Rating:

For the daring and adventurous

Lost Cities is a two-player card game by Reiner Knizia and is a fast and simple exploration game. There are five lost cities to explore but to try and search them all would really stretch your resources, as you have to pay to start each expedition. There are the Himalayas, the rain forest, the desert, volcanoes and Neptune’s areas to play your numbered cards against in each round. Each area has nine expedition cards (2-10) as well as three investment cards and each player plays a card, then draws a card either from the main deck or from one of the five discard piles (one for each area). You have to play cards in numerical order low to high and any investment cards must be played first, these double, treble or even quadruple your score but you need to play them early as you soon run out of turns to play all the cards you want. You loose twenty points to pay for your expedition to each realm so you need to at least score this amount or you could end up with a minus score which is never a good thing.

It’s a game of risk, deciding which cities to explore and knowing how long you can hold onto your cards while waiting for the very important investment cards to come out of the pack (or from your opponent if they cant keep it and have to discard it to make space for other cards in there hand). This is a very good game, fast but tactical one of my favourite two player games, it says it can be played with four but you need two copies of the game.
I would write more about this great game but my mate has stolen my thesaurus and frankly I’m lost for words!

Rating:

Rats, those damn rats!

Notre Dame was surprise, I bought on a bit of a whim after a straight toss up with Dominions and I’m really pleased I got it.

OK, so what’s so special about it? It’s as well thought through as a planning team meeting to discuss logistics and planning techniques – tight you might accurately say.

Don’t be fooled by the back of the game box saying that it’s a game of building influence it plays much better than that. The game revolves around the board, which is really well designed changing shape depending on the number of players. Each player slots their individual segment of the Notre Dame map against the Notre Dame Cathedral each like a petal on a flower. Each segment has a number of zones corresponding to an action for example; gain money by placing influence in the Bank zone, or gain prestige points (effectively victory points) by placing influence in the Residence zone amongst 5 other zones. Additionally each segment has a harbour, four markets and there is a single Notre Dame tile in the middle where players battle for influence and prestige through each of the three rounds.

The game is played over three rounds using cards which depict a zone upon which influence can be placed. This is where the catch is and also where the greatest player interaction can be found. Each player has 9 cards (7 relating to their 7 zones on the board, one ‘Trusted Friend’ wild card and one Notre Dame card) these cards are randomly ordered and each player draws their top three, keeps one and passes two to the player to their left and from these cards one is chosen and the other passed to the left. This element drives the interplay, whereby you need to spot the strategy the two players to your left are taking and stop the cards they need getting to them. However, from the three cards you now have you must play two of them – hence you may end up taking on the strategy you are stopping the players to your left adopting! This card sharing occurs three times per round.

The other key elements of the game are:

• The central Notre Dame tile is used by the players secure a share of pot of prestige points awarded at the end of each round. Maximising your return from this tile costs money though, as when you play influence here you must also (kindly) donate to the Cathedral, the more money you place the more prestige you get in return. Remember in this game prestige equals prizes!
• Three times per round (after the cards have been played) you can ‘hire’ one of the three random person cards to undertake an action on your behalf. This costs money and (apart from getting extra prestige from Notre Dame) is the key need for money in the game.
• Each person card has a rat value and the overall number of rats will be reflected on the 9 black ‘plague value’ marks in your harbour. Any influence you place in your Hospital will reduce the plague you are hit with, but if you go over 9 you will loose an active influence marker from the game and also two prestige points from your winnings.

The strategies I have seen working well are:

1. Focus on placing influence in the Carriage House so that your carriage flies around the board gathering messages from each of the Market Places.
2. In the first round focus on pooling cash and releasing influence from general supply. Then use this to focus influence on Notre Dame and the Residence (both to release prestige) and controlling the rats in the meantime!
3. Just steadily build up influence on the Residence from the start (and if possible by having two influence in the Park to recover your prestige bonus each time).

So to sum up, it’s a good looking sufficiently complex game which has many different playing strategies generating good long term play appeal. It’s often the game of choice when I take it to the club – so I mustn’t be that unusual in thinking this! The only criticism I’ve heard and partially agree with is that it could have more interactivity between players although the card swapping mechanic, battling for Notre Dame influence and to some extent the stealing messages from each other with your carriage does give some good levels of interplay but is this enough?…. Only time will tell, and for now 4 stars.

DORN – Beyond the gate of Doom

Rating:

“The only thing that could be heard in the narrow underground hallway was the heroes’ breath. Paladin Kaerdrak turned his gloomy face back towards the others and placed his finger on his mouth. Absolute silence absorbed the hallway.

Shadows of torches were dancing on the walls and a nearby junction was barely visible in the darkness. Suddenly they heard it, the ominous sound of scales rubbing against the floor. They could also hear rattling of bones and flapping of batlike wings nearby. The heroes moved as close to each other as they could. Almanor the mage started whispering some ancient protective spell. A cautious ring could be heard as Ragnar in the back drew his silver rapier.

And then the attack came. Pale faces of those who used to be humans emerged from the darkness and their eyes shone with greenish light. In the hallway behind them a silhouette of the snake beast Gorgon arose, tall and mighty. Dented swords of the undead started pounding at the heroes’ shields. Kaerdrak swung his mighty axe at the advancing foes, Guelin kept shooting arrows, and Almanor unleashed a magical fire on the monsters. The hallway was suddenly filled with howls, shrieks, battle cries and commands. And the first drops of blood fell on the granite floor, which seemed to absorb them all too eagerly…”

Dorn is a 2-6 player adventure game where 5 adventurers will try to use their wits and skills to collect the artifacts, open the gate of doom and destroy the Dorn Keeper, Zorkal.

The Characters:

Zorkal   –     The Dorn Keeper, a dark necromancer, sits on his throne in safety behind the Gate of Doom.  Zorkal (or Dorkal if your name is Stuart) is responsible for all the bad guys in the game. He places monsters throughout the board, moves the monsters round the board and attacks so called heroes every turn if he wishes.  He has two different ways to win the game, he can either kill all of the heroes and in so doing eradicate all opposition to his world domination or fill the ritual chamber with monsters for three consecutive rounds and thus break the seal of  the underworld allowing him to plunge the world into eternal darkness under his rule.

Chronus – A Dwarf from the Dangan Mines. A fierce, if slow, hero armed with only a battleaxe and a will of iron.

Reil – An Archer from the Misty Forest. As an archer this hero has a ranged attack which is quite useful as Zorkal swamps the board with enemies.

Almanor – A Mage from the Ciamor College. This hero has magic that is quite potent against Zorkal’s minions and with his blood sacrifice powers can be a real game turner for the heroes.

Gor – A Cleric of the Blessed Flame.  It would be wise for the heroes to keep Gor close and safe as his ability to heal others is second to none but all good things come with a price…

Ragnar – A Witcher from the Stone Circle.  With legendary reflexes, a concentration of steel and his compassionate heart he may just be critical in order to stop Zorkal.

Guelin – A Ranger from the Misty Forest.  A hero with a ranged pre-emptive strike can only be a good thing, no?

Vargen – The Friendly Warewolf. This tamed beast uses pure power to overcome the frights of Zorkal, with no movement restrictions and self-healing abilities on kills can you afford to leave him at Argos?

Kaerdrak – A Paladin from the Aglarannon Mountain. As a paladin, Kaerdrak worships the good and only kills when needed.  With the ability to heal his fellow heroes and parry all attacks there is just no way that Zorkal can win…

Eleanor – An Elven Princess.  With a keen knowledge of the pike, the ability to teleport and higher fitness level than any other hero, she can pose a significant threat to Zorkal.

The heroes have only one way to win, collect three artifacts from around the board, take them to the ritual chamber to open the gate of doom and then kill Zorkal.  There is help along the way in the form of treasure, healing fountains and even a herbalist.

Sounds easy doesn’t it – I challenge you to beat Zorkal!!

I have now played this game through twice and although the first play through took some time (due to rule translating and hero bickering) both playthroughs were a good laugh.  The game does seem tipped in Zorkal’s favour because if  he is allowed to level up he seems almost untouchable when released from behind the gate of Doom.  There is a small amount of variability in the game as there are random blessing cards to be used each game but the real variability in the game comes from the heros and the dorn keeper constantly trying new tactics to thwart the other.

I recommend this game if you are a fan of the dungeon crawler or if you just feel like having a bit of a laugh over your game.