Fluxxing Hell! Competition Time!

11. Fluxx

by Andrew & Kristin Looney

Players: 2 - 6
Ages:8+
Time: 15 mins -forever
Type of game: Card / Random
Reccomended?: Not really

This is the first of the games that I have played purely to get them out of my collection.

Fluxx is a card game in which you draw a card, play a card and hope to end up with the right cards in front of you to satisfy the goal card that is currently on the table.

The twist is that most of the cards you are playing change the rules of the game until you can end up with something like this.

or this...

Random, fun at times but more often than not it's a game that overstays it's welcome. What should take 15 minutes often can last 40 or 50 minutes which, for a game this random, is not it's ideal length.

So... I'm getting rid of it in my first competition!

In order to win this copy of Fluxx please leave a reply to this post telling me which game I should add to my collection and why?

I will select the winning post at the end of March and contact them for postage details.

This competition is void where prohibited. Prize on offer is my used copy of Fluxx.

Riskier Business - Spoiler free zone

10. Risk: Legacy

by Rob Daviau and Chris Dupuis

Players: 3 - 5
Ages: 13+
Time: 60+ minutes
Type of game: Family / War

Reccomended?: Yeh

Risk: Legacy is somewhat controversial.

After all, here is a game that you destroy over time. You will rip up cards, not remove them and put them in the box. You will write on your board with a regular pen not with a wipe clean pen. You will stick stickers on your board and onto cards that will change the way the game plays. Forever.

Except... This is actually a game that you build over time. Eventually, after 15 games or so, you will have a unique game that provides you with a visual reminder of the skirmishes that have come before. It may not be the most balanced game in the world but you'll take that into account when playing. After all, standard Risk isn't balanced because the world isn't balanced and neither will your new world be.

Playing regular Risk gives you an idea of what to expect here.
The board and the starting rules remain pretty much the same. There's a variance in claiming a card if you successfully conquer a country that adds a little more strategy and should get the game moving faster but, aside from that, so far so similar.
Beyond that base the game very quickly shows some new aspects.

The box

Hidden between the (slightly nerdy) future war cover is a carefully thought out thing of beauty.

The box is sealed with a sticker you must break in order to open it. Not only guaranteeing that nobody has "built" your world before but also reminding you of the permanence of what you are about to start.

Opening like a briefcase, you're greeted by some sealed packages and a sealed board that, again, reminds you that this game is a war. A war that you will fight and, win or lose, you will accept the consequences of your actions.

Sign and be damned!

Beneath the board lie the 5 armies and 2 extra sealed compartments ready to spread fresh havoc in the future.

Hidden beneath the components tray lies the sneakiest component I've ever seen. Do I want to open it? Yes! Will I open it? Maybe...

Armies

Gone are the cubes and beads of old school Risk. Here we have 5 different armies. Not only do they look different (which shall I have? The ones riding the bears or the ED209 knock-offs?) but they also play differently. Again, how they play comes down to you.



At the beginning of the 1st game you select an army. You also get a card with 2 distinct power stickers on it. You choose one, stick it to your armies card and throw the other one away. That's it. Gone from the game. Forever. As the game progresses more powers may become available to you making your army pretty unique.

Although you choose an army in that 1st game it doesn't mean you have to use them forever. You can chop and change depending on what's available and how tasty the powers on offer are.

Resources

Instead of receiving a random resource card upon conquering a country you can get one if you conquer a country whose card is showing on the resource board. These cards can range in value from 1 to 6 and, providing you have enough, be turned in at the beginning of your turn for more troops. If none of the countries you conquered are on the resource board you get a measly little 1 resource card.

Throughout the game you can add resource stickers to your favourite country cards to make them even more valuable. Beware! If you make it too valuable somebody may decide to destroy it at the end of the game because of the unfair advantage it gives you.



Scars



At the beginning of each game, each player gets a random scar that they can stick to a country on the board should they wish to. At the beginning of the game you will have either a bunker, for better defence, or an ammo shortage to weaken defence. These can sway they tide of battle but, as you only get one each game, need to placed carefully to ensure maximum impact.

The board holds handy reminders of what the scars do and has places for future scars that, presumably, are included in the extra packages.

Rules



Event the rule booklet doesn't escape customisation. As you progress through the game you will find stickers to place in the rule booklet that change or add to the established rules.

Win (or live through) a game and you get the chance to add or remove something in the game. This could be as simple as adding a resource sticker to your favourite country...

...or as founding and naming your very own city in your favourite country.

Envelopes

We've opened one envelope so far due to my Risk rubbishness. I'm not telling you what was inside but at least it gave me something to read while the game finished.

I'm 1 game in so far with Risk Legacy with (at least) 6 hidden elements yet to come into play. The shape of the game is yet to be decided and I can't wait to see what it will finally be.

Risky Business

9. Risk: Nostalgia Edition

by Albert Lamorisse and Michael I. Levin

Players: 2 - 6
Ages: 10+
Time: 120+ minutes
Type of game: Family / War

Reccomended?: Meh

The aim of the game is to defeat  destroy decimate your opponents and conquer the world. A bit like Monopoly but with cold steel and warm blood instead of rent extortion and debtors jail.

In this Nostalgia edition, perfectly replicating an olden days game, you have exciting battles between cubes (1 army) and, if you're very lucky, odd-shaped beads (10 armies). If you're very, very sad lucky you can use a Lego Deathstar* (20 armies).

On your turn, you receive some reinforcements (decided by the number of countries and complete continents you hold) turn in some cards for more reinforcements and then attack!

You attack by selecting up to 3 armies from one of your countries and attempting to invade an adjacent country by rolling the same number of dice. Your opponent will choose to roll up to 2 dice (1 per defending army up to a maximum of 2).

You compare the highest and next highest dice in each roll. The aggressor wins if his dice is higher, defender has a home advantage and wins on tie or higher. Extra dice go unanswered and won't affect the combat.

You remove 1 army for each dice that is beaten. If the country is now empty the aggressor must move at least the undefeated armies from this roll in and may bring further armies from that country (leaving at least 1). If the country is still occupied the aggressor can attack again or decide to leave it until another turn.

On your turn you can attack as much or as little as you like. If you capture at least 1 country you will receive a card which you can trade in at the beginning of future turns for more armies.

And that's about it. There is only 1 way to win. Total annihilation of your opponents. Whilst this ensures you won't have any namby pamby ties, it does mean that for a portion of the game some or most of your opponents will be wiped out and start milling around looking for something more interesting to do.

Later editions fixed this problem by adding victory conditions and secret missions.

In the below pictures, I'm black, Louisa is yellow and Luke is red. 2 things have become apparent from my games of Risk:
1) it's a bit samey and long
2) I'm not very good at Risk

Nothing says Global Domination like a cartoon whale in a jaunty hat

Luke's Deathstar marches across the world

Victory! Now let's play something else...

*Lego Deathstar sold separately.

Sabre-toothed Seven

8. Mammut

By Kristian Amundsen Ostby

Players: 2 - 5
Ages: 8+
Time: 30+ minutes
Type of game: Social / Auctionish
Reccomended?: Yes

Seems like life in prehistoric times was a little more straightforward than it is now. You'd go out with your tribe hunting and gathering then split the spoils under the watchful eye of the tribe leader. Everyone shared the work and got their equal share of the spoils. Fair. Y'know, exactly like banking works now.

What if the tribe leader wasn't around and we were left to ourselves to decide how to split it? What's to stop me taking all of it? We need some rules to stop that happening. Let's see... If I have nothing in front of me I can take as much as I want from the central pile or take everything from somebody (who either has been too greedy or has what I want).

Seems fair? That's Mammut.

Here's the 2 boards. The far one acts as storage for the 7 sabre-toothed animals and a reminder of the various scoring options, the other is for keeping track of your score and furs.
You get thin and fat mammoths to mark your journey and another one to keep in front of you to:
A) remind yourself what colour you are
B) remind the other players what colour you are
C) play with
During the game you will find yourself doing mostly C.

Each round you'll upend a bag of tiles and leave them as they fall apart from separating them slightly so you can see what side is up. The first player takes what they want but tries to take little enough so that it's not stolen by another player. In our game 7 was decided as being the amount you could take without being acutes of being too greedy. Which meant we'd take 8-9 to try and push our luck.
With a number of ways to gain points and a couple of ways to lose points, you've got to get a good mix and keep an eye on what your opponents are picking up. But, as the tiles are double-sided you can never be certain of what you're going to get each round. So, although you can decide on a basic strategy you've got to be open to changing it.

Like The Resistance, the bulk of this game happens socially. Yes, you have the tokens in front of you to represent the choices you're taking but it's how you argue the fairness of those choices that really makes the game. That's where the fun of this really comes into play.

Also, there are sabre-toothed hamsters in this game.