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.

If you enjoyed this article and want to see more of the same, come and like us on our Facebook page to keep up to date with our reviews, as well as our general day-to-day ramblings!

Podcast: CLASH! Dawn of Steam - First Impressions

With International Tabletop Day having been just yesterday we had a great day of playing games, drinking tea, and just having general fun.  As part of the day's hijinks we recorded another 'First Impressions' podcast for a recently received Kickstarter game: CLASH! Dawn of Steam from Mad Ape Games.  We'll hopefully have a full review up and running within a few weeks, but in the meantime we hope you enjoy listening to our first impressions of the game quality, as well as our photos of some of the card which caught our attention for one reason or another!

Pirate Fluxx: The Ever-Changing Pirate Card Game

If you ask any gamer to reel off a handful of quick, casual games, there's a very good chance that Fluxx will be on the list.  Love it or loathe it, Fluxx has become one of the staples of the gaming world since the release of the original version of the game way back in 1997, and has spawned a number of themed sets (14, at the latest count!).

In this article we'll be swashing our buckles, hoisting the colours, and dunking the ship's biscuits, as we take a look at Pirate Fluxx from Looney Labs.

As with all Fluxx games, Pirate Fluxx is a casual, competitive card game for 2-6 players.  In the same way as we did with our reviews of Zombie Fluxx and Star Fluxx, we won't be going into the basic Fluxx ruleset here, as it's identical in every version of the game.  If you haven't played any version of Fluxx before then we'd highly recommend starting by reading our Monty Python Fluxx review, as we detailed the full rules here.
Instead, we'll be looking at some of the additions to this version of the game, and how well the pirate theme is brought to life.

If you've played Star Fluxx or read our review (and if you haven't, then why not? Seriously, we gave you a link just above, you have no excuse!) then you'll know that version of Fluxx tipped it's hat to a lot of franchises, from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, to Star Wars via 2001: A Space Odyssey.  We might as well start by pointing out that Pirate Fluxx is not franchise-based, so you'll find no Jack Sparrow, no Dread Pirate Roberts, and no Guybrush Threepwood here.  In fact it's not even historically-based, so don't expect to see Blackbeard or Calico Jack showing their faces either.

Sorry, Guybrush, you and your woodchuck have no place here.

It's not all doom and gloom though.  Even without some of popular cultures greatest piratical personalities, Pirate Fluxx still takes players across the seven seas, with ships, rum, gunpowder, treasure and citrus fruits!

As with all themed Fluxx decks, the chosen theme comes through strongest with the Keepers (and, subsequently, the Goals).  Whilst there are pirate-specific New Rules and Actions, the majority of these two card types are still the same as the other Fluxx decks, but the Keepers are all piratical.  Amongst the Keepers in Pirate Fluxx, players will find a wide selection of 'booty' cards, such as doubloons, emeralds and pearls, and a range of fine sea-faring vessels, from mighty frigates to humble dinghies.  They'll find rum, they'll find parrots and monkeys, the king's colours and pirate flags... basically if it's a part of pirate lore, it's probably represented in the Keepers somewhere (except for the governor's daughter, but Pirates! Card Game called dibs on her already).
As with Star, Zombie and - to a lesser extent - Monty Python, some of the Keepers in Pirate Fluxx have special rules, and the way Looney Labs have written these really does make the pirate theme stand out nicely.  For example, there is a New Rule card called Plunder, which allows players to steal a Keeper from an opponent once during their turn.  However, if a player has the Cutlass Keeper then they're (almost) safe from plundering.  They can still be plundered from if the plundering player has the Flintlock Pistol, as flintlock>cutlass.  To trump everything, however, if a player has the Captain's Hat then they can plunder from anyone, and similarly cannot be plundered by anyone (it's important to respect the chain of command).  This makes the Captain's Hat a highly valued commodity in Pirate Fluxx (in no small part due to the fact that the other players are required in the rules to refer to its owner as 'Captain'), and we've been involved in games which have gone on for far longer than they should have, with the Goal being completely forgotten about in favour of fighting over the coveted hat!  One of the most heart-breaking moments as the reigning captain is seeing the malicious look of joy in an opponent's face as they play the Mutiny! card.

Other piratical cards are interspersed throughout the deck.  Whilst Fluxx staples such as Draw 3, Play 2 and Steal a Keeper are still part and parcel of the game, cards like Mutiny! and Walk the Plank! continue to keep the pirate theme running.  But our favourite card in Pirate Fluxx (possibly second favourite - that Captain's Hat is pretty darn cool), and the one which most heavily brings a pirate atmosphere to the gaming table is a New Rule...

In a similar fashion to Monty Python Fluxx's Outragous Accent New Rule, Talk Like a Pirate rewards players for, well, talking like a pirate!  Whether slurring their way through their best Jack Sparrow impression, or "Y'arr!"-ing their way through a turn, players get to draw additional cards for putting on a pirate voice, and for keeping it going uninterrupted.  In our very first game of Pirate Fluxx, one player's phone rang and - unwilling to lose the +1 bonus for maintaining their pirate voice - they answered the phone in pirate character and confused the hell out of the sales caller on the other end of the line.

As with most variations on the game, Pirate Fluxx is not without its Creepers; cards which prevent players from winning the game.  However, it's very Creeper-light, with the two above being the only ones in the deck.  Not only that, but they're actually incredibly easy to get rid of compared to most Fluxx Creepers, with Scurvy being removed by the mere presence of citrus fruit Keepers, and Shackles having the option of being bought off with a booty Keeper.  Not only does this quicken the pace of the game, but it also makes it a lot more accessible to the younger gamers in the family, who may otherwise get frustrated with the unshakable Creepers in other Fluxx games.

So that's Pirate Fluxx!  We've always been very open about the fact that we fall into the pro-Fluxx camp, and Pirate certainly doesn't fail to disappoint.  The light-hearted nature of the classic game still shines through the piratical paint-job, but at the same time the pirate theme isn't lost - this still feels like a piratey game, as opposed to just a game with some pirate words on the cards.

The Good Points

• Each card tells the player exactly what they have to do with it, and so it's a very fast game to pick up.
• It's a nice compact game, and can easily be taken to a park or pub to play with friends.  Nothing is needed except for the cards in the deck.
• Pirate Fluxx manages to keep both the feel of Fluxx and the feel of a pirate game, so you'll get precisely the game you hope for out of this.
• The low number of Creepers and the ease of discarding them makes this a good version of Fluxx for younger players as well as adults.
• With the right number of players it's quite a quick game to play, and is good to wrap up a heavy gaming session.

The Bad Points

• As with other Fluxxes, Pirate Fluxx is largely a game of chance, and this luck-based system will not appeal to all.

Recommended Number of Players: 3

Fluxx decks are always good wind-up or wind-down games on any gaming nights.  Pirate Fluxx loses a little of the fun with just 2 players, but with 4 or more (the box advertises 2-6) it can start to drag on as players forget their own Goals and desperately vie to just keep eachother from winning.

Average Game Time: 20 minutes

Pirate Fluxx is difficult to put an average game time on due to its random and unpredictable nature.  We've played games which have been over in a matter of minutes, and some which have gone on for over an hour.  20 minutes is a good, solid, average time though.

...unless everyone is squabbling over the Captain's Hat, then you should steel yourselves for a 3 hour epic!

Replay Value: High

Pirate Fluxx is an excellent wind-down game, and with it being an enjoyable yet generic theme, it's a lot of fun to keep returning to.

The Future: n/a

Each version of Fluxx is its own game, and as such the contents of the box are all you'll ever get of Pirate Fluxx.  However if you've enjoyed the mechanic then there are several other themed Fluxx sets to choose from, including Zombie Fluxx, Oz Fluzz, Martian Fluxx, Cthulhu Fluxx and Stoner Fluxx.

Price: £12

Pirate Fluxx will set you back roughly £12, which is a thoroughly decent price for a stand-alone card game.  The various Fluxx sets seem to be standard fare in most specialist game shops, so even if they don't have the set you're after then they should be able to get their hands on it quickly.

OVERALL SCORE: 8.5/10

 Tea consumed during this review: Tetley Redbush, 2 sweeteners and a dash of lemon.  Brew Rating: 8/10

If you enjoyed this article and want to see more of the same, come and like us on our Facebook page to keep up to date with our reviews, as well as our general day-to-day ramblings!

Castilion Kickstarter Review, Part 2: Gameplay & Verdict

This review is for a project still at the Kickstarter stage. As such, final game contents may vary from those shown here.

Welcome back, gentle readerfolk!  In our last article we dissected the contents of the Kickstarter project Castilion: a 2 player strategy game from Joe Mellanby for 2 players.  Now it's time to draw our swords, nock our arrows and... umm... wave(?) our spears, as we march to battle and bring you our verdict on the gameplay!

In Part 1 of the review we looked at the various different decks of cards which make up Castilion, as well as the gaming board.  Once both players have selected their Castle, General, Royal, and army, there's nothing left but to take to the field and let battle commence!

Each player has 2 playing pieces - one representing the General, and one representing the castle (we didn't show these in Part 1 as we were playing with prototype pieces) - and these both begin the game on their castle's respective spaces on the board.  The castle piece actually remains there for the game, just to mark out the players' strongholds to each other, whilst the General piece tracks the movement of the armies.

Both players have their own gaming area, where their troop deck, movement deck, and graveyard are all kept.  At the beginning of their turn, they draw 3 cards from the troop deck and 2 from the movement deck, and add them to their hand.  Armies can be moved up to 2 spaces per turn, after which they players can discard as many movement cards as they wish out of their hands to continue moving up to the number of spaces on those cards.  Now the rules of the game didn't specify a hand limit, so when we raised this issue with Castilion's creators they suggested we try out a hand limit and see how it plays.
Eventually we settled on a hand limit of 8, and this really did seem to work.  This gave players the options of either filling their hands with movement cards and having light hit and run armies, or letting them load up with troop cards, restricting their movement but allowing their army to pack a wallop when they finally reach their target, which brings us to the main aspect of the game...

Unoccupied castle spaces on the board are effectively safe zones, meaning players can't be attacked as long as their army is occupying one of those spaces.  Those safe zones aside, if a player ends his movement in the same space as their opponent's army - or their castle - then it's time for battle to commence!

Battles are resolved using the troop cards in each players' hands, which is why it's important to find a balance between troops and movement!  All of the cards in the coloured troop decks feature Attack and/or Defence stats in the top-left corner, and these are used to determine the outcome of the battles.

The coloured decks, as mentioned in Part 1, are broken down into Troops, Actions, Formations, and Items.  In order to attack an opponent's army or castle, a player must have at least one Troop-type card.  They can then add to that any other cards from their hand (or their General if they wish), as long as they are of the same colour, up to a maximum of 5.  This makes hand-management essential, as having one colour of Troop in a hand full of a different colour's Actions/Formations/Items means that you're not in as strong a position as you may hope for!
The defending player must defend their army in the same manner - first of all needing a minimum of one Troop, and then adding defensive equipment and formations as they see fit.  Once both players have chosen their cards they are revealed to each other, and total Attack and Defence values compared - the highest total coming out victorious.

In the example above, the green player has attacked using four cards, with an attack total of 60.  The red player was fortunate to have a defensive hand though, and has countered with a defence of 95, resulting in defeat for green!

When defeated in battle, all of the defeated players cards go to their graveyard, including the general if they took part!  Once a player has no more Troop-type cards left in their deck, they can no longer attack or defend, and so must surrender to their opponent - this prevents players from attacking recklessly, forcing further tactical hand-management to ensure their precious Troops remain in play.

Of course, this only happens if two armies meet each other face to face!  If a player manages to attack an opponent's castle whilst their army is preoccupied elsewhere, they effectively get a free swing at the stronghold!  In this instance the defending player cannot submit any cards to the battle, and so the attacker's total attack value is dealt as damage to the castle, before they retreat back to their own stronghold.  If a player's castle defence value is reduced to 0, they are defeated and the game is over.  This is where having a light but fast army can come in useful - chipping away at a castle a little at a time.  Of course, there are also merits to a slow moving sledgehammer of an army!

So that's the basic breakdown of the gameplay mechanic, but what did we think of it?
Well first of all we enjoyed the overall feel of the game - the map, the troop decks, the terrain cards and so on... basically we didn't feel like we were playing a re-hash of another game.  There do seem to be a fair few projects on Kickstarter which look as though the designer has just piggybacked onto a successful game, whereas Castilion does feel very much like it's own thing, which is good.
The gameplay itself is easy to pick up.  In spite of the fact there are lots of different card types in the game, it's not actually too taxing.  We were furnished with a quick-start set of rules and a full set, but we ended up leaping straight in with the full rules and finding ourselves in full swing fairly quickly!
The castles having different defence values based on their proximity to resources is a nice touch, although in 2 player games we felt that allowing players to pick their castles was better than random selection, purely to prevent them from ending up right next door to eachother!  In larger multi-player games it wouldn't be an issue, but as a house rule we preferred choosing our own.
The troop decks/battle mechanic were one of our favourite things about Castilion - especially after we'd experimented and settled on a hand limit.  Each coloured deck only contains 3 Troop cards, giving each player a total of 6, and seeing as you can't attack or defend without one it forces players to think carefully before charging headlong into battle.  The fact that the attack/defence cards need to be of the same colour also adds a nice hand-management element to the game.
Using cards to move is another well-done element once a hand limit has been put into play again.  As mentioned previously, it's great to be able to choose whether to have a light/fast or heavy/slow army at your disposal, or even to switch half way through the game to throw off your opponent!
And we did like the fact that there are a few different win conditions - obviously the destruction of the enemy castle is the main one, but depleting your opponents troops will also secure a win, as does defeating their General and Royal.  This gives players a few options on how to approach the game, and allow it to fit their play style.

No game is without flaws though (our first ever 10/10 rating is still up for grabs!), and we'd be neglect in our reviewing duties if we didn't mention the downsides.  Whilst we did enjoy playing Castilion, we really do think it's a game which would benefit from more players.  We did bring this up with Joe Mellanby, and if the Kickstarter raises enough funds then extra cards/players will be introduced as a stretch goal.  We do very much hope for this, as frankly it would take the game to a whole other level!  When playing the game we really did think it would great as a 4 player free for all, rather than a 2 player grudge match.
Our other little niggle was the text size on the cards, which older players may have problems with.  The attack and defence values are printed quite small, so it may be a struggle for some to actually read the stats on their cards.
And our final nitpick is that of the troop cards.  We like that you can only attack or defend with at least one Troop (after all, just having a sword is no good if you've got no one to carry it!), but it seems a shame that the Actions/Formations/Items all work in the same way rather than having something to make the categories matter, such as a bonus of +15 if you use one of each, or something along those lines.  Perhaps this will come up in future expansions of the game.

We do have to say though, that Castilion does seem to be a Kickstarter project being done the right way.  Too many large companies approach Kickstarter with a finalised project which backers have absolutely no influence over.  With Castilion, the creators do actually respond to constructive criticism and shape the game accordingly!  It's for this reason that we're forgoing our usual "Good Points/Bad Points" quick list at the end of the review, as it's an evolving project and so unfair to fire bullet points at!

For further details about Castilion visit their website here, and to back the project at Kickstarter level click here!

Recommended Number of Players: 2 (Hopefully 4!)

In it's current base state, Castilion is a 2 player release.  However, pending Kickstarter success it will be expanded for further players (even up to a total of 8 - one for each castle), and our gut instincts have been telling us that 4 players would make for a very good gaming experience.
 

Average Game Time: 45 minutes

We found that our Castilion games often started with us tiptoeing around eachother before one player became gutsy enough to make the first strike.  Once first blood had been shed, however, the pace soon picked up, and our games usually took around the 45 minute  mark.

Replay Value: Medium

It's difficult to gauge the replay value on Castilion due to the fact it's still in development.  Obviously the different castles, Royals and Generals add some variety across repeat plays, but the grudge match nature of the 2 player game may wear thin without a range of opponents to take on.  Again, we do feel that having extra players will help in this matter.

Price: £30

Castilion has just gone live on Kickstarter, now as a four player game!  Unless you manage to snag an early bird, a copy of the full game will set you back £30 - a fairly standard price for a specialist game.  Backing on the project ends on August 2nd.

 

 

 

OVERALL SCORE: 7/10
(With additional players we'd push this up to a 7.5, maybe an 8)

Tea consumed during this review: A wide range of Twinings herbal teas, gratefully received with our review copy of Castilion! Average brew rating: 7.5/10

If you enjoyed this article and want to see more of the same, come and like us on our Facebook page to keep up to date with our reviews, as well as our general day-to-day ramblings!

 

 

Castilion Kickstarter Review, Part 1: Contents

This review is for a project still at the Kickstarter stage. As such, final game contents may vary from those shown here.

 

Kickstarter is continuing to throw a whole plethora of interesting looking offerings into the big old melting pot that is the specialist games market.  We do keep an eye on the scene as often as possible and do frequently see a lot which catches our interest, but due to financial restrictions (as mentioned in the past, Games & Tea is a labour of love and we have no gaming budget to speak of) we usually have to just wistfully watch them pass by.  More frequently, however, we're being apporached by creators of games in development (such as the recently funded Pirates! and Good Cop, Bad Cop) to give our thoughts on the game before it hits Kickstarter.

Such has been the case with our latest review, as we take a look at Castilion: a board game of strategy and bashing your opponent's stronghold to smithereens from Joe Mellanby.

 

 

Castilion is a game for 2 players (with potential for more pending Kickstarter success), in which each player must manage their army in a campaign to bring down their opponent's stronghold.  Whilst technically a board game, it does have a very card-heavy element, so let's take a look at the contents before delving into the gameplay...

 

 

First of all we have the board.  Now, the more eagle-eyed of you may have noticed the lack of biscuit crumbs and cat fur in this image, giving away the fact that this isn't our photo.  This is an image of the artwork from the final board - kindly provided by the game's creators.  Seeing as the board in our review prototype was missing the outside edge, we figured we may as well show you the proper thing.  The board takes the form of a map, featuring 8 castles, and a few other resource pick-up points, and it's upon this map that the players' armies must face off against eachother.  Around the outside of the map there are points to stack the various decks of cards, so this seems as good as time as any to take a look at them...

 

 

Fist of all we have the castles.  You can't really have a game called Castilion without castles (well, we suppose you could, but it would be maddeningly illogical), and here we have a fine selection to choose from.  as mentioned above, there are 8 castles on the board, and each one has a corresponding card.  Each castle starts with roughly 200 damage points, although these vary from one castle to the next - the weaker castles tend to be much closer to resources, whereas the stronger ones are further out in the wilderness where they generally have to take care of themselves.  Each player draws one castle at random to act as their stronghold for the game, and the rest are discarded.  But a castle is a seat of power, and if you're going to have one then you'll need someone to... well... sit in it!  So let's move onto the Royals and the Generals!

 

 

 

Castilion features one deck of Royals and one deck of Generals, each with slightly differing attack stats (we'll move onto these when we come to gameplay).  The Generals lead the players' armies on the battlefield, whilst the Royals largely stay hidden away in their castle, lording it over the small folk.  Should the general ever fall in battle, however, the Royal has to take over command and continue the campaign until either death or victory!  As with the castles, each player randomly chooses one Royal and one General to start the game, and the rest are discarded.

 

 

 So you've got a castle, you've got a Royal and you've got a General - looks like you'll need an army!  The armies in Castilion are formed of two coloured decks of 11 cards, with each deck containing Troops, Items, Formations, Actions and a Hero and Heroine.  Each player takes two deks, removes one Hero/Heroine from each colour to place face-down beside the board, shuffles them together, and places them face-down in their gaming area.

 

 

No, we're not talking about the waterworks and the electric company.  There are three utility cards in Castilion, all of which are one-shot uses which can change the tide of battle.  These all begin the game face-up next to the board, and can be claimed by any player who heads to their corresponding map location.

 

 

As any battle-hardened general can attest to, knowing the terrain can make all the difference when it comes to besting an opposing army.  The Terrain cards in Castilion simulate that, slowing players' armies to a crawl, or even reducing their battlefield effectiveness at a crucial moment.

 

 

And finally we have the movement cards - a static army is rather easy to outmaneuver or avoid altogether, after all!  Each player's army can move up to 2 map spaces per turn under their own steam, but the Movement cards are where players can start to use hit and run attacks, giving their armies the speed needed to pull off their grand plans.

 

Phew!  So you certainly get a fair old whack in the basic Castilion game!  Head on over to Part 2 of the review, and well go through how the game works, and give our final verdict on the gameplay!

Good Cop Bad Cop Kickstarter Review

This review is for a project still at the Kickstarter stage.  As such, final game contents may vary from those shown here.

 

As Games & Tea heads towards its first birthday (we're expecting cake - please don't let us down), it's delighted us just how much we're making in-roads in the gaming scene.  Sure, we're probably at least a couple of weeks away from being mobbed by adoring fans in the street, but over the last couple of months we've had the nice experience of games developers approaching us to review their up and coming games.  It's our pleasure to bring you another one of these now, in the form of Good Cop Bad Cop from Overworld Games: a semi-cooperative card game of hidden identities, deception, and occasionally shooting someone just out of spite/to be on the safe side.

 



Good Cop Bad Cop is for 4-8 players, and each player (as the name implies) takes on the role of a police officer (or "cop", as we understand the cool kids call them these days).  Some of these cops will be the very embodiment of honesty, whilst some of them will be a crooked as a politician, and it's the aim of the game for each team to eliminate the leader of their opponents.  Unfortunately this isn't quite as easy as you might first think, as the crooked cops have done a fine job of covering their tracks, so nobody at the start of the game knows which players are crooked and which are honest (aside from themselves, obviously).  As such, the game starts out with an investigatory feel until players know just whom they can trust, after which it can descend into all-out interdepartmental war!

Well that's the rough outline of the game, so let's take a look at the components and then break down just how it all works!

 

There are three main types of cards in Good Cop Bad Cop: Integrity, Equipment, and Guns.

 

 

The Integrity cards determine whether a player is honest or crooked.  At the beginning of each game, each player is dealt three Integrity cards which they must look at and then place face-down in front of themselves.  If the majority of the cards are honest then the player is honest, and vice-versa.  One player will find the Agent card amongst their Integrity cards and one player the Kingpin, which will mark them out as the leaders of the honest and crooked cops respectively, regardless of their other Integrity cards.

Once these cards are placed face-down they have to remain in the same order, which will come into play as one of the game's major mechanics shortly...

 

 

The Equipment cards are the next to be dealt out, as each player is dealt one at random, which they keep hidden from everyone else.  The majority of these can be used at any point in the game, and have effects ranging from the revival of an eliminated player, to switching another player's allegiance for the remainder of the game.  Each player can only carry up to one item of Equipment at a time, so having the right gear on-hand can be a game-changer at critical points!

 

 

And then we have the Gun cards.  These are used to eliminate other players, including the all-important Agent/Kingpin.  There aren't enough Guns in the game for each player to carry one at the same time, so knowing when to sit back and investigate or when to arm yourself for the coming storm can be the key to victory.

 

Once everyone has their trio of Integrity cards and their item of Equipment, the game beings, starting with the player who most recently told a lie - of course getting said player to admit this can be troublesome, as their credibility has already been brought into question.

During each players turn they may only take one action out of four possible options.  They can Investigate another player, which involves taking a look at one of their Integrity cards and returning it to its face-down position.  This is where maintaining card order becomes important, as investigating would obviously become impossible if players could shuffle their Integrity cards between each turn.

The second action option is Equip, in which a player may draw a card off the top of the Equipment deck.

Thirdly we have the Arm action, where a player takes one of the Gun cards from the centre of the table and aims it at another player.  Whilst having a Gun obviously gives players the power of life and death/grievous wounding over the others, the act of taking one does require the player to turn one of their Integrity cards face-up, and so can bring the wrath of the opposing team bearing down upon them!  This makes Gun-grabbing a tactical risk, rather than something to just be done casually.

If you've got a Gun you might as well use it!  The final action is to Shoot, where the player pulls the trigger on their unfortunate target.  The target of the attack must flip all of their Integrity cards face-up, and if they are the Agent or the Kingpin they take a wound.  If they are hit a second time, they are out of the game, and their team is defeated.  If the shot player is just a regular honest/crooked cop then a single shot is enough to eliminate them from the game.

 

"That gunshot wound looks pretty nasty, boss.  I think you're gonna need two plasters for that."

 

After the action phase, if the player is holding a Gun they can choose to re-aim it at another target, and then play passes to the next player along.  Play continues this way until either the Agent or Kingpin are eliminated, or until one player takes control of both the Agent and Kingpin cards, which results in victory for the crooked team.

 

So that's the basics of the gameplay.  But how well does it work?

 

The first hidden identity game which we played was The Resistance, which, whilst a lot of fun, did have its share of shortcomings - one of which was that accusations of loyalty and treason started getting regularly thrown around at the very start of each game.  Good Cop Bad Cop has avoided this pitfall first of all by leaving all players in the dark about one another, and secondly by giving players the power to eliminate eachother.  Shouting up your suspicions about a crooked cop in the game's early stages may seem like a bold move, but in all likelihood it will just end up putting you on the wrong end of a crooked gun!  The option is certainly there to voice your suspicions, or share the findings of your investigations, but we found that most players erred on the side of caution and kept their opinions to themselves for as long as possible.

This makes the investigation part of the game highly crucial, as players are forced seek out just who they can trust and who is a threat.  After several games with a variety of different players, we have to admit that this does start the game off at quite a slow pace, however once players start to get an idea of who is on their side (even if it's just one other player) things start to pick up, and the game quickly becomes quite cutthroat and frantic!

 

Looks like we've got ourselves a Mexican stand-off...

 

One of the mechanics to which we all gave a wholehearted thumbs-up was the aiming of the Guns - specifically down to the fact that it must be done at the end of the player's turn.  This prevents players from simply aiming and pulling the trigger, as the round of play in between can completely change their plans on who to eliminate.  This comes into play all the more so in larger games, adding a whole new level of depths as affiliations may be revealed and new suspicions raised in their place.  One more than one occasion we've witnessed players picking up a Gun card and then changing their target three or four times before finally taking the shot!  On top of the aiming we also liked the fact that taking a Gun in the first place reveals one of your Integrity cards, giving other players  hint at your affiliation, or giving you a chance at a devious bluff.

And finally we have to give credit to the Equipment cards, which can literally change the course of the game at the drop of a hat.  There are some cards which appear much more potent than others, such as Taser, which allows a player to steal someone else's Gun, or Blanks, which prevents Guns from being fired during a particular turn.  However, some of the less-potent looking cards can be used to devastating effect at the right time.  The Bribe card is a great example, as it allows a player to switch one of their Integrity cards with that of another player.  This may not sound amazing at first glance, but if you're an honest cop and your Agent's already taken a wound and has weapons aimed at him by the crooked cops, it can allow you to take the Agent card for yourself, giving your team the drop on those dirty crooked officers!  Each Equipment card is completely unique, and with a hand limit of just one, it's unlikely that the entire deck will be cycled through during a single game, so repeats of the same effect will be avoided.  This is a bit of a double-edged sword, however, as players will soon learn the effects of each of the Equipment cards - if the only card that can foil their plan has already been played, they know that they can go ahead without any danger.  We couldn't help but think that if the Equipment deck was doubled in size to two of each card, this could be resolved, adding a little more tension as the game progresses.

The other real downside of Good Cop Bad Cop is purely statistical, and comes into play during smaller games.  It's entirely possible after the Integrity cards have been dealt out, that the Agent or Kingpin can be the only player on their team.  Within our first few test games we saw both sides of this, with the Agent left alone in one game, and the Kingpin left flying the crooked flag solo in the next.  This meant that once the single player shot their opposite number for the first time, every other player in the swiftly picked up a weapon and gunned them down before they could pick up another Gun and finish the job.  In both cases the imbalance wasn't noticed until the shooting began, but it was a bit demoralising for the single player to find out that they never stood much of a chance to begin with.  As we say though, this is entirely a statistical issue, and doesn't effect larger games.

 

Stepping away from the mechanics, it's physically a nice game to play.  Being purely a pack of cards, Good Cop Bad Cop is very easy to transport.  Things like the active player or wound markers could have been done as punch-out tokens, but by keeping them as cards the entire game fits very neatly into a box no larger than a poker deck.

As each player will never need more than 5 cards in front of them at once (three Integrity, one Gun, one Wound), it doesn't require a great deal of playing space.  In fact when out FLGS was packed to the rafters, our first games of Good Cop Bad Cop were played in a pub garden with five of us around a relatively small table!

And in terms of the cards themselves, they're pretty darn nice to look at.  You won't find any lavish artwork in Good Cop Bad Cop, but the simplified silhouettes on the cards fit the feel of the game perfectly, and make it aesthetically very pleasing.

 

Overall our experience of Good Cop Bad Cop has been a positive one, and if you wish to support it at the Kickstarter level then you have until May 20th to get on board here.

 

The Good Points

• Good Cop Bad Cop is an easy to learn game and quick to play.
• Set up space is small, and it's a game which can literally fit in your pocket.
• Unlike some hidden identity games, players are not rewarded for throwing blind accusations around.
• The wide variety of Equipment cards can shake the game up in various ways when players least expect it.
• It's a great game for large groups, accommodating up to 8 players.

The Bad Points

• Team-balancing becomes an issue in smaller games
• Experienced players can learn to wait until certain Equipment cards have been played, removing other players' chances to foil them.

Recommended Number of Players: 6+

The team-balance issue is most frequent in 4 player games, and occasionally crops up with 5 players.  With 6 or more it seems to have been pretty much eliminated, but Good Cop Bad Cop is definitely a game which gets better with larger crowds.  If you can pull together a full lineup of 8 players then we'd highly recommend it!
 

Average Game Time: 15-30 minutes

Depending on player numbers, Good Cop Bad Cop will take 15-30 minutes to play - obviously with higher player numbers there has to be more investigation before players start shooting wildly!  Being quick and fun to play though, the entire group was happy to play a few games back to back.

Replay Value: Medium/High

Whilst Good Cop Bad Cop doesn't have much by way of additional mechanics to make each playthrough different, hidden identity games by their very nature owe their replayability to the group.  They are the specialist gaming scene's equivalent of poker, and as long as you have a group who can stonewall eachother and keep their affiliations under wraps until the last possible moment, games like this can be brought back out again and again.

The Future: Under Investigation...

Good Cop Bad Cop is still at the Kickstarter stage, so right now all attention is on making this game see the light of day.  Once it reaches general release, the option of additional cards may be addressed.  With simple games such as this, too many additional mechanics can rob it of its character, but simple additions such as new Equipment cards - or even a third character card such as Internal Affairs for larger games - could be used to help it go the extra mile.  At this point this is purely our whimsical speculation, but it's worth keeping an eye on!

Price: £15/$14

Being a Kickstarter project, it's up to each backer how much they'd like to pledge to Good Cop Bad Cop.  A $14 pledge will secure you a copy of the game upon its release including postage within the US, so with the additional cost of postage to the UK, this works out around the £15 mark.

 

 

 

OVERALL SCORE: 8.5/10

Tea consumed during this review: Typhoo, milk and 2 sweeteners. Brew rating: 9/10

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Pirates! Card Game Kickstarter Review, Part 2: Gameplay & Verdict

This review is for a project still at the Kickstarter stage.  As such, final game contents may vary from those shown here.

In our last article we took a look at the box contents of our review copy of Pirates!, a card game by Jules Prick for 2-6 players.  Today we're going to break down the gameplay, give our thoughts on the pros and cons of the game, and give it an illustrious Games & Tea final score (yes, we've now decided our final scores should be illustrious ... it was bound to happen eventually).  As an in-development project it is reliant on crowd-funding, so if you like the sound of our review then please head over to its Kickstarter page and pledge your support.

The goal in Pirates! is to become the greatest pirate captain, either by being the first to accumulate 7 Pirate Points, or by simply eliminating the opposition.

To start the game each players is given a purple Big Sloop as their starting ship, as well as 11 crew tokens to man them.  The Pirate Card and Adventure Card decks are shuffled and placed within easy reach of all players, then each player is dealt 2 Pirate Cards and 3 Adventure Cards off the top of the decks.  Once all players have their starting hands and the beginnings of their pirate fleets, it's time to take to the high seas and find out who has what it takes to rule the waves!

Because sometimes a regular sloop just doesn't cut it...

Each player's turn consists of 4 phases: upkeep, adventure, re-organise, and draw.  The upkeep phase involves drawing 3 Pirate Cards to add to the player's hand, and adding new crew members to their fleets.  To do this, the cargo values (represented by the barrel in the bottom-right corner of the card) are added up across the player's fleet, and they receive that number of crew tokens to distribute as they wish.  The other values on the card are (from left to right) speed, cannons, and starting crew/maximum crew - all of which we'll address in due course.  The gold skull and crossbones icon represents a pirate point - most ships are worth just one, but some powerful vessels are worth more if a captain is ruthless enough to defeat them!

The adventure phase requires the player to place all of their Adventure Cards face-up on the table in front of them, and then decide which cards (if any) they will attempt to beat.  Alternatively, they can choose to attack one of their opponent's ships, which can come in handy when another player is getting close to their seventh Pirate Point!  Most of these cards are other ships which can be added to their fleet, but some are treasure cards which can have altogether different benefits!  Each ship in a player's fleet may only go after one Adventure Card per turn, so the players must decide whether to play the game cautiously or risk it all for gold and glory!  Seeing as combat plays a very large part in Pirates!, let's take a look at how it works...

This Big Sloop has decided to try and take on the David Le Roi for a very desirable reward of 2 Pirate Points.  The David Le Roi may not be tough, but with a speed of 7 she's fast, and so the Big Sloop must catch her first of all!  The player rolls the wind dice, and adding the dice total to the Big Sloop's speed, they must match or beat the David Le Roi's speed in order for battle to commence.  This may sound easy enough, but the wind dice features both positive and negative values, so if the Big Sloop is caught in a headwind then their quarry will escape unharmed!

Fortunately in this case the Big Sloop rolled a +1, allowing them to catch the David Le Roi.  Now they can engage eachother!

Before the crews go head-to-head, both ships get a chance to unleash a barrage of cannon fire upon eachother!  Each ship rolls a number of dice equal to their cannon value, and for each cannon icon rolled the enemy ship loses a crew member.  In this instance the Big Sloop has no cannons so must sit by whilst the David Le Roi fires two shots back at them!  Out of the two dice, one cannon icon was rolled, so the Big Sloop is reduced to 12 crew members before the hand-to-hand fighting starts.

Most pirates are not above using dirty tactics to win a fight...

Each ship rolls a number of dice equal to their remaining crew tokens.  This time, players are looking to roll crew icons on the dice, and for every one rolled the enemy loses a crew.  This process is repeated until one ship's crew is completely destroyed, and then the last man standing takes possession of the now empty ship!  This may sound like a lengthy and repetitive process, but the cap on the maximum crew of each ship brings this down to a manageable level.  The newly acquired ship is then given new crew members equal to its cargo value, and then it joins the victor's armada, adding to their Pirate Point total!

Some Pirate Cards can be played to give ships permanent upgrades, whereas others can give bonuses which last for just one round of combat.  These cards can also be stacked to give brutal combinations which can change the course of a game.  In the photo above, the Big Sloop has been upgraded with +3 cannons.  At the start of the battle, it was given the card "Chain Shot" - giving it a further +3 cannons - twice, and "Fast Reload", giving it x2 cannons.  All of these bonuses combine to give the Big Sloop a devastating +18 cannons for one round, giving it the chance to destroy an enemy ship's entire crew before the hand-to-hand fighting even begins!  This is a great example of how managing the Pirate Cards can be used to tremendous effect.

Following on from the adventure phase, the reorganisation phase allows players to redistribute their crew across their fleet, and sell any unwanted ships for their cargo value's worth in crew tokens.  Whilst this may sound counter-productive, selling ships to boost your total crew can prove to be a life-saving decision if players find themselves spread too thin!

Finally, in the draw phase players draw 3 new Adventure Cards to be played next turn.  You may be wondering why this is done at the end of the turn, rather than the beginning of the next one, and we have to admit we wondered the same thing when we first read the rules.  Once we started playing, however, we realised that this actually increases the strategic depth of Pirates!, as it forces players who are under attack to decide whether to use their Pirate Cards to help defend their ships, or to keep them in-hand to help complete their Adventure Cards in the next turn.

Play continues until one player secures that coveted seventh Pirate Point, or until only one remains in the game (the loss of a player's final ship results in their elimination).

So that's Pirates! in a nutshell!  So the all important question (and the one, we hope, for which you were awaiting an answer): what did we think of it?  Well to start with, we liked the fact that it's a card game with a little bit extra.  It might sound shallow, but the simple addition of some tokens and a themed-dice mechanic just makes it feel like it has a little more substance than a regular card game.

Looking beyond this, there's a lot about Pirates! which has been well thought out.  It's nice to see a card game which isn't a party game, but works well with more than two players.  It toes the line well between being a casual game and one which requires some slightly deeper, forward planning, giving an enjoyable experience without becoming too taxing.

The battle system works very nicely for the most  part - in the world of gamers there do seem to be a lot of anti dice-rolling voices, but in our opinion it adds a nice random element to any game.  Sure, no-one likes to just roll straight dice against eachother, but as an addition to a tactical element we believe it has its place in games, and it works well here - it's a great thrill when your opponent boards one of your ships with a larger crew, and some lucky dice rolls leave your crew heroically victorious against all the odds!  There's a nice variety of ships to chase down and plunder, from heavily-armed galleons to swift little sloops, and the wide range of Pirate Cards allows for some dramatic table-turning and devious thwarting of enemy plans.  Also - and this did surprise us a little - none of the Pirate Cards are drastically overpowered.  Many card games do suffer from having a few overpowered action cards which give the holder an unfair advantage, but Pirates! seems to have steered clear of this pitfall.

As mentioned earlier, the small touch of drawing Adventure Cards at the end of players' turns is another good mechanic, as it allows players to plan out their turn ahead, and forces them to decide whether to stick to the plan or use their cards to intervene if their own ships come under attack.

The victory condition of 7 Pirate Points seems spot on as well.  In many of our games, players would quickly reach 5 points as they each focused on their Adventure Cards rather than eachother, and then the game would become much more aggressive as they each tried to prevent eachother from scoring those final 2 points, whilst trying to edge their way there themselves!  This made those final points a very tough slog, only adding to the careful tactical planning of each turn.

This is something of a double-edged sword, however.  We did have a few games where a couple of players both reached 5 points fairly quickly, and then in the following few turns their attempts to keep eachother from winning ended up knocking both players back down to 2 points.  This was repeated a few times, making the game feel as though it was stuck in something of a "Groundhog Day" loop.

You may have picked up on the fact that we said the combat mechanic works "for the most part".  The only downside to it in our opinion came up when two large crews went up against eachother.  When you have two ships with roughly 20 crew members and 10 cannons each going head-to-head, the dice-rolling can start to become a little tedious.  This didn't come up very often, but during one battle over 80 dice were rolled before one heavily-battered ship emerged as the victor!  We did wrack our brains for a while to try and think if there was a way to streamline this mechanic for larger engagements, but we came up blank.

So, let's break it down into a nice, bite-sized summary...

The Good Points

• Pirates! fits together very nicely overall, and works as a nice semi-casual game.
• It's a quick game to learn, but has a tactical edge for players can develop.
• Up to 6 people can play Pirates! at once, making it a good social game.
• It doesn't require a great deal of space to play.
• It's about Pirates!  Everyone loves Pirates!

The Bad Points

• In larger battles the dice-rolling element of combat can go on a little too long.
• Players can sometimes get stuck in a loop of mutual annihilation, although this lessens with higher player numbers.

Recommended Number of Players: 4

The first games of Pirates! we tried out involved just 2 players, which does work, although the odds of a mutual annihilation loop do increase!  3 players works nicely, but we found that 4 provided the best overall experience, giving players plenty of targets to choose from without spreading their attacks too thinly.

Average Game Time: 45-60 minutes

Pirates! isn't one of the quickest card games in the world, but that's entirely down to the tactical element of the game.  Unlike some card games such as Fluxx, which can feel like they'll go on forever, Pirates! always makes the players feel as though they're heading for their goal.  We found 2 player games lasted around 30 minutes, with that time slowly increasing with the player numbers.

Replay Value: Medium

There are enough combinations of Adventure Cards and Pirate Cards to keep Pirates! fresh for quite some time, although not forever.  The games do go on for long enough though, that a decent games night will probably only accommodate one or two rounds, so it shouldn't be a game that goes stale too soon, and the potential for future expansions (see below) can only enhance its longevity.

The Future: Bountiful 

Being a project currently in development, it's difficult to pin down the future of Pirates!, but we've been in touch with the creators to get a rough idea of where this game may go if it achieves post-Kickstarter success.  Whilst we don't want to go into too many details and make promises on behalf of the Pirates! team, ideas are currently bouncing around for future expansions which will include additional mechanics to give the game a little more depth.  There is certainly potential here for Pirates! to grow far beyond its humble beginnings.

Price: £20

Being a Kickstarter project, backers have the choice of how much they want to put in to try and help it on its way.  A small amount can go towards simply supporting the project, whilst larger amounts reap greater rewards, such as a sloop tour down the canals of Amsterdam!  To simply secure a copy of Pirates! upon its release though, will set you back £20.

OVERALL SCORE: 8/10

Tea consumed during this review: Our penultimate bag of Twinings green tea/every day tea blend, with milk and 2 sweeteners.  10/10

If you enjoyed this article and want to see more of the same, come and like us on our Facebook page to keep up to date with our reviews, as well as our general day-to-day ramblings!