type of resource. If you don’t have the resources you need to build a building you may buy resources from your neighbor for two dollars.

Military buildings will get you victory points if you have more total military then your neighbors. Market cards tend to get you money or make it cheaper for you to purchase resources from your neighbors.

Science building cards have one of three symbols at the top. You score points for each set of the three you build. They are also worth victory points equal to the number you have squared.

Guilds are only built in the third age and will get you points based on the types of buildings you or your neighbors have built.

After each age is over you’ll compare your military strength to your neighbor’s. If you have more you gain some victory points and they’ll lose one. After the third age is finished you tally points for each building type plus leftover money and your wonder. The player with the highest score wins.

A Quick Review:
7 Wonders is award-winning for good reason. It scales great, is easy to teach and fun to play. There are several paths to victory and you’ll have to make the most of your hand each turn.

The rule book and components look great and the art work on the cards is very nice. Everything is easy to follow and understand.

The learning curve for this game is fairly short and most new players will have a handle on 7 Wonders after the first play.

If you have thought about checking out 7 Wonders or want to know if it is as good as most people say you should pick it up or try it out. You won’t be disappointed.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 4 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 6 out of 6

Related posts:

1. The Manhattan Project Board Game Review
2. Nile Deluxor Card Game Review
3. Civilization: the Board Game Review