After a long break, I'm finally back. This time, I will be posting my painting progress on Super Dungeon Explore: The Forgotten King minis. First up, the Royal Warden. He's is about 90% complete, but he's too cute to wait until I'm completely finished painting him to share his progress.

He still needs proper shading and highlighting,and white gloves...but he came out so much better than I thought he would--I haven't painted in at least a year. And my secret is out...I use good ol' craft paint. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE CRAFT PAINT for minis. There's so much of it, and it's cheap. Just be sure to water it WAY down so  your minis don't look smothered in goopy paint, and everything's good. :) Happy Painting!

Anticipating The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game

After much deliberation between these 4 games:

The Lord of the Rings (the card game)
Nightfall
Race for the Galaxy
Mage Knight

I've decided that tomorrow I am buying The Lord of the Rings Card Game from Amazon.

I am looking for a game that plays well solo, without changing the multi-player mechanics too much. For example, Thunderstone played solo pits the player against the monsters in the dungeon (that form a pile of victory points once they move passed rank 1 of the dungeon), whereas multiplayer mode compares victory points of each player (by successfully defeating monsters or upgrading heroes who gain victory points).

From the reviews I have read, The Lord of the Rings card game plays almost identical solo as it does in multi-player mode. My fiance likes to play the occasional board game, while I have the desire to play a board game several times daily. Haha. Therefore, the need to find great solo games has finally come. I asked her this morning which game I should get, she replied, "Get which one you want because I don't like those games anyway." So there you have it...it all comes down to what I will enjoy playing solo. I am STILL trying to convince her to attempt playing another game of Thunderstone with me. No luck there.

One of my favorite games is Arkham Horror. I love playing Arkham Horror solo, but it is more fun with other people...so I don't play it as often as I would like to. I'm already itching for an expansion to get my hands on some new investigators. There are a handful of investigators I feel I will never try to play from the base set. (I played Sister Mary once and went unconscious several times...her stamina of 3 is not the best, so she is definitely on my "play only sparingly" list).

Once I get The LOTR game, I will take some unboxing pictures and post my thoughts of the game. Maybe I can convince my fiance to play one game with me to effectively compare the game's mechanics with 1 and 2 players. Until then, good gaming to you all.

P.s. Mage Knight is next on my list...it would be first if the price wasn't so steep. OUCH! I need to save up for that kind of purchase. If any of you have played it, I'd appreciate some input on solo play. Thanks!

Dominion Cards

    
 

These are just some of the cards from the Dominion base game. Dominion cards are so elegant. Each picture gives you a sense of what action the card represents. I love the artwork on the "Village" card...and +1 card and +2 actions doesn't hurt either. 

One card that confuses me is the curse card. It isn't depicted above, but it is worth -1 victory points. As far as I can tell, it is included in the setup of every game, but they only way to use them is with the "Witch" card. I almost NEVER include the witch card in my Kingdom card choices. 

Thunderstone: Dragonspire Review

Thunderstone: Dragonspire box

I bought Thunderstone: Dragonspire (TD) after playing Dominion and loving it. It seems you can't Google Dominion without also finding comparisons between it and Thunderstone. Some say that Thunderstone is a Dominion clone in different clothing, but I think Thunderstone offers a gameplay that feels like you are actually building up warriors and gathering supplies to take into the dungeon to defeat hordes of monsters. Everyone knows I love Dominion-so many choices right out of the box.

Before I go off on a tangent about how great Dominion is, I'll just save what I have to say for my Dominion review blog. 

So, back to Dragonspire:

I've played this game more times solo than with another player. Solo play is different for that fact that the monsters in the dungeon keep moving up through the ranks, eventually stepping out of the dungeon and forming a pile whose victory points will be counted up at the end of the game and compared to my victory points. Solo play feels very "rushed" because a turn in the dungeon, as well as the village and rest, ends with the monsters moving up the ranks. I felt as if I had to always buy strong heroes to take out the monsters before they could advance out of rank 1 and into the "monster pile." Whereas, when playing with another player, the monsters in the dungeon do not advance if you visit the village to recruit heroes and buy more supplies. For me, I like playing with another player a bit more, which is why I resort to the original Thunderstone on Facebook. If you haven't tried Thunderstone online, I think you're missing out on something great. 

Things I loved: (Starting with all the hero cards included in the game)

  

The art on the hero cards has a dramatic-feel. They look like actual heroes--brave, fierce, and powerful. I love the experience point tokens shaped like miniature thunderstones. This is the first Thunderstone I've played and owned, so I've only read about the switch from experience point cards to tokens, but I will say that it is very easy to keep track of experience points with these tokens. I love that there is an option to "rest" to rid your hand of disease cards (or any other cards you'd like to trash). In Dominion, you can only trash a card if you have an action telling you that you can (but both cards must be in your hand at one time to trash the unwanted card...which is a drawback, in my opinion).

Things that irked me:

The artwork on the militia, iron rations, dagger, and torch cards are different from the original Thunderstone. I actually prefer the original artwork to the new artwork. The Dragonspire artwork feels a little too "dark" and simplified versus the original art which just jumped right off the card with brilliant colors and edgy design. I'm a sucker for great artwork on cards, so I was a little less impressed by the change. I also didn't like the "suggested" cards for first-time players.  I'll have to fish out the manual to reference which cards they were, but I found myself choosing a whole new set of cards for the next game.

Things I hated:

I wish there were more heroes and weapons available, and even more monsters. The giants, the dark enchanted monsters, and the hydra-dragons are HARD TO BEAT...especially when they are all played at the same time. I'll show you why:





I didn't appreciate this during my 2nd solo mode attempt. Not only were my heroes simple militias, but a turn in the village ended with a monster worth 6 or more victory points to jump into the monster pile...this happened time and again. Out of frustration, I abandoned that game...reset it to my original hand of 6 militias, 2 torches, 2 iron rations, and 2 daggers...and chose 3 different monster categories and reshuffled. If any of you have suggestions for expansions that have the best hero, weapon, and monster choices, I would appreciate a big push in that direction. I also hate the randomness of the monster difficulty when starting a solo game (i.e. rank 1 has a monster that requires 5 or more heroes present with 7 hit points)...Yeahhhh, there is NO way I will beat him on my first turn--"Oh, just jump into the monster pile already." See what I mean?

At the end of the day, I would have still bought Thunderstone, although, it may have been the base game instead of Dragonspire. I'm hearing a lot of people say that Thunderstone: Dragonspire is great because of the board that comes with it and the dividers for storing the cards. These are both very nice upgrades, but I would have preferred to buy a game with better variety.

If I had to do it all again, I would have purchased the original Thunderstone...and THEN bought Dragonspire. I am itching to get all the expansions, too. For me, Thunderstone as an overall game is wonderful.

Arkham Abandoned

Halfway through my Arkham game, I found myself losing track of turn order and forgetting to move investigators. The silence when you play solo is almost deafening and it makes it harder to focus, at least for me. So at that point, I decided I just wasn't in the mood for solo play. I think the best part of playing Arkham Horror is player interaction. Having another person there makes all the difference in the world as far as enjoyment goes. You get to share in each other's successes, share in the horror of a monster surge, and feel like you accomplished something together. When I don't play games solo, I play with my fiance or with her family. Our favorite game is Dominion (base game).

Arkham Horror: Solo Mode

This marks my first Arkham Horror play through. I will control 3 investigators. The fate of the city is in my noobie hands. Wish me luck.

The story so far...

3 Investigators must race against time to keep the Ancient one, Yig, from awakening and devouring the entire town of Arkham along with its inhabitants. They are:

Mandy Thompson (The Researcher)

Darrell Simmons (The Photographer)

Kate Winthrop (The Scientist)

These three are among my top 5 investigators mainly because they make the gameplay a bit easier by giving you extra chances to roll dice, keeping monsters and gates from appearing in certain locations, and being able to choose between which encounter cards to play. As I get better in skill, I will choose other investigators. For now, they are Arkham's only hope of survival.

By the way, I picked up this little case from Michael's (the craft store) for $1.99. It works PERFECTLY for all my Arkham Horror tidbits and makes setup a breeze. 

Hi, Dominion.

Behold, my very first deck-building game: Dominion

I literally hadn't heard of a deck-building game. I'd heard of Magic the Gathering and Pokemon (sorry to put those two in the same category, let alone sentence), but never of Dominion.

I came across Dominion online while browsing for a different game. Instead of buying "The Settlers of Catan" like I intended, I picked up a copy of Dominion instead. Here's what happened next.

1) I anxiously paced while waiting for my game to be delivered. 2) The doorbell rang and I scrambled to pick up the package and unveil its contents 3) I fixed my gaze on the stunning game that is Dominion (insert gaping mouth here, as well, if I'm being completely honest...and much more excitement that necessary)

Inside the box:

500 Dominion cards. Yes, 500, and all with beautiful art on them. It also came with a plastic insert to sort the cards for storage. I'm forgetting to mention that it also comes with 2 manuals. I'm not really sure why they weren't combined into one big manual, that may have made it less confusing for me to sort through the rules and get started on playing the game sooner.

*Sidenote: I know how to play Dominion and have played many times since the first time, so looking back on the manuals, I can say they are very clear and concise.*

The game is broken down into 5 card categories:
1) Treasure cards (copper, silver, gold)
2) Victory cards (estate, duchy, province)
3) Action cards (village, council room, smithy, mine, etc.)
4) Reaction cards (moat)
5) Curse cards (curse = -1 victory point)

You start out the game by giving every player 7 copper cards and 3 estate cards. The cards are then shuffled and it's time to start the game. The first player will draw 5 cards. (example: 4 coppers, 1 estate) Since no action cards are present to be played, first player can only buy a card.
First player buys a card worth up to 4 points and it goes in the discard pile along with all the cards in-hand and the ones that were played that turn. Make sense? Then player two does the same, but depending on how many coppers they have in hand, they can buy a card costing more or less. I'll post a blog with more in-depth gameplay very soon.

The whole point is to have the most victory points at the end of the game. The game ends when either all of the province victory cards are bought, or when 3 different card piles in the supply are empty. To win, you must construct a deck (your Dominion) that will enable you to buy the most victory cards. Whether you decide to just keep buying treasure cards to afford the most expensive victory cards, or buy actions that will enable you to hinder your opponents or unleash huge combos, you can never be sure of victory. I have played several games where my opponents thought I was the clear winner before the game was even over, just to find that another player was in the lead by more than 10 victory points.

This game is all about choices and living with them. If you decide halfway through the game that you played the wrong strategy, it may be too late to acquire the cards you need before the game ends to make a difference. It takes a few play-throughs to get the gist of the game, but it's worth it. So worth it, in fact, that I had to buy 4 game expansions the next day. I bought Seaside, Prosperity, Intrigue (which is a standalone game, as well as an expansion), and Hinterlands. I'll post my thoughts and reviews on those games, too. 

Because it never plays the same way twice, Dominion is in the running for my favorite game; look out Arkham Horror, you've got some serious competition.