Whole Armor of God Game Review

Here is a guest post from Dane Trimble where he reviews the Whole Armor of God.

Whole Armor of God

Covenant Communications

Designed by Mike Drysdale

Art by Steven and Kevin Keele

2 to 4 players

Ages 5 and up

Plays 10 to 20 minutes

In Whole Armor of God players are trying to be the first to “put on” the Whole Armor of God. This is done by playing Faith in Action cards from your hand on different pieces of armor to eventually total the required number for that particular piece of armor. For example, the Helmet of Salvation requires a point value of 6 to collect, so a player would then play enough Faith in Action cards out of their hand in subsequent turns to total 6. Once this is achieved the player takes that piece of armor and plays it in front of them. The first player to collect all six pieces of armor wins.

To set up, each player is dealt 4 cards. The remainder of the cards are placed face down in the center of play. Players then choose a set of armor cards by color (red, yellow, green, and blue) and lay these out in front of them.

Play begins with the first player playing a card from their hand. This can either be a Faith in Action card being played to one of the pieces of armor, or a fiery dart card on an opposing player which causes that player to lose Faith in Action card(s) already played on a piece or pieces of armor played. The player then draws a card to end their turn and the next player goes.

If a player is able to play enough Faith in Action cards on a piece of armor so that the total equals the number on the piece of armor then that player takes that piece and plays it in front of them. One of the cool things about this game is that the pieces of armor all fit together – like a puzzle – to form a fully armed person. The first player to get all six pieces wins.

This is a great family game that works for young and old kids alike. It was easy to learn and is very quick to play. There are a lot of great lessons being taught throughout the game like what we can do to put on the whole armor of God (through the Faith in Action cards) to basic math skills. The game also works great as a Family Home Evening activity for a variety of messages.

Thanks Dane for reviewing the game.
Check out Dane's LDS Game site:

LDSBoardGames

Feast & Famine Video Review

Tom Vasel of the Dice Tower did a video review of Feast & Famine. Enjoy!

Board Game Family Reviews Hagoth!

The fine family over at Board Game Family played and reviewed Hagoth (here). They give a nice write-up of what they think and they also provide a video detailing how to play (embedded below).

Hagoth: Builder of Ships: A Review

A Review of Hagoth: Builder of Ships

by Jon Cooper

Introduction

Mike and I know one another because of his game "Hagoth: Builder of Ships." I wrote a review of Hagoth on another website (Board Game Geek: here), and dropped Mike a note letting him know how much I enjoyed the game. We've chatted back and forth over the last few months about games and game design, and this on-going conversation has culminated in Mike asking if I'd consider writing a review of Hagoth for his blog - and I'm happy to do so. 

To give you some background about myself, game-wise, I've played a variety of table top games since I was a kid. There's nothing I enjoy more than passing an evening of games with my wife and good friends...well, I guess there's one other thing: passing an entire weekend of games with my wife and good friends! Our gaming collection (my wife enjoys table top games, as well) includes traditional American board games, like Monopoly and Scrabble, party games, like Apples to Apples and Wits and Wagers, collectible/living card games, like Magic: The Gathering and Call of the Cthulhu, miniatures war games, like Warmachine, and hobby table top games, including Eurogames (like Caylus and Finca) and American-style games (like A Touch of Evil and Arkham Horror). You might say that I'm a relatively well-rounded gamer: if it has dice, cards, chits, tokens, a board, or pawns, I'm there!

There are numerous reasons why I game, and my reasons have certainly evolved since I was a teenager. Being a husband and a father, one of my motivations for gaming is to spend time with my family. For us, "spending time together" can take just a little bit of work. If we don't spend some time thinking about what to do together, well, we end up in front of the television - which some nights is fine. But as a source of quality family interaction, "let's just watch whatever's on" is a bit low on the "time well spent" scale. Table top games provide us with a qualitatively better experience. 

But playing table top games as a family is not exactly a silver bullet. The reality of it is that many of the games that we as consumers can pick up at the local department store have limited replayability. This is to say that most games on the shelves of popular department stores can get boring to play rather quickly. And boring does not equal fun. One of the reasons that these department store games lack table top longevity, among other reasons, is because they remove the agency of the players: roll a die, move a pawn, do whatever the board says. Or some variation on this theme. And many of the games that seem to offer more are simply a bit more clever at hiding it than the others. Popular party games, while fun, generally lack any strategic or tactical depth - which means that they live or die by their novelty. By definition, after a few plays, the novelty wears off. This isn't to say that we don't enjoy department store games or party games - only that as a source of continual quality family time, they tend to be limited. 

Some level of choice, then, is an important ingredient for our family in continually enjoying a game. But that's not all. Games that make it back to our kitchen table or living room floor more than once also must pass two tests for my family. First, after a game or gaming session is complete, we automatically and without planning spend the next fifteen or twenty minutes talking about high and low points, turning points, what we should have done or tried to do, etc. In other words, we relive the fun moments of the game - whether those moments are devastating or glorious! The second test is that we want to play again. If the game is short enough or if we have enough time (or enough energy: I miss being able to stay up past ten playing games...), we'll combine our strategy talk with setting the game up again. If we don't have time or energy or whatever, then the game is sure to make an appearance as soon as possible - usually the next night.

The point of this review is to evaluate Hagoth given these criteria, as well as some extra criteria that Mike asked of me, namely: game play for families and ease of learning. The target audience for this review is families who may play table top games together from time to time, but are not into table top gaming as a hobby. This is not to suggest that I'm out to convert anyone. But it is my hope that by the end of this review, not only will you have a good idea of the quality of Hagoth as a game, but that you may even have an interest in using table top games as facilitators of quality family time.

This review is divided into the following sections: first, there is a brief outline of the rules and a quick overview of the components (the bits and pieces that the game comes with). Then, a quick example of play will be presented so potential players can have an idea of what a few turns of Hagoth look like. Finally, Hagoth will be evaluated according to the criteria I outlined above. 

Game Play 

In Hagoth, players take on the role of ship builders who compete to build ships and successfully sail them from Bountiful to the Land Northward. Completing ships as well as arriving at the Land Northward score players victory points (VPs); the first to 25 VPs wins. 

Players start out with 5 cards; on their turn, they can either play two cards, or take a free action. If a player chooses to play two cards, they must also draw two cards. Taking a free action means that a player cannot draw new cards. There are two types of cards: cards that let you do something, and cards that are parts of ship blueprints. Blueprint cards are used in the construction of ships: players use them to complete one of five ship designs. Different designs are worth different point values, and also take different amounts of time to sail. Designs that require more cards are worth more points and take longer to sail. Once a ship blueprint is complete, it must be built. This is done by first, collecting wood (this is done through cards or as a free action, and employs a four-sided dice, popularly referred to as a d4), then placing that wood on the completed blueprint (also done through cards or a free action). Once all parts of the blueprint are built, the ship sets sail. When a ship sets sail, the player immediately scores points. The player will again score points once the ship reaches the Land Northward. Sailing is accomplished through playing cards or through a free action. There are also cards that hinder your opponent, either by skipping their turn, removing pieces from their blueprints, sending their sailing ships back a space, or even removing a piece of wood from a blueprint card. Players can only sail two ships at a time, and can only work on two ships at a time - they can, however, swap blueprint cards between ships that are not being built at any time, and can use any combination of ship designs as they choose.

Components 

The box comes with 100 playing cards, 50 wood tokens, 8 ship tokens, 4 victory point markers, a d4, a game board, and a rules book. Many of the components are top notch: the rules book is on glossy paper, full color, and filled with illustrations and examples. The board is of exceptionally good quality: sturdy, functional, and certainly able to stand up to repeated use. The artwork is outstanding, both on the board and on the cards. Further, the tokens are of the quality one would expect from the industry's leader in Eurogame accessories, Mayday Games. Each color gets two ships, each pair of which are of different sizes - that's a nice touch.

There is some concern with component quality, however: The cards are not printed on the best card stock. I actually bent two during sleeving. Also, the d4 is really light weight. I replaced it with a heavier one. These concerns notwithstanding, for the MSRP and the fun game play, I'm not overly disappointed in these shortcomings. The fact that Mayday sent out a free pack of sleeves for the cards also mitigates my concern over how well the cards will stand up to game play. For being a small game company, it's a great deal.  

An Example of Play

So imagine that you're playing a two player game against your spouse and it's your first turn. In your hand, you have two blueprint cards, a card that lets you Go Wooding, and a Build card with the number 2 in the corner. You choose to pay the two blueprint cards, which just so happen to fit together to complete the blueprint of a tiny ship! You end your turn by drawing two new cards: another blueprint, and one Sail card. Your spouse takes their first turn, playing one blueprint card, and attacking you with a Remove card, which allows them to remove one blueprint card from a blueprint that is not yet built - that is, that does not yet have wooden tokens on it. They draw their two new cards, and it's back to you.

Fortunately, the blueprint card you drew last turn is the same blueprint card that just got discarded, so you first play this card, and then play your Go Wooding card. You need wood to complete your blueprint, and this is the card that allows you to acquire the wood. To do so, you roll once on the d4: you roll a 3, and take three wood tokens. Your turn is over, and you draw two new cards: a blueprint, and a Sail card. Your spouse takes their turn, playing two blueprint cards, and finishes by drawing two new cards. 

It's your turn, and you're ready to get your new boat built and in the water: you play your Build card with the number 2 on it, allowing you to place 2 wood tokens on the cards of any completed blueprint. You place one on each of the cards that make up your completed ship, leaving you with 1 wood token left over for future ships. This completes the ship, allowing you to place a ship token on the board on the track that matches your completed ship. This earns you an automatic 1 point, and you move your score marker accordingly on the VP track. Finally, to end your turn, you play your Sail card, moving your just completed ship to the other side of the sea to the Land Northward, earning yourself another 1 point. You draw two cards, and your turn is over. 

As you can see, Hagoth is a very fast-paced game that seldom has down time. Once in awhile you may be unable to play a card, but the free actions come in handy here. And if worst comes to worse, you can always discard two cards and draw two new ones to replenish your hand as your turn actions.

Evaluation of Hagoth
This is a very fun game. It's easy to teach, easy to learn, and fun to play. What was surprising to us was the tension that the game maintained: it had an unexpected, but awesome, race-game feel to it. This, no doubt, is because of the "first to 25 VP" winning condition. 

1. The "Choice" Test. As is obvious from the rules overview and the game play example, this game provides players a number of choices on their turn. But it's not just choice that the game offers, its aching choices, the kind of choices you have to make between five options, all of which you need to do now. In real life, this is a painful situation; in the world of table top gaming, however, it provides for an excellent gaming experience. By only allowing players to do a fraction of the actions that they need to take each turn, Hagoth extends the game tension already present in the racing aspect. The attack-style cards add to the tension by allowing you to mischievously usurp your opponents' choices!

2. The "That was so cool" Test. This test refers to the post-game debriefing: to what extent are we talking about the game after we finish up a session. Hagoth lends itself well to this aspect, and passes the test. For us, the conversation usually revolves around, "If I just could have..." or "I can't believe you played that card at that moment!" Hagoth is not a heavily strategic game by any stretch, so we talk less about strategy and a bit more about tactical choices. This does not mean that the game lacks strategies, however, so we do spend some time focusing on this, as well. Most of our conversation focuses on linchpin moments. In the end, it doesn't matter what we're talking about specifically. What's important is that we're talking about how much fun the game was.

3. The "Let's play again" Test. Hagoth also passes this test! We can run through 3-5 games a night before it's our bed time, and often we'll try to throw a quick game in during lunch time. Because it's a race game, it leaves us with a feeling of "Ok, ok, again, I got it this time." Basically, Hagoth is for us a text book case of the gambler's fallacy: "I lost sooooo badly this time, that there's no way I can lose that bad again. Just one...more...game!"

So what about ease of game play for families and learning the game? Without drawing out the issue, let me just say that it's a great family night game. One of the reasons it's so good is because it's rule set is quite simple. When I teach this game, it generally takes 5 minutes, and that includes an example or two of what game turns look like, as well as explaining who Hagoth is. It's also a good game for younger kids: it helps reinforce the idea of taking turns, teaches them how to plan ahead, demonstrates how choices result in consequences, and introduces them to dice with less than six sides. It's a win-win situation!

Clearly, I'm a fan of Hagoth, and feel comfortable suggesting that it would fit well in any board game collection. Even hard core gamers may find it an enjoyable light-weight Eurogame. Now the criteria that I used for evaluating Hagoth aren't all our criteria for enjoying a game, but they're some of the biggies. The fact is, this is a review, not an essay on what makes a game fun. The quick and dirty conclusion to that question is "whatever you enjoy!" and for whatever reason. Given the outstanding price-tag, there's no reason you shouldn't pick up or at least try a copy of Hagoth to find out if it's fun for you and your family. It may introduce you to a whole new way to spend time with your family. 

Using Mike's system of ratings, I give this game 4 Moroni meeples - one off for some component issues.

Because I prefer probabilities over Likert scales, I will also use the d6 Generation's rating system, and give this game a 3+ (basically, using the results of a d6, what are the odds that the "average" gamer, whoever that may be, would enjoy this game; the odds of rolling a 3 or higher on a d6 are 4/6).

Review written and images supplied by Jon Cooper,

who can be contacted at: jcentdecker@gmail.com
 

Search, Ponder, & Play: A Review

Search, Ponder, and Play is a game published by Covenant Communications. It's based on Andy Looney's Aquarius (here). And when it was first published had quite a bit of controversy surrounding it (read about it here). The game is for 2-5 players and, because of the way the game can be played, can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes.

How to Play
The gameplay is pretty straight forward, each player is dealt one of the Search cards (there are 5, one for each book of scripture: Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price). The card you are dealt determines your goal for that round. The goal is to get a total of 7 images, that match your Search card, to connect. I know, that doesn't make much sense, but it will in just a minute.

So, on your turn, you draw a card and then play a card to the table. Cards may be played as long as at least a part of the side of the card you play matches a part of the side of a card already on the table (you place it along side of that card, like in the picture below; you can see that the yellow has 4 images connected at the moment).

So, if you have the yellow Search card, then you'd need 3 more yellow images to connect to those 4 in some fashion or other. Your Search card stays hidden so that other players don't know what you are going after, but you can start to deduce what Search cards other players have as the game progresses.

There are also cards that let you, for example, pick up a card from the table, move a card on the table, or even switch hands with another player. These are the Ponder cards. The cards you play to the table, that have the different images on them, those are the Play cards. That's how you get the whole Search, Ponder, & Play!

The game also includes a pad of paper where you can list every player and the different Search cards they've won with. The rules suggest playing until one player has won with all 5 different Search cards, but for what the game is, that takes way too long. I mean, you might win one time with the blue and then be dealt the blue Search card again, yes, you might be able to switch Search cards in the middle of a round and win with another color, but it would just take too long, for me anyway, playing until someone wins with all 5 Search cards. Just playing as many rounds as you like, keeping track of who wins each one, that is easier for me to handle.

I'm giving it a 4 out of 5!

Overall, I think the game is easy to learn, quick to play, and contains a little strategy (like how you place cards on the table, making sure to leave a bunch of open sides of the color you are going after; the rules state that you can start blocking your opponents during the game, but that's only if you've been able to deduce what Search card they have, so that strategy might work in). Kids can also play the game, making it a nice family game. I recommend giving it a try if you haven't yet!

Buy from www.ldsboardgames.com

Bee Attitudes: A Review

Published by: Covenant Communications
Illustrated by: Rocky Davies

I've been able to play Bee Attitudes several times with my family. I think we've been able to do this because of how simple the game is. It doesn't take long to play and even my 3 year old gets it. This isn't to say that the game can't be fun. For the most part I enjoy playing it with my kids. But I get ahead of myself. Let's get to what's in the box first.

Bee Attitudes is a card game, so, in the box you'll find a deck of cards. There are 8 different kinds of "Bees" in the deck.

Seven of these are desirable and 1 is not. Can you tell which one that is?

Well, if you guessed the Stinger Bee (it's looks pretty bad, doesn't it?) then you were right!!

The object of the game is to collect as many of the "good" bees as you can. The way that works is that you shuffle the deck, choose a player to go first. That player starts flipping over cards from the deck until 1 of 2 things happens: 1) the player flips over a Stinger Bee or 2) the player decides to stop flipping.

Let's take a look at each scenario. If the player flips over a Stinger Bee all the cards flipped over thus far on that turn are lost!!! If the player decides to stop flipping cards before a Stinger Bee comes up, then all the cards are, what we like to call "banked." Those cards are yours no matter what happens on future turns. Once the deck is gone, everyone counts up their cards and the player with the most cards wins the game!

So, if you like "press your luck" types of games, that's exactly what you've got here. The cards aren't of the highest quality, especially since this is aimed, in my opinion, at younger children. It's pretty easy to bend them. But the artwork is cute and I think does a good job of drawing kids in.

Overall, I give Bee Attitudes a 3 out of 5.




I think it's a game that is simple enough for younger children to understand and play, thus adding to the options a family with younger children would have. I also like that it's easy to get out and set up and start playing. Really quick! But the low quality of cards really lowers my rating here. I mean, the cards won't last too long if this game gets played a lot.

I wanted to add here a variant that we like to play in my house. We change the object to be the first player to collect all 7 "good" bees. So you can bank your cards when you like, as is the normal rule, but you are really looking to collect at least 1 of each of the 7 types. So, we just discard any extra bees that we collect and reshuffle the deck when the need arises.

Buy from www.ldsboardgames.com

Video Reviews Coming Soon

I've already said that I'll be posting a video review of Settlers of Zarahemla, as it received the most votes as the favorite. But I've decided to do as many video reviews as LDS themed games I can get my hands on. One of the guys from our little group of locals (here in Logan; we get together to play-test each others designs) is a frequent DI (Deseret Industries) shopper. Anyway, he's agreed to picking up LDS themed games from DI for me whenever he sees them. Last night he brought 3 for me!!: Warriors of the Promised Land, Missionary Impossible, and Building the Kingdom. So, look for reviews of these games soon.

Warriors of the Promised Land: A Review

I wasn't sure if I would enjoy this game too much. I guess I was expecting something similar to Book of Mormon Battles, but I was pleasantly surprised!

The game starts by dealing each deck (the Warriors deck and the Armory deck) out to the players, like war. Then each player draws 3 cards from each of their decks. They choose 1 warrior and place it face down in front of them. Gameplay proceeds as each player takes turns placing other cards from their hand (and subsequently drawing, from either their Warrior deck or their Armory deck to fill back to 6 cards) face down next to their warrior card. This continues until one player decides to end the round. Everyone gets a final turn and then the player who ended the round chooses an opponent to challenge. This is done by revealing each card and counting up the points. The player with the highest total wins the opponents cards and gets to challenge another player, until all players have been challenged. Then play starts over again. The first player to collect all cards from everyone is the winner!!

Each card contains a number of small icons. These icons provide the way of "connecting" warriors and armor, thereby gaining points. As players place cards face down next to their initial warrior card, at least one icon must match an icon from the warrior. All kinds of combinations can be achieved (sidenote: righteous warriors cannot be played with wicked warriors and vice versa, even if the icons match), for example, your warrior might be Moroni, adding the Plates gives you 5 extra points. Or you might have Amalikiah, adding Dissentions gives you an additional 5 points. There are also cards that block points from other players, like the Fortress card. It will block any points your challenger has from swords, javelins, or arrows (among other weapons). One of the most powerful cards is the Righteous Women card. It will double all the points you have for that round!!!

One strategy that I locked onto was that of not putting those kinds of powerful cards out unless I was pretty sure I was going to win. So, if I started the round with 2 wicked warriors and a couple of wicked type weapons and the Righteous Women card, then I would probably play a wicked warrior and save the Righteous Women card for the next time it got into my hand (at the end of the round you put your hand cards into your discard pile, so you'll get back to them eventually).

It's funny how just a couple of slight changes to the game of war makes things quite interesting and fun! This was leaps and bounds above Book of Mormon Battles in terms of gameplay and fun. It was nice to have more choice in what went on.

The artwork is pretty awesome! It adds a lot to the gameplay and immersion factors.

Probably the only downside would be that if I had children old enough to play this I would hesitate to have them excited and happy that they could take Amalikiah and beat Captain Moroni. But that's about my only qualm, even though that's the nature of games and competition and good versus evil, etc., etc., etc.... (Just more reason why we need a great LDS/Mormon themed cooperative game where players join forces and fight against the Lamanites.) I'm not trying to take away from this game. As I said, I thoroughly enjoyed it and will play it in the future as well.

My rating: 4 out of 5

Buy from www.ldsboardgames.com

Paid to Play: A Review

I wouldn't call myself a critic or anything like that, but I am enjoying reading about game design and how to attempt to make money with it. And I thought I'd share what I thought about Paid to Play by Keith A. Myers.

He offers a lot of helpful information. Some of it is just logical, but you don't really explicitly think about it. For example, he has a section about where a game comes from or The 3 Core Concepts. These include:
1) A Name or Phrase
2) A Theme or Story-Line
3) Game Play/Thought Process
For me anyway, I think I've had games come from each of these, but I never really thought, "Hey, I could turn that name into a game." Thoughts and ideas just kind of spring up and I attempt to grab them. I have consciously thought about, as LDS/Mormon themes are my focus, "That (theme or part of the Book of Mormon) would make a great setting for a game." But I don't think I've said to myself, "I've got to think of a new theme or story line from the Book of Mormon to start a new game." Again, I think it's just something that we do but don't explicitly know that we do it. Nonetheless, it's good to get it explicitly spelled out for us (for me anyway; I know it will help me in future game designs).

Overall, I can say that I took several things away from the book that I think will affect what I do in designing my games in the future. For example, the section about writing rules had a lot of good guidance, steps to take in the process of writing it all up and important things to keep in mind as you do it (like date each document file and don't delete previous versions). One thing he said he doesn't suggest is trying to write the rules document at an early stage of game development. I can see where he is coming from; there will probably be a lot of tweaks to the gameplay and rules as you continue to develop and playtest. I do think it a good idea to write up all your ideas and how the game plays from the beginning. This will really help flesh out ideas and it makes it easier to see if something will work, even before actually attempting it in a playtest. Many times I've had some, what I thought were really good ideas as to how the game would work, only to find, as we (my wife and I; I'm so glad and thankful she puts up with stuff like this) sat down to try it all out, that some of it didn't work. So, the initial step of writing it down and kind of working through it all helps with that. I guess you shouldn't attempt to write the whole rules document, but just how the game will work and what will happen.

He had quite a bit about connecting with publisher and getting your game in stores. This was probably the least beneficial part for me (but I'm an extreme case). I don't foresee myself publishing games as he suggests, but there were still valuable insights that he had to offer in that section of the book. I do think a lot of it will be valuable as I attempt to self-publish most of my stuff. For example, I think more about how the box will look that I eventually will use to package my game. The three Ps: Placement, Packaging, and Pricing will be important to keep in mind when I get to that point.

He also gave good information on how to get your game copyrighted to protect what is yours.

Lastly, here are a few one-liners I thought were good:

• "No matter how your game is created, take time to come up with the best name possible."
• "By drawing up a long-term, well-thought out financial plan and budge accordingly, you have a head start on moving forward with the best possible vision."
• "As a closing note about self-publishing, I want to add, that while it may be an all-consuming job, it is in my opinion, the best industry there is. Every day, hopefully, you will go to work at a job that you truly love."
• "I have had the most success with games that are innovative, combined with something familiar."

I enjoyed the book and know that I learned quite a bit from reading it.

Book of Mormon Battles: A Review

I've had a copy of Book of Mormon Battles for quite a while now and we finally pulled it out and played it a little.

I'll put my overall perspective and reaction to the game first: it's way too simple. In my mind it's pretty much "glorified war."

The way it works is that the deck is dealt out to each player (just like in war). This becomes the player's army. Each player then draws the top 5 cards (these are now referred to as the player's battalion). Then, each player selects from their battalion the cards that will enter the battlefield for that turn (these are laid face down in front of the players). Lastly, every turns their cards over. The player with the highest points wins all the cards. Players then add to their battalion to get it back to 5 cards. This process is repeated until one player owns all the cards.

When players select cards to enter the battlefield they can only choose one character (usually each card contains one character). There are special power cards that can be played as well that allow the player to add to the character they have chosen to play. For example, there is a power card called Battle. This card allows the player to play any number of character cards, using the total points instead of just the points from a single character.

The character cards are each worth a specific number of points. Captain Moroni, for example, is worth 10,000 points, whereas Zeezrom is only worth 100 points. There are both "good" (gold) and "bad" (black) character cards. So, Gadianton falls into the "bad" card category and Nephi into the "good" card category. (If there is a tie for the highest point total on the battlefield, the player who played "good" character cards will win over the player who played "bad" character cards.)

As far as design goes, I really like the artwork on the cards. There are a total of 56 character cards, each with it's own portrait of characters from the Book of Mormon. They also contain a brief description of the character and a scripture reference. I guess it could be a good way of introducing kids to the characters from the Book of Mormon. But, like I said, the game is too simple and repetitive. It's hard to really get into it. (I did play the "war" version of the game with my 6 year old. We removed the power cards and just played war. I think she could have gotten how to play the "basic" gameplay, but maybe not each power card and how they work with the character cards. She enjoyed the game. It lasted for quite a while, as war often does.) Also, the cards are of a nice thickness, not nearly as thick and stiff as the cards from It Came to Pass, but they work fine for shuffling and playing.

There are several "special rules" or variants that are described in the rulebook. I read through these and after playing, I think I like the Power Play one the best. In this variant the players do not keep their battalion and then add to it after playing into the battlefield. Instead, they discard the cards they did not play from their battalion and draw a new 5 cards. This helps go through the cards quicker and also adds the number of power cards that get played. Furthermore, it adds a little bit of strategy that is otherwise not there. It may be advantageous at times to play your power card and try to take all the cards. Other times, it may be a better play to not play it. That way you don't lose it but will come to it again once you have gone through all your cards, shuffle, and start again.

I looked around online for other variants that people may have come up with, but I was unable to find any. On boardgamegeek there is a short thread with a review of the game. James Fullmer comments that variants and other things will soon be available on his website (here), but I can't find anything like that. Maybe I need to come up with my own variant. We'll see about that.

In conclusion I give Book of Mormon Battles a rating of 3 out of 5.

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Settlers of Zarahemla: A Review

Another review here. This time we played Settlers of Zarahemla. I've got to say that I just enjoy the whole "Settlers" idea. I'd played Settlers of Catan a few times before and I think it's awesome. This LDS-themed version is just as good. It's built on the idea quite well and added it's own little touch.

When I looked at Settlers of Zarahemla, I didn't think I'd like not having individual hexes to place at the beginning of the game as in Catan. But, I've decided that it doesn't really matter too much. It's nice to have control over the design of the board as a player (I've tried to add that into the games that I'm designing), but it isn't as necessary as I had once thought. Settlers of Zarahemla comes with 5 pieces that make up the board: 1 five-hex piece, 2 four-hex pieces, and 2 three-hex pieces. These are laid down within the confines of the board. The board also includes a "score-keeping track." Around the edges of the board is a track with spaces labeled 1 to 12. Each player has a marker that moves along the board as the player's score increases. This was a nice touch. In Catan everyone just has to be aware of who has what score. This gives everyone an easy way to keep track. After setting up the board, the number tokens are placed on the board hexes. This was quite a pain. The instruction book tells you to place them on the board in alphabetical order. Not a big deal, right? But the letters on the tokens are extremely small and some strange looking font was used which added to the difficulty of reading the letters. Lastly, place the Gadianton Robber on the appropriate hex.

We then proceeded to place our settlements and roads. Not too much difference or difficulty there. Game play from here on out was pretty much the same as with Catan.

The game adds the possibility of building a temple. A combination of brick and stone will allow you to place one of your temple building blocks onto the temple, which is located at the top of the board. The first player to add 3 bricks to the temple becomes the "Greatest Temple Contributor," which is worth 2 victory points (similar to the longest road).

One thing that was weird was the Stripling Warrior development card. This allows the player to move the Gadianton Robber and steal a card from a player. It just seems strange to use a Stripling Warrior in conjunction with the Gadiaton Robber. Doesn't quite mesh with the Book of Mormon stories or theme.

The artwork on the board and the box is awesome. It really adds to the feel of the game (I think that artwork for games greatly impacts the experience; I'm not saying a game needs great artwork to make it fun and engaging, but it definitely helps; Too bad I'm not more artistic!). I was surprised at the thickness of the cards, but I just got done playing It Came to Pass, so I was comparing the two. The cards were fine, shuffling, dealing, etc. I did find that the wooden dice don't have the same bounce or something to them. But I'm sure that doesn't affect the numbers rolled.

Conclusion
Overall, I give this game a 5 out of 5.

I very much enjoy this game. It gives players a lot of options and makes winning difficult, as other players have those same options. A lot can happen in just one round of play. The only other thing I would add is that playing with only 2 players isn't as exciting as 3 or more. I know the box says 3-4 players, but the instructions explain what changes to make for a 2 player game. This make 2 games, It Came to Pass included, that playing with 2 players actually detracts from the experience. Overall, I enjoyed the game and am a fan of the Catan series, but are there some exciting 2 player LDS/Mormon themed games out there?

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It Came to Pass: A Review

I got a hold of a copy of It Came to Pass this weekend and my wife and I played it a few times. I'm offering this short review as a result. Keep in mind that this is pretty much coming from the perspective of a would-be game designer/self-publisher, so it probably won't be like so called "normal" reviews of games.

First off, I started with the thought that the game was going to be a lot like Uno (I think this was the case because I read, I think on gameboardgeek, that the game was similar to Uno, and the guy who lent me the game also told me it was like Uno). This was a big mistake! I was reading the rules and thinking Uno the whole time. My wife and I had to consciously stop thinking it was going to be like Uno so that we could understand the rules. So we finally got over that and pretty much understood what we were reading. In other words, don't bring in preconceived notions of what the game is going to be like, it will hinder your understanding and perhaps enjoyment (even after learning how to play I was still comparing it to Uno).

Before I opened the tuck box and looked over the rules I read the outside. which can also be found on gameboardgeek:

A heart-pounding, card-slapping game of strategy and fun for Latter-day Saints.

Well, that seemed a little cheesy to me. I got a similar feeling when I read the back:

Get your hand ready, slide to the edge of your seat, and see if you dare to say, "PASS."

So much for first impressions.

Cards
The cards felt really nice. They were thick and had a very nice glossy/non-stick surface that made shuffling and dealing easy. (I can't wait to order from GuildofBlades to be able to compare the two.) Overall, the design of the cards was pretty basic. There are six different suits (colors in this case) and each suit contains numbers 2 through 10 and a Charity card and a Desolation card. The game can be played with just these cards (it's the Basic Gameplay). We, of course, didn't play this version. We were in for the "more excitement" that was promised when we were ready to move on and add the Option Cards (again, I got that feeling of chessiness). So basically, the front of the cards contained color and number or words (2 - 9, Charity, & Desolation). The backs of the cards have a nice looking logo, which comes from Mayan culture (the box also explains this). Overall, I thought, "how simple," and "I think I may be able to come up with similar designs."

Rules
The rules are explained on 2 "double-sized" cards included in the tuck box. This is another good job of keeping things simple. The rules are clearly explained, in a short and concise manner. It gave me hope that I can do the same with the rules/instructions for my own games. As I looked back over the rules, I noticed that some things are not explained; it's as if they are taken for granted; me, as the reader, should already know what I need to do. I guess that sometimes it's better to not try to explain everything in such great detail. As long as people are somewhat familiar with games in general, then they should be able to understand and play the game without having to read over too much detail. In other words, just include enough for people to play and don't worry about making sure each and every detail is covered in the rules. I guess I've got to find a balance (isn't it that way in everything we do in life?).

The whole object of the game is to build a hand of cards that contains the least amount of points. This is done by drawing and discarding. Here again I was comparing it to and thinking about Uno. In Uno you have to match either number or color, but in this game you can discard whatever card. It doesn't have to match what's already in the discard pile. The Charity card removes the point value of any other cards in your hand of that same color. Therefore, you can actually build a hand consisting of zero points. The Option cards add variation and fun. You definitely want to play with them in.

Conclusion
I give the game a 4 out of 5

I think the game is fun. The rules are simple. As with what others have said (here's a review of the game from boardgamegeek), I think it would be much more fun with 4 or more people. It was fun with my wife, but it didn't last long and we were ready to move on. (Little side-note: the Secret Combination card should probably be removed when playing with only 2 players.) I would bring this out with a larger crowd and would definitely enjoy myself. So, I would recommend it to others, larger groups, as a fun, party-type game.

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