Resident Evil 2: The Board Game. Preliminary Review & Solo Campaign 1A: Getting to the Police Department

As mentioned in the previous article, Games & Tea will largely be focusing on board games with a single player option for the time being, starting with Steamforged Games' Resident Evil 2: The Board Game.

Just like the original videogame, Resident Evil 2 drops the players into Raccoon City; the epicentre of a zombie outbreak.  And, just like the videogame, Resident Evil 2 is a game of survival horror.  Unlike some other zombie board games such as Zombicide, which reward players for going on a zombie-killing rampage, Resident Evil 2 will mercilessly punish reckless players, and leave you asking yourself "Can I really spare the bullet to take down the next zombie, or should I take my chance and just run past?"  The one and only goal in this game is to make it out of the city in one piece, and before the outbreak becomes inescapable.

Nice little nod to the videogame as soon as you open the box.

Rather than the simple box contents and gameplay format our reviews would typically take, this time we're recording a campaign run.  With the board consisting of modular tiles, the Campaign Book included with Resident Evil 2 allows you to choose between a number of different scenarios of increasing difficulty, each of which can be played as a standalone game session.  However, for those feeling a little adventurous and wanting something they can really get their undead teeth into, there is the option (and additional rules) to play them sequentially as a campaign.  For this purpose, the back of the Campaign Book does include a blank campaign sheet, which it's recommended to photocopy a handful when the opportunity presents itself.

If the photocopier at work is monitored with a login, try and con Kevin from accounting into copying some of these for you.  Everyone hates that guy anyway.

At the start of each scenario, the board needs to be put together using the modular tiles and following the map printed on that scenario's page in the Campaign Book.  As well as the board layout, this will also include the starting positions for the players, for all starting enemies, and any items, doors or terrain features.  Our campaign series will be using some of the Kickstarter exclusive upgrades to replace the terrain tokens with plastic models, however the rules and gameplay are the same as the retail version.  If the opportunity comes up to get your hands on the 3D upgrades however, it's highly recommended to take them.  As well as simply adding to the immersion of the game, the printing on the cardboard tokens is very dark at times, and can be a struggle to make out.

Once the board is assembled and ready to go, you should have something like this!  Next, you'll need you character card, a player board and health tracker token, and your starting equipment...

This campaign will actually be primarily following Leon, which is why I wanted to show some Claire love here!

Finally, the decks need to be prepared and then you're ready to go.  First of all, there's the Tension Deck...

At the end of each player's turn, a card from the Tension Deck will be drawn and resolved, with green cards having no effect, yellows presenting mild danger, and red being a high threat.  The makeup of the Tension Deck is outlined on the scenario page in the Campaign Book, but the deck should usually consist mainly of green cards.

Then there are the Item Decks.  Again, these are outlined on the scenario page, and are broken down into Item Deck A and Item Deck B, each of which can only be accessed by getting to a square with a corresponding token.  Deck B tends to feature the more powerful - or scenario-critical items - but the tokens tend to be in more hazardous to reach areas.

And without further ado, it's time to get this campaign started!

"The characters have arrived in Raccoon City, only to find it overrun!  With the streets no longer safe, they must make their way to the Raccoon City Police Department, which should be much more secure..."

During each player's turn, they are allowed to make up to 4 actions, choosing from move, open/close door, search, trade, use item, and attack, with no limits to the number of times they can utilise one type of action.  So players can either use a turn to sprint full-on towards the door, or could stand their ground and attempt to thin out an approaching hoard of zombies!

Seeing as Leon has started the scenario 2 spaces away from a zombie - and also for the purpose of explaining game mechanics - he's going to use his first action to attack.

Each weapon has different stats which are covered on the corresponding card.  Left to right, the first stat is the range - "LOS" indicating that if the enemy is in Leon's line of sight, he can shoot it.  Next is the number of attack dice to roll - the blue "1" indicating that one single blue die must be rolled.  The dice have impact and double-impact symbols on them, and the next two boxes show the results of those rolls.  The arrow under the single impact means the enemy would be pushed back one square, whereas the "1" under the double-impact means that one point of damage would be done to the enemy; enough to kill a basic zombie, but just a scratch to larger enemies.

The bottom of the card shows any special features of the weapon.  In this case the three bullet symbol indicates that the pistol is a rapid fire weapon, meaning that up to three bullets (and thus up to the three dice) can be used in a single action.

As I don't want to be too frivolous with my limited ammunition, I'm going to fire 2 shots at the zombie...

One single impact - the zombie has been pushed back, but is still on its feet...

...and now I've expended 2 rounds of handgun ammo, taking the count down from 15 rounds to 13.

After a second, single-shot attack which knocked the zombie back again, I moved Leon forward 2 spaces to complete his 4 actions, and ended the turn.  Now it's the zombies' turn!

After each player completes their actions, the zombies have a Reaction Phase.  During this phase, all enemies within range of a player will make an attack, and any which aren't within range will move towards the nearest player, as long as they're on the same tile or a connected tile.  This is where the importance of doors comes into effect.  If a door is closed, the two tiles are no longer connected, and enemies will stay where they are.  This can lead to some serious tactical decision making, over whether to spend a precious action taking the time to close the door behind you, or whether to leave it open and hope that you don't get (literally) bitten on the behind over the decision later on!

After the enemies have all made their actions, the final phase of the turn is to flip over and resolve a card from the top of the Tension Deck.  Fortunately as this is the tutorial scenario, 16 of the 18 cards in the deck are green (no effect), so at least I should be fi-

...

...

Never mind.

Well it could have been worse.  The red cards have the most serious effect.  This one simply means that if I'm on the same board tile at the end of the next turn, I'll draw 3 cards from the Tension Deck instead of just one, thus increasing my chance of hitting the dreaded red card.  Time to get out of here!

With ammo being scared, and 3 rounds already depleted, I decided to try and run past the zombie to get to the door!  But as anyone who's played the Resident Evil videogames will know, zombies are grabby creatures, and will not just idly stand by as you waltz past.  For those of you questioning the curved arrows on the attack dice from the previous shot, this is where they come into play.

Each player's character card includes the number of dice they must roll to evade.  If you attempt an action other than an attack while in a square with an enemy, you must pass an evade roll.  In this case, my action was to run past the zombie, so I needed to roll at least one arrow to get past.  Finally I struck lucky with my rolling and darted past the zombie with ease!  If I'd failed the roll however, the zombie would have had a free bite at Leon and I would have lost the action.

Dodging the zombie on my first attempt was a stroke of luck, as I had just enough actions to open the door and make it through before the end of the turn, negating the risk of the Echoes in the Darkness card.  I've had to leave the door wide open for now, but I can close it next turn to give myself some breathing space.

A couple of turns later and things are looking more promising!  No red tension card yet, and I've now obtained an ammo refill for the handgun!

After 11 increasingly tense turns (it turned out the dreaded red card was second from bottom of the Tension Deck!), Leon has made it through the streets of Raccoon City and through the front doors of the RCPD!  Along the way he managed to pick up the shotgun from Item Deck B - a much more powerful weapon which will hopefully come in handy in later scenarios.  It didn't come without cost, however, as an unlucky dice roll left Leon with an unfortunate zombie bite and one less health point.

As per the campaign rules, I was able to fully refill my handgun and add 3 extra rounds to the shotgun, but then had to discard the additional handgun ammo I'd picked up along the way.  Had I found a healing item I'd have been able to use that between scenarios, but as it stands I'll be heading into scenario 2A with a minor wound to take care of.

So tune in for the next scenario and see how Leon gets on within the walls of the RCPD!  As mentioned, this was the tutorial scenario, which made for quite plain sailing whilst also allowing a demonstration of the basic game mechanics.  There are additional mechanics which come into play in later scenarios, so we'll cover those as and when we reach them!

For now, I hope you enjoyed Leon's little stroll around the zombie infested streets of Raccoon City, and come back for the next scenario of Resident Evil 2: The S.T.A.R.S. Office.

On a parting note, one of Resident Evil 2's weak points is the box.  While the insert is great for keeping the miniatures and cards secure and in good order even if stored on its side, it doesn't really leave much room for the plethora of tokens included in the game (made even more of an issue if you get your hands on the 3D upgrades!).  As such, it's worth picking up a small hobby box - this one in particular was £3.99 from B&M, so shouldn't break the bank at all.  This way you can keep them all nicely organised and easy to get your hands on whatever the scenario requires.

So, breaking down the game and giving it an initial score based upon the first few scenarios (score to be updated when the campaign is complete):

The Good Points

• Resident Evil 2: The Board Game definitely captures the aesthetic of the source material, with survival favoured over the action more frequently seen in this genre.
• Solo mode is an option (huzzah!).
• Campaign mode will appeal to hardcore gamers, while more casual gamers can enjoy the scenarios on an individual basis.
• The mechanics are fairly straightforward, with the tutorial scenario easing players in nicely.
• The components are generally of a high quality, as expected from Steamforged.
• Mercifully short set up time, as long as the tokens have been pre-sorted.

The Bad Points

• Some of the tokens are printed very darkly.  The double-sided doors are a prime example, with it being difficult to tell at a glance whether the door is open or closed.
• The game may have limited appeal to those who aren't established fans, and therefore have no prior attachment to the characters and settings.
• The price is a little steep for the core game.
• A better box design to incorporate some token space would have been nice.

Recommended Number of Players: 2(?)

While this campaign will be putting the solo mode through its paces, many of the scenarios demand a minimum of 2 characters.  While up to four can be used (Leon, Claire, Ada Wong and Robert Kendo), the game does appear to be set up to favour 2 players.

Average Game Time: 90-120 minutes

The game length will vary depending upon the chosen scenario.  While it took me a while to get through the tutorial due to stopping for photos and typing, it probably should have only taken 15 minutes or so to get through.  The more complex scenarios later in the campaign, however, promise quite extensive play experiences, and the estimated time given by Steamforged themselves is 90-120 minutes.

Replayability: Medium

With a selection of different characters and scenarios, plus the random element provided by the tension deck, Resident Evil 2 should have a decent degree of replayability.  That said, there are only 8 scenarios in the core box including the tutorial, so a dedicated gaming group could probably exhaust them quite quickly.  The B-Files expansion offers more scenarios and the Survival Horror Expansion adds additional characters to give it a little more shelf life, but the core box alone runs the risk of fizzling out amongst a single group.

The Future: Bright

Resident Evil 2 launched with the aforementioned expansions already available, along with The Malformations of G (and The Malformations of G: B-Files), giving additional bosses to butt heads with.  All of this gives players the option of further fleshing out the core game once it starts to get a little stale.  In addition to this, there is also the possibility that Steamforged may push on in the wake of Resident Evil 2's popularity, and bring out titles connected to the other games in the series.  After all, who doesn't want to wander the creepy halls of the original mansion, or flee from the Nemesis through the zombie-ridden streets of Raccoon City?

Price: £65

Resident Evil 2 does carry quite a hefty price tag, and will set you back somewhere around the £65 mark.  While you may look at the above images and think you're getting a long of bang for your buck, it's worth remembering that these included all of the Kickstarter upgrades.  The core set includes 4 characters, 12 zombies, 4 dogs, 2 lickers and 2 William Birkin boss models, which doesn't feel like much for the asking price.

INITIAL SCORE: 7.5/10 (8.5/10 with Kickstarter upgrades)

Tea consumed during this review: Teapigs Darjeeling Earl Grey with a dash of milk and 2 sweeteners.  Brew rating 10/10.

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Joking Hazard: An Offensive Card Game From Cyanide & Happiness

WARNING!

This review features subjects which may cause offence.  If you are easily offended by ANYTHING then for the love of God stop reading now!!!

Almost 3 years ago to this very day we posted our review for Cards Against Humanity (UK Edition), and it proved to be our most popular review ever by an incredible margin.  Now, whilst CAH didn't follow an original format (Apples to Apples being its main inspiration), it did set a pretty high bar for offensive "fill in the blank" games.  Since its release there have been many CAH clones trying to capitalise on the success, but finally it appears to have a true spiritual successor: Joking Hazard, from Cyanide & Happiness.

Cyanide & Happiness, for those who may not be aware, is an online comic strip series.  It features (usually two) stick-men, and over the course of three or four frames they play out an event which can sometimes be quite meaningful and moving, but most often dark and twisted.  For an idea of their format, you can check them out here (but please come back to us afterwards!).

Joking Hazard follows a similar format to Cards Against Humanity, but instead of creating a joke with black and white cards, 3-10 players compete to create the funniest (and usually most offensive) Cyanide & Happiness comic strip.

The box contains 350 cards, each depicting a single frame of the comic.  Many are generic and innocuous, but when combined in the right way can become something altogether more horrifying!  Unlike CAH, there are no black card/white card equivalents; everything is just of one single card type.

Each player begins the game with 7 cards in their hand, and then one player - chosen through non-violent means, as dictated in the rules - becomes the judge for the first round.  That player then draws one card from the top of the deck, and places it face-up in the centre of the table/floor/building site/satanic altar (here at Games & Tea we feel you should be able to play wherever you feel comfortable).

The judge then chooses one card out of their own hand to accompany this card.  It can be placed either before or after the first card, depending on what the judge finds most fitting.

These two cards now form the "setup", and all of the remaining players now submit a card to the judge to be played as the final frame of the comic, and the judge must select their favourite to gain honour and glory (and also a point).

So in fairly standard offensive game fare, the players above have gone for options of violence, anti-Semitism, and sex.  Once the judge has picked a favourite, that player gains a point, all players draw back up to 7 cards, and the next player around the table becomes the judge, repeating the process until one player scores 3 points and is declared the winner.

If a red-bordered card is drawn off the top of the deck then it becomes the final frame of the comic, and the players must instead create the two card setup from their hands.  And that's pretty much all there is to it!

There are a couple of variants included in the rulebook, such as a set of drinking game rules, or "The Neverending Story", wherein each turn just adds a single frame to an ongoing strip, leading to the creation of truly epic stories!

Of course Joking Hazard will be primarily compared to Cards Against Humanity (at least until the Joking Hazard clones start hitting Kickstarter), and we have to admit we found it to have some advantages over its spiritual predecessor, and some disadvantages.

The big advantage is that due to the storytelling nature of each round, the cards played have to make sense.  We've witnessed several games of CAH where points were won by players just because they played the most controversial white card, despite it not fitting with the black card whatsoever.  With Joking Hazard any non-relevant cards played tend to draw few laughs, meaning that even those most controversial cards have to wait for their golden moment!

The largest downside is ironically in the same vain.  We often found ourselves with setups which didn't work for any of our cards!  Sometimes this was just down to nothing being suitable, but a lot of the time it was down to having a card with the perfect response, just being delivered by the wrong character.

The other downside is that the game creates a bit less of a social atmosphere than CAH.  Joking Hazard is very visual by its nature, and quite a lot of the cards actually feature no dialogue, just actions or facial expressions.  This means that when the cards are laid out on the table (altar... whatever), it's usually quietly with all of the players leaning over to read them, and this is where you can really feel the difference between everyone being told a joke, and everyone reading the joke for themselves.  Now, in fairness, the rules do say the judge should read out the cards, but again those dialogue-free frames don't really work with reading out-loud, and some players don't feel comfortable with effectively acting out a scene.  At face value it might not seem like much of a difference over the CAH format, but it does feel a little bit odd when you start playing.  It's certainly not enough to ruin the game or make it an unpleasant experience by any means... just a little odd!

The Good Points

• Joking Hazard is extremely easy to learn, pretty much taking just seconds.
• If you're a Cyanide & Happiness fan, this will tickle your funny bone in all the right places.
• Capacity for up to 10 players, making an excellent party game.
• Requires a little more thought than CAH or most of its clones.

The Bad Points

• As with CAH, some people will find it offensive.
• Sometimes it can be tricky to play a fitting card for the setup.
• Can create an odd non-verbal atmosphere.

Recommended Number of Players: 4+ (The more the merrier!)

Again, as with most games of this format, 3 players is the minimum requirement for the game, but 4 players is the minimum to get a decent selection of cards going for the judge to choose from.  Of course you could always import the Rando Cardrissian rule from CAH, as we did!

Average Game Time: 20-40 minutes

If you're just playing to the three point win condition in the rulebook, a game of Joking Hazard will last about half an hour.  Of course, this is one of those games where you can set your own win condition or just say "to hell with it, let's keep playing!", so games can go on for as long as you want!

Replayability: High

There are a lot of cards available in the base set, creating a truly gargantuan number of possible strips.  With a set gaming group it should last for quite a while, but with a group of rotating members it could feasibly last for years.

The Future: Bright

At the moment Joking Hazard is fresh of Kickstarter, and the only expansion is the Blast From the Past 50 card pack, all set to a historical theme.  However, the fact that there's already an expansion ready to go means that there will almost certainly be more to follow, and the idea of them being thematic is very appealing.

Price: £25

Joking Hazard is now available to buy on Amazon for £25.  Whether it will remain an Amazon exclusive much like CAH or whether it will quickly find its way onto the shelves of hobby stores remains to be seen.  It is also currently available to buy online through the Cyanide & Happiness store for a price of $35, which includes the aforementioned Blast From the Past expansion.

OVERALL SCORE: 8/10

Tea consumed during this review: Tetley with milk and 2 sweeteners.  Brew rating 7/10.

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Argent: The Consortium, Part 1: Box Contents

The hardest part about reviewing any game with a colon in the title is having a double-colon article headline.  That really is quite frustrating.  However, we're going to push through the pain as we bring you the latest review from our mighty game pile: Argent: The Consortium (oh God, we've done it again!) from Level 99 Games.

This had been sitting in a box for the last 3 months, with every intention of using it for our next unboxing podcast.  Unfortunately it seems that assembling the team for a game is considerably easier than assembling for a recording session, so eventually the decision was made to just open the damn thing and actually get some games out of it!  So here we now are, with this article for your reading pleasure as a result.

You lucky lot.

Anyway, 8am caffeine-fuelled ramblings aside, Argent: The Consortium  is a Euro-style resource management game for 2-5 players.  The game is set in a magical university, and the university chancellor's seat has been left vacant.  Each player takes on the role of a high-ranking member of the university faculty, and through resource-gathering and worker-placement they must win as many votes as possible over the course of 5 rounds, securing themselves as the next chancellor.
As is our usual MO for board games, we'll be vigorously studying (see what we did there?) the box contents in this article, before a thorough exam (okay, we're done with school puns now... maybe) of the gameplay mechanics in part two.
So, wands down, time for first period, and let's see what's inside the box of delights.

Before getting into the box, let's talk about the box itself.  With Kickstarter projects we like to talk about how professional the overall presentation of the game is, and the quality of the game components.  Obviously most Kickstarter games are run by very small companies or even just a couple of enthusiastic individuals, so at prototype stage we never scrutinise the physical quality of the game, just the gameplay.  Once it's been published, however, the rules change - small company or not, if you're putting your game on the shelves then you're throwing down with the big boys, and should be offering up a product which can hold its own!  The podcasted, but currently un-reviewed CLASH! Dawn of Steam was an example of a Kickstarter project which didn't result in a retail-quality product, whereas 404: Law Not Found showed us all how it's done!

We're happy to say Argent falls into the latter category.  It's a big-box game of a similar kind of size to the likes of Arkham Horror, Smallworld, BioShock Infinite: TSoC and so forth.  When you pick it up for the first time you notice the weight straight away - this is a game with a lot of content and it's not shy about it!  The box itself is nicely illustrated, cleanly printed, and of a solid build.  This is something which can end up in the middle of a big game pile and not come out any worse for wear on the other side.
It straight away gives you an idea of the overall styling of the game as well, which we feel is going to prove a divisive point amongst gamers and possibly harm Argent's potential audience.  As an American game built on Euro-game mechanics, Level 99 have interestingly chosen a Japanese Anime/Manga style for the character artwork.  It's bold and certainly very colourful, but will be less likely to strike a chord with the older generation of gamers, instead aiming much more towards the younger crowd.  Time will tell whether this will impact the success of Argent in the long run, but we can't help but feel that a more classical illustration style would probably have appealed to a wider audience.

Anyway, enough about the box, time to delve into the contents!

If you're going to vie for chancellorship of the university then you're going to need a suitable candidate.  In Argent there are 12 candidates to choose from: 2 each from 6 colour-coded departments within the university, which consist of Planar Studies, Divinity, Mysticism, Natural Magick, Sorcery, and the Department of Students.   Each department can only have one candidate in the running for the chancellor's role, so each of the 6 Candidate Sheets is double-sided giving the players the choice of a male or female character from their chosen department.
The sheets themselves are relatively simple, featuring an illustration of the chosen character, a summary of the turn sequence, a space for discarded cards, a list of starting items, and a track across the top of the card for storing the player's apprentices when they're not out running errands.
A fair few games these days - such as Zombicide - choose to print their character boards onto thick, board-quality card stock, whereas many are content to just use a standard card thickness.  Argent goes for the latter, but frankly the Character Sheets aren't really going to be getting handled, so there's no real risk of them becoming tattered in any hurry.

One of the unusual things about Argent is that it's a big-box board game without a standard board.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, just a break from the norm.  Instead there are 15 smaller boards, each of which represent a room in the university.  Depending on the number of players, 8-12 of these boards will be used during the game, with the white-bordered rooms always in use, and the remaining rooms drawn at random, or selected based on one of the pre-set layouts in the rulebook.  Each board is also double-sided, with side B featuring slightly more advanced rules for more experienced players.
During each round, players will send their Mage tokens on errands to the various rooms throughout the university, and reap the rewards for their success (or failure) by way of various resources.

Well if we're running errands then we'd better have some minions to do it with!  There are 6 different colours of Mage tokens, and the game comes with a set of reference cards to remind the players of the different Mages' abilities.  The red Mages, for example, can wound an opponent's Mage and send them off to the infirmary.  Green Mages are immune to wounding, and so are good for placing in key areas around the university.
The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that there only 5 reference cards.  Well the poor little yellow Mages (or beige, if you believe the rulebook... we don't) are neutral Mages - they have no special abilities, but when push comes to shove you might find yourself needing all the help you can get your magical hands on.

The actual models themselves are of decent quality.  Many board games these days treat their players with tabletop-quality miniatures, which look amazing on the board but often result in a higher price tag.  The models in Argent aren't particularly intricately detailed, but do the job, and at the end of the day they are simply playing pieces rather than miniatures.

You can't have a game called Argent: The Consortium without a Consortium.  Well, you could, but it would be maddeningly illogical.  It'd be like having a game called Billy The Space Penguin and basing it around a dinosaur named Joe.  That way lies madness.
As mentioned earlier, the aim of the game is to secure votes for your candidacy, and the Consortium cards represent the movers and shakers of the university whose votes you'll be canvassing.  There are 18 Consortium Voters, but only 12 used in any particular game.  As with the room boards, there are 2 white-bordered Consortium cards, which are always in play, and the remaining 10 are drawn at random.  Each of the voters has a different voting criteria - one may vote for the player with the most gold, one for the player with the most mana, one for the player with the second-highest influence, and so on.  Where the game becomes interesting is that only the white-bordered Consortium cards begin the game face-up, so at the beginning of the game the players will not know 10 of the win conditions.  As the game progresses, they'll earn the right to peek at the face-down voters, and can then start to tailor their tactics to this new information.

The Consortium Voters need a place to hang out while the players are engaged in their House of Cards-esque political maneuvering, and so the Consortium Board becomes their home.  The 12 voters take their places in the centre of the board, and the players' influence is monitored on the track around the edge.  One of the constant, white-bordered voters always sides with the player with the highest influence total, so it's an important resource to chase after in the early stages of the game.

Without magic, it would be a fairly ineffectual magical university, and so the players are going to need some spells!  The oversized Spell cards each feature a different spell, and each spell has 3 levels, which can only be unlocked through research.  The first level allows the player to take a card from the deck and opens up the most basic capabilities of the spell, whereas further levels unlock its full capabilities.  Depending on which Consortium Voters are on the table, it could be beneficial to have a wide range of low level spells, or just one or two which are fully tricked-out.  Spells can usually only be used once per round, and can be used to gain resources, hinder your opponents, or give advantages to your own Mages as they scurry about doing their master's bidding.
Each player begins the game with a spell specific to their character, with the other spells having to be earned as the game progresses.  There are also a limited number of Legendary Spells, but these have been sealed in the university vault where only the players' Mages have hope of locating them!

More cards!  The other two major sources of resources are Supporters (top) and Vault Cards (bottom).  Both can be secured by your wandering Mages to add to your arsenal during the round.  Some of the Vault Cards are classed as Treasures, meaning that you can reap their benefits every round gaining gold, mana, influence, or bonus abilities.  Others are classed as Consumables, which tend to offer a more powerful benefit but as a one-time thing.  Supporters work in much the same way as Consumables, but again both of these can contribute towards the favour of particular Consortium Voters.

The final remaining type of card - the Tower Card - is an interesting addition to Argent.  During each player's turn they are granted one action, and for that action they have the option of taking a Tower Card.  Each player may only have one, and once the last one has been taken, the round ends.  Each card bestows a different reward, from influence to the First Player token for the following round.   This means that the round won't end until every player is ready for it to proceed, and so if you have a grand masterplan to implement, no one can rush you through it.  They can also force players into difficult choices - do you place one of your Mages into a prime location on the board, or do you give up Mage placement for a turn in order to claim the Tower Card which adds to your influence?
Once the round has been completed, all of the Tower effects are resolved, and then the cards return to the table for the next round.

This then just leaves the usual plethora of tokens.  Once again these are cleanly printed onto good quality stock, so should stand the test of time as the games wear on.

One thing (or two, more accurately) we were disappointed with were the upgraded coins and mana tokens.  Originally the coins were going to just be more card tokens, and the mana tokens would have been acrylic cubes, but these were both upgraded as Kickstarter stretch goals.  If we're being completely honest, we can't help but feel they would have been better left in their original incarnations.
Many games use card tokens for coins, and as long as they're cleanly printed then they don't detract from the gaming experience at all.  The upgraded plastic coins are of the same sort of quality as the kind you'd find in a childrens' shopkeeper playset, and if anything actually lower the overall quality, feeling cheaper than the other game components.  We may at some point further upgrade ours to metal roleplay coins, but would rather that we hadn't felt compelled to take that step.
The decision to give the more random shapes to the mana tokens was understandable, giving them the general aesthetic of formless arcane energy, but the downside to this is a purely practical one - they don't fit in the box as well, and are a little more chaotic when you've amassed a decent number of them and they're piled all over your Candidate Sheet!

So those are the physical components of Argent: The Consortium.  Our overall thoughts are definitely positive at this point.  Aside from the plastic coins, everything seems to have been produced to a very high, professional standard.  If this was handed to us and we didn't know it was a post-Kickstarter game, we would have thought it to be from a big game developer.  The cards all have the satin finish which seems to be popular lately, which means that sleeving will probably be in order, but as the cards aren't cycled through as often as you'd expect, this isn't particularly urgent.  Obviously the style of artwork will be very hit-or-miss with people, but regardless of opinions on the overall aesthetic, it's all definitely of high quality.

We've already played through a number of 3 player games, so over the next week we're aiming to try it out with different player numbers and then we'll be back with the gameplay verdict shortly!  Stay tuned!

Guild Ball: An Unboxing (...sort of)

Those of you with more impressive memories may remember us mentioning last year that we were backing a new tabletop game called Guild Ball.  Games & Tea always has been and always will be a card and board game blog first and foremost, but we are still tabletop hobbyists as well and couldn't resist sharing our enthusiasm about the whole thing when it first hit Kickstarter.

At the time we backed it we had the feeling it was going to be something special - everything from the overall aesthetic to the gameplay seemed beautiful - but we didn't realise just how much it was going to attract the attention of the hobby community.  Now, with the retail release date just weeks away (April 27th) and introduction days cropping up all over the country, our Kickstarter pledge has arrived and we just felt compelled to show you all some photos of our shiney new toys!

Guild Ball is primarily a sportsball game with a bit of combat thrown in, and is based very much on grass-roots medieval English football.  For our pledge level we went in for two teams (6 miniatures per team) all in metal, and resin base inserts were included for both teams.  Once the game passed its funding goal and stretch goals became unlocked, we were also eligible for two additional "Union" models, which are affiliated with a couple of teams, so can hop around and give a bit of flexibility to the rosters.

We also threw in a little extra for some additional bits and pieces - a printed rulebook (the standard pledge just came with a PDF), some Guild Ball dice, and templates and markers.

The rulebook was at the top of the box when we opened it up, so it was the first thing we noticed.  On the original Kickstarter page it was listed as an A5 rulebook, so it was a very pleasant surprise to see a full A4 landscape-oriented book.  Opening it up it's got gorgeous full colour artwork on almost every page, is clearly printed and laid out, and is just basically done to an excellent and professional standard.

Your eyes do not deceive you - this is an otter.

Oh balls...

Once the rulebook had been salivated over it was time to rummage through the packing chips and fish out the miniatures (fairly appropriate, as one of our teams is the Fisherman's Guild).  We had the option of going with metal miniatures or resin, and we ended up going for metal.  Throughout our hobby years we've simply had overall bad experiences with resin, whereas we've always been comfortable working with metal, so it seemed the logical option.  Now the advantage of resin is that it does allow for finer detail, which left us wondering if we'd slightly regret our metal decision, but after having a look at the models today we can assure you we don't in the slightest!  Obviously as with all miniatures of any material there is some flash to trim back and some mold lines to remove, but the casting quality is absolutely amazing, the detailing is going to be a painter's dream, and the dynamic poses of the miniatures will give them pride of place in the display cabinet.

It's all about the base.

The goals and the base inserts for the models were only available in resin, so we had to bite the bullet and hope for the best with these, and we weren't disappointed.  Normally we make our own bases, but the inserts are cast to a great quality, and it'll be nice to have consistency across both teams.

A lot of tabletop systems these days utilise character cards, both as a quick-reference of their abilites and to keep track of their health.  Guild Ball is the latest system to take this approach, and the character cards are printed onto good quality card stock, with nice clear print and more beautiful character illustrations throughout.

And then that just leaves those last few odds and ends.  The dice - embossed with the Guild Ball logo - and templates keep up with the manufacturing quality evident throughout the rest of the components.

To sum things up, there isn't a damn thing in this box which we've found fault with.  Now we just need to assemble our pretty toys and play a few games!

We probably won't be putting up a gameplay review, simply because there starts the slippery slope away from being a board/card game review blog, but if any of our readers were thinking about giving Guild Ball a closer look then we hope this unboxing has helped!  And once we've got some painting on the go then we'll upload some completed models into our miniatures gallery as well for your enjoyment.