Letters of Innovation from Expeditions in the Lost Realm
So, again with the lack of writing. But in an attempt to correct that and to catch up on the last two weeks of game nights, I'm just gonna combine them both together and give one big (like 3700+ words) report talking at least a little bit about everything that I and the rest of the Hypermind Boardgamers have been up to...
Lost Worlds [BGG]
In trying to decide on a Game of the Month! for August, there wasn't really a clear and obvious "new" game that we wanted to nominate. Troyes was probably the closest thing we had, but one of its main proponents was going to be out of town for a couple of weeks this month, so we hated to have him miss out on it. And then, sort of out of the blue, someone mentioned the 80's-era, book-based combat game system, Lost Worlds.
Now, I don't know how many of you are familiar with this game concept, but essentially, each player chooses a character that has a book and a card of various moves. You actually give the book to your opponent (so that they will "see" what you're doing) and keep the card of moves to refer to as you choose your action on each round.
The game is really simple and quick, but it's also a little confusing to actually write about how to play, so let me try to be as clear as I can:
1) You and your opponent both look at your card and choose the move you want to do
2) You then turn to the page number indicated next to the move, where you'll find a big list of linked pages
3) Both of you tell each other what page you've chosen
4) You find your opponent's page number on your page, which then directs you to go to another page
5) This page tells you the result of your how your two moves interact, including a picture of your opponent and any possible damage that you do
6) You tell your opponent if you dealt any damage to them, and read out any restrictions on which moves they can choose on the next turn (which are clearly written below the picture)
Here you can see that I'm holding the book for Kenny's character (the Lizard Man) and that my character sheet/card is tucked inside it showing me the moves I can do. I have managed to get behind Kenny, as indicated on page 21 of the book I'm holding and page 23 of the book Kenny is holding.
Each character has a certain number of hit points, and you play until one (or potentially both) of you is dead. Each turn takes only a few seconds, and individual games only last 5 minutes or so. It's fast and exciting, and there's a surprising amount of variability in both the moves available to characters and how other moves will affect them (which is why my Giant Goblin that wears a gladiator-style skirt thingy for some reason keeps having his legs cleaved apart).
There are actually a few other related games that use the same or a similar system, including a Battletech one with mech combat, the Aces of Aces series (paired books for WWI dogfighting), a wild west shootout game, a cooperative Dragonriders of Pern game, and a Luke vs. Vader Star Wars lightsaber combat game. A lot of us in the Hypermind Boardgamers apparently played these a lot when we were younger, and both Chris and Kenny have some pretty extensive collections (as does my brother Tony).
Time: 18, 22, 17, and 16 minutes (for best 2 of 3 matches)
Match 1: Chris (Wraith) 2 wins, Norton (Giant Goblin) 0 wins
Match 2: Chris (Man with Short Sword & Dagger) 2 wins, Norton (Barbarian) 1 win
Match 3: Norton (Giant Goblin) 2 wins & 1 tie, Kenny (Lizard Man) 0 wins & 1 tie
Match 4: Keith (Man with Sword & Shield) Win, Norton (Giant Goblin) Lose
Ratings: Chris 8.5, Keith 8, Kenny 10, Norton 8
Lost Worlds is just so cool. The system holds up really well even after almost 30 years, and we're definitely having a lot of fun with it so far. Most of the games we've played so far have been with the actual Lost Worlds books, but I hope to get in some play with the other related games over the next couple of weeks as well.
Innovation [BGG]
I'm a little late coming to the party with Innovation, but I've never had the chance to see it in person and didn't feel strong enough about it to actively seek it out or buy it blindly. However, it was on my "want in trade" list, and someone recently made me an offer that let me finally get my hands on it.
Innovation doesn't seem, however, to be a game that you can really have a good idea about after your first play. The rules themselves aren't all that hard, but so much depends on the dogma actions of the cards, so that until I see most of the cards in action and better know what to expect, I won't have a great understanding of whether or not the game is really all that good.
I definitely found it interesting, though. But we also encountered a very worrisome situation, where James used Pottery (a level 1 card) to score lots and lots of points (due to his overwhelming "leaf" advantage) and then bought up achievements turn after turn until he won. And after checking the BGG forums, I'm pretty sure that we played it right, since you always draw cards from the next highest pile if the pile you're supposed to draw from is depleted. Still, though, I'm looking forward to exploring this a little more before I make up my mind completely.
Time: 42 minutes
Score: James* 5, Chris* 1, Norton* 1
Ratings: James 7, Chris 7.5, Norton 7
Star Trek: Expeditions [BGG]
When I first talked (and talked and talked) about Star Trek: Expeditions, I was still a little unsure about it. But after this second play, I'm absolutely convinced that it's really solid and a lot of fun!
First of all, we had a full complement of 4 players to run all the characters, which definitely seems more optimal for this game. I don't know that trying to recount the narrative of the game is all that compelling, but we did lots of running around the board and calculating our bonuses to complete challenges. There was definitely a lot of collaboration, but each character's ability and specific trait and skill strengths are unique and important enough that everyone was able to feel like they were playing an important role in how the game turned out. We stayed on top of things, and with the exception of the two timed events (2A in both Rebels and Ecology), we succeeded in highest level in pretty much everything.
The biggest difference between this game and my previous play, however, was how the space battle turned out. Through a few well-timed card plays (to add to our attack and shields when we most needed them) and then due to attaching some tokens to the Enterprise relatively early, we actually got in some nice hits against the Klingon war ship. And then once its shields started to drop a little, we got super aggressive in actually taking the fight to them, and even brought our special phaser ability to play a few times to push them back. In the end, we finished on the +4 spot and practically had the Klingons on the run, which definitely helped our score.
When we totalled up the points, we actually maxed out the Politics track and also finished in the top tier of the other two tracks as well. We played on the medium difficulty, so I guess I'll have to step it up in my next play and try out the really freaking hard level.
Time: 90 minutes
Score: Enterprise Crew (Alton* as Lt. Uhura, Brad* as Bones, Stacy as Mr. Spock, and Norton as Captain Kirk) - Win with 54 points (P20+, R16, E18), Nibian Crisis - Lose
Ratings: Alton 7.5, Brad 8, Stacy 8, Norton 8
Star Trek: Expeditions still seems to have some issues with fiddlyness and is certainly less than elegant, but more than anything, I can forgive these failings because it does such a great job of bringing the theme to life. While it's technically based on the recent movie, it feels more like something straight out of the original series, and if you're a fan, it's a lot of fun.
I've actually read some comments from a few people who talked about how weak the theme was, but my reaction to that kind of complaint is only to wonder what kind of crack those people were smoking. I'll give them that the constant need to add up all different stats and modifiers can get a little mathy and tiresome (and maybe break you out of the theme from time to time), but the nature of the missions and all the flavor tied up with them really shines for me. Apparently, the demos people got at Origins (which is where I think a lot of the negative comments came from) didn't do a good job of showing off the game, and I encourage people that played it in that setting to give it another chance some time.
Defenders of the Realm [BGG]
This week, I had the chance to give some attention to a second coop game that had left me a little unsure from previous play. I picked up Defenders of the Realm quite a while ago based mostly on its reputation and also somewhat because of its comparisons to Pandemic. But the first time I played it, I was very underwhelmed and disappointed, and I've have been trying to get it back to the table ever since to see if that experience was just a fluke.
Unfortunately, it was not.
This time around, things were going pretty well early on as we built up our hands and then took out Norgutt (the orc general) without much trouble. We then prepared ourselves and made a run at Sapphire the blue dragon, and despite having a ridiculous number of dice to roll, we only got in something like 1 or 2 hits. And for all intents and purposes, the game was over right there (not that we didn't have to suffer through another 40 minutes of game before it officially ended, of course). We rallied as best as we could and ended up taking out Varkolak (the undead general) after losing in battles with Balzarg and once again with Sapphire. Eventually... mercifully... we finally drew the right Darkness Spreads card and Sapphire advanced into Monarch City, subjugating all of the kingdom to her dragonkin minions.
D&D minis replacements, featuring a Balrog as Balzarg the demon general and a large blue dragon as Sapphire, the dragon general
Time: 94 minutes
Score: Sapphire the Blue Dragon - Win; Heroes of the Realm (Brad as the Rogue, Norton as the Wizard & James as the part-time Paladin) - Lose
Ratings: Brad 7, Norton 5.5, James ? (left early)
So, despite being a huge fan of cooperative games and more than friendly to the high fantasy theme, why the heck don't I like Defenders of the Realm? Oh, let me count the ways:
1) It's just ugly. The artwork on the board is muddy, the font is terrible, and it's really hard to find which region/city you're looking for. The classic Larry Elmore art on the box is great (and very nostalgic for me), but it's also recycled and feels a little dated. I appreciate the plastic minis and the heroes look nice, but the generals look pretty terrible (which is why I replaced mine with some great-looking, prepainted D&D minis that I had at home).
2) While it borrows considerably from Pandemic, it then ruins everything with the randomness of the dice rolls. A lot of people think that this is actually an improvement over Pandemic because of the extra "excitement" they bring, but the game ends up feeling so random that, to me, decisions become almost meaningless because even the best choice can be ruined by the whim of the dice. Plus, in borrowing mechanics, they missed the truly brilliant one (the reshuffling of the infection discard pile and placing it back on top of the draw pile, which creates the "hot spots" that keep flaring back up)!
3) I'll give you that the game is challenging and all, which is usually good for a coop. The problem for me is that in both games I've played, something happened in the midgame that made it pretty much impossible for us to win. But then the game went on and on, never really offering us a chance to get back in contention, but also not putting us out of our misery any time soon. While Pandemic and (especially) Ghost Stories are incredibly hard, I always feel like I have a chance of winning right up to the point where the game goes all medieval on my heiney and I lose in a glorious meltdown. It's just no fun to be a "dead man walking".
4) The game is just too darn long. For an experience that is similar (inferior even) to Pandemic, it lasts twice (or more) as long. It's just not a good investment of my gaming time.
I'm sure that many people would disagree with many of these thoughts, but for me, I think my mind is pretty made up. So... is anybody out there looking for a copy of Defenders of the Realm (with the Barbarian promo) in trade???
Letters from Whitechapel [BGG]
And then on the complete other end of the spectrum, this week also gave me one of the greatest gaming experiences I've had in a while with my second play of Letters from Whitechapel. Gwen and I tried it out 2-player a month or so ago, and while I had fun, she didn't really get into it, so the whole experience was just okay. But against Alton, Keith, and Kenny this week, I felt at times like I was going to have freaking palpitations from all the tension of the chase, and I had to literally get up and walk away from the table a few times because I was afraid I would give away something to them by my facial expression or other reactions!
If you're not really familiar with the game, Letters from Whitechapel is a game of one vs. many, with the Jack the Ripper player moving secretly around the map trying to get back home after committing murders on four different nights, while the investigators search for him, gather clues, and maybe make an arrest before they run out of time. (And by the way, you can check out this map to follow along with the locations I mention in the rest of this report).
In our game, things got interesting right from the start when Kenny found my trail almost immediately and discovered a half-dozen or more clues as he tracked me around the map. Fortunately, I was able to make a couple of misleading moves that led them to believe my hideout was somewhere in the lower-center area of the map (around the #125 spot), and then made good use of my carriage tokens to speed over to my real hideout, which was up and to the left of where they thought it was (in #64).
For the second murder, I chose a site on the opposite side of the map. Since I knew where they thought my hideout was, I tried to set up a good path that once again looked like it led to that area. I thought I was home free when I again used a carriage ride to get me next to my hideout, but then almost out of the blue, Keith moved right next to my actual freaking location and looked for a clue in my freaking spot (which was #62)! He found one, of course, and while I jumped into my hidey hole on the next move, I was really afraid that they would put it together and realize that they were looking in the wrong place. Fortunately for me, though, not having any more time to search around that night led them to assume that the clue was from earlier in my path, and they continued to believe that they had it right.
Keith stumbling onto my actual location (#62) at the end of the second night
And then on the third night, which is the night of the "double event" when two women were killed, I almost ruined the game. I chose a location for the second murder that was incredibly close to my hideout, and used a carriage to get there in one turn. The more I thought about it, though, it seemed like something was just too easy and overall wrong about that, and when I searched the rulebook a little closer, I found that you can not use a special move to take your directly into your home. I wasn't exactly sure what to do, but in an attempt to salvage the game, I basically gave away my actual location by volunteering a clue on the one other spot I traveled through that night (#48), which was obviously just one move away from my home (#64).
So on the last night, I decided to start way across the board once again (at spot #21) so I could have a little more room to maneuver and figure out what to do. From there, I started again moving west and down through spots 40 and 73. Investigators were already closing in, so I used my one alley token to move through the big block area there and came out at location 70. It was then Kenny's turn to have another preternatural moment of intuition, moving to a spot, once again, right next to me and asking for a clue in my exact location (#87). I was freaking out, and had to get bold one way or another, so I went ahead and blew my last special movement token to double back, actually moving through him via carriage to spots 70 and then 69. He and the rest of the investigators sort of took my bait, thinking that I had probably run away from him rather than through him, which gave me some room to move sort of on a parallel path down to #127 and #125 on the big cross street. I then moved left again to #98 and the investigators began to realize that I had slipped past them.
So as I approached my home, Alton and Keith were patrolling around that area trying to head me off and get in my way (since Jack can't move through investigators without using a special movement token, which I had already exhausted). As I was standing on spot #98, Keith moved up to the square at the corner between #82 and #63, which blocked one of my paths home (to #64). And in the discussion that he had with the other players, he mentioned moving out and arresting #62 on his next move, which was where I had planned on going to next. I considered doubling back again and trying a different path, but instead decided once again to go bold, and instead moved myself to #82, right freaking in front of Keith's investigator pawn! As I hoped, however, Keith had no clue that I was quite that close, and certainly had no idea that I would walk right up to him, so on his next move he walked right over me and got out of my way. I imagined Jack walking right past the invesitgator on the street, tipping his hat at the officer and smiling as he turned the corner to his hideout.
There was one last moment of drama on the next turn, though, when Alton moved right next to me as I sat on spot #63, but once again, he didn't really understand that I was quite that close. That is, at least, until he just sort of blindly searched for clues and found one in my spot, but it was too late as I slipped into my home on my next move and won the game!
Here's my move-tracking sheet, if you're interested in following my complete path for each night
Time: 117 minutes
Score: Norton (Jack the Ripper) - Win, Investigators (Alton*, Keith* & Kenny*) - Lose
Ratings: Norton 9, Alton 8, Keith 8.5, Kenny 9
Fury of Dracula is in my top 10 games, and while I thought I'd probably like Letters from Whitechapel, I also thought that it would be missing the cinematic feel of Fury, and that it would probably be a lot less thematic and exciting because it seemed so much drier and simplistic. What actually happened, however, is that by the end of the game, we had 3 spectators watching our last two nights, I was having palpitations, and the investigators were all hunched over the map stressing over how Jack always seemed one step ahead of them!
Keith, Kenny, and Alton stress and debate over where I am!
And while I can't necessarily say that every play of Letters from Whitechapel will be quite this exciting, there's no doubt in my mind that this particular session was one of my top 10 or so boardgame experiences ever! And afterwards, both Kenny and Josh (one of the spectators) plan on picking it up for their collections as well. I don't want to jump to any conclusions yet about whether this might supplant Fury of Dracula's place in my boardgame pantheon, but I feel pretty confident saying that it's actually more solid and balanced mechanically, and given that it's 2/3 to 1/2 as long as Fury, Letters is certainly going to give it a run for its money!
Sumo Ham Slam [BGG]
And then to wrap up on something much lighter, we also got in a game of Sumo Ham Slam at last week's game night. I'll actually talk about it whenever I get around to writing a full review, but here's the stats and a picture:
Time: 16 minutes
Score: Alton* 5, Norton* 4, Chris* 3
Ratings: Alton 5, Norton 6, Chris 5.5
Other Games Played
Posted by Chris Norwood at 8/12/2011 12:05 PM 
Categories: Game of the month, Gaming Weblog, Hypermind BoardGamers
Tags: Defenders of the Realm Star Trek Expeditions Fillers Innovation Lost Worlds Letters from Whitechapel
Categories: Game of the month, Gaming Weblog, Hypermind BoardGamers
Tags: Defenders of the Realm Star Trek Expeditions Fillers Innovation Lost Worlds Letters from Whitechapel
In Lost Worlds match-ups not reported here, I beat Keith's Skeleton (2-0, IIRC) and Kenny's Lizardman (2-1) with the Wraith, putting me at an unlikely 3-0 with the sickle-wielding spectre thus far. Having literally half of the starting body points as the Lizardman was a challenge, but some key demeterialization (and the fact that he really couldn't his Tail Whip) edged out a close one.
I can't keep avoiding my two biggest problems forever (opposing undead is a lesser, third problem), so I'm gonna enjoy the ride while I can!
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Great article, with some even greater games! I remember seeing Lost Worlds forever ago, but never got a chance to play. It seems like a fascinating system. I wonder if anyone has considered updating and republishing that... hrm...
I still can't believe you don't like Defenders, but I can understand your reasons. Interestingly enough, many of those reasons are why I really love the game. Cherilyn has also taken to it, as well, despite the pure Pandemic still being her favorite game.
I so want to play Letters from Whitechapel. I almost bought it a few months back, and wish that I had. I love those kinds of games, and remember playing and loving Scotland Yard countless times way back when.
I don't know what Sumo Ham Slam is, but I know I want it.
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Another great report.
I want to play Whitechapel. The one play of Innovation I played was fun so I'm up for some more. And of course Star Trek and LOTR:LCG.
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