Sentinels of the Multiverse: Rook City - A Review

Over the past few months, Greater Than Games' superhero card game Sentinels of the Multiverse has seen quite a bit of table time at my place. Its thematic roller-coaster pacing only seems to get better as time goes on. Rook City, the first expansion to the series, ratchets up the fun through the inclusion of new villains, heroes, and environments from the seedy underbelly of the sprawling Rook City. The expansion also subtly adds to the game mechanics a bit, by adding a new scaling mechanism that helps the game maintain balance  with differing player counts, as well as a couple of new attributes that modify how much damage can be dealt during an attack.

Christopher Badell, Greater Than Game's Design Director, was kind enough to speak with us about the Rook City expansion when it was being funded on Kickstarter, so it was a treat to finally bring the game to the table, and see what Greater Than Games had really been plotting in their hidden fortress. Since I have previously reviewed the Sentinels of the Multiverse base game, I am not going to talk about the rules of the core game, but instead focus on the successful tweaks to the formula, as well as the interesting and engaging characters and environments that have been introduced into GTG's Multiverse.

Components:

Like Sentinels of the Multiverse, Rook City maintains the card based nature of the game. Even without a box full of components, Rook City manages to capture the visceral essence of a comic book story. It shares the same expressive, colorful artwork that the original game introduced, through the quality cards and colorful box.

The biggest visible difference with Rook City is its box. Not only does it have a higher quality linen finish, but it contains a custom insert that holds the cards perfectly, and removes the need to separately bag cards. The custom insert is a step in the right direction, but there are still some issues with the new box as a storage solution. First of all, it isn't really built to hold all of the cards in the game - the cards from the base game, and the Rook City cards will have to stay quarantined in their own respective boxes. Second, there is no easy way to separate the cards. The way the cards are stored in the new box doesn't really allow for baggies or tabbed separators. (However, Greater than Games is addressing this issue in tandem with the second expansion, by releasing a new box that will hold all of the cards for the base game and expansions.) When push comes to shove, though, the amount of space that Sentinels and Rook City take up on a shelf is still much less than most deck builders.

New Mechanics:

Rook City introduces some new mechanics to the game. Unlike expansions in many other games, these rules are all self contained. The basic game rules remain untouched, and new mechanisms are introduced only in the card text of the Heroes, Villains and Environments in Rook City. Since cards from different games are never shuffled together into a single deck, it allows GTG to craft new play experiences in Rook City, without affecting the play experience in the base game.

The first, and most important change is the addition of a new symbol to Rook City cards. This symbol looks like an H with a circle around it, and is always interpreted as the number of heroes in the current game. One of my concerns with the base game, was that it did not scale well. The villains and environments had a fixed difficulty regardless of the number of players. This made a 3 player game much harder than a 4 player game. With this new scaling mechanic, however, the Rook City villains and environments can now scale in difficulty based on the player counts.  It's always a bit scary when game designers start tinkering with a system that already works, but I am happy to say that Rook City maintains the dynamic, tense flavor of Sentinels, only now it allows for a much more flexibility in player count.

The other two changes to the game's mechanics are more minor, although fairly pervasive throughout the new decks. One identifies a target as invulnerable, while the other ensures that damage done cannot be reduced in potency. These effects could have been written into the descriptions on the appropriate cards, but by introducing them as keywords, a lexicon is being created for the game that can be built upon in later expansions. Although these new mechanisms may seem minor, the cards that utilize the new keywords can really add a feeling of both power and dread to the game, further supporting the cinematic feel of the game.

Cast of Characters:

When it comes down to it, the success and charm of both Sentinels of the Multiverse and Rook City are delivered though the individual characters in the game: the villains, heroes, and environments. Yes, I realize that I just called the environment a character in the game, but I still believe that the environments have so much character, they become anthropomorphic in their own right. Since the characters are the heart and soul of the expansion, I would like to talk about each of these 8 personalities separately.

Villains

The Organization - The Organization is a corporate juggernaut that secretly controls Rook City in it's shadowy back rooms. Led by a man called only "The Chairman", and kept in line by a formidable woman known as "The Operative", The Organization is a doubly tough nut to crack.

Where most villains have a single leader that needs to be defeated, The Organization starts with two villains on the table. In line with the typical hierarchy of a corporation, players will have to fight tooth and nail through a bureaucracy before finally defeating The Chairman. The way The Organization deck is structured, there are various underbosses who continue to bring thugs into play; and The Operative, who brings the various Underbosses into play. Not only are waves upon waves of minions delivered to the players during the battle, but the Chairman is completely untouchable until The Operative has been dispatched.

The thought that was put into this villain deck to create mechanisms that reinforce the feeling of a corporate hierarchy are incredibly inspired. This is the sort of attention to detail that gives Sentinels it's uniquely effective theme without having to punt on the gameplay. This villain deck reminds me of a Saturday Morning Cartoon, or an 8 bit beat 'em up video game; the players have to battle through what seems like an unending wave of thugs in order to defeat the mini-bosses, and the end culminates in a two part boss battle where the boss's defenses have to be penetrated before he can be ultimately defeated. This is a narrative arc that has been found in movies, books, and video games for years, because it works so well at an instinctual level. It's no surprise that it works in Rook City as well, as this is a very dynamic and tense battle.

Spite - Spite's story taps into the idea of the government meddling in the affairs of men and creating damage that it cannot control. Similar to the theme in classics like "A Clockwork Orange", where the government uses prisoners as test subjects for questionable experiments, Spite's story is one of a serial killer who is given an opportunity to commute his death sentence by being a lab rat. Unfortunately, the experiments that were performed turned Spite into a monster of unimaginable violence and power. He easily escaped his confines, and now roams the city feeding his unquenchable thirst for murder and pumping his twisted body full of chemicals that give him superhuman strength.

Spite's deck is very unique, and has two main themes that run through it. The first is his insatiable need to kill innocent people. Throughout the deck are victim cards that represent innocents which the heroes can save by completing tasks on the card's text. If the heroes chose not to save the victims, they are quickly dispatched by cards brought into play from the villain deck, causing damage to the heroes, or greater strength to Spite. This is another clever mechanic that forces players to act like heroes. In most of the other villain decks, the heroes are put into a position where fighting is the only purpose, however Spite's deck introduces heroic sacrifices that the players must perform in order to save innocent victims. This changes the mood of the game and the motivation of the players, and surprisingly ratchets up the SuperHERO nature of the game.

The second theme in the Spite deck is chemical mutation. Along with the victim cards in the deck are a collection of chemicals and mutagens that strengthen and change Spite's behavior, forcing players to balance their attacks on Spite with the attempts to save the innocents, and causing the flow of the game to swing between the two objectives. 

I find it very refreshing that the Villains themselves really dictate the theme of the play experience, and each one can be drastically different. This modular nature makes me excited for the future of Sentinels, and the ability for the game to persist and continue to deliver new and unique play experiences without the need to rework the core mechanics.

The Matriarch - The Matriarch takes a page out of Alfred Hitchcock's playbook by making birds terrifying again. The Matriarch's power is granted by a magical mask that allows her to commune with the flocks of avian minions.

The key theme in The Matriarch's deck is swarming. As long as her mask is in play, the villain deck is cycled, bringing continued destruction to the table until more birds appear. This causes the play area to fill up with more birds every turn, turning the play area into a seemingly unending cloud of wings and beaks. 

Like the previous villains, The Matriarch's deck is very thematic in its execution. The mechanics that bring about this feeling don't seem as creative as the other villains, though. The Matriarch has less of a roller coaster pacing to her cards, and instead feels a bit more like a hopeless grind to the finish. That's not to say that she isn't a compelling villain, just that the others produce a more interesting play experience.

Plague Rat - Plague Rat is a mutant half-man half-rat produced from the mixture of drugs and toxic waste spewed from the poorly regulated factories and industrial plants in Rook City. While years of criminal control has transformed Rook City into a toxic hive of villainy, the corrupted sewers have turned this former drug dealer into a noxious villain.

Like Teenage Mutant Turtles gone horribly wrong, Plague Rat could be likened to an evil alter ego of the good and protective Splinter. With veins filled with pestilence and toxins, Plague Rat's bite has lasting effects, theming his villain deck with poison and infection. Where other villains bring minions to the table that protect and divert attention, this rat-man wages a one-on-one battle with the heroes using only his debilitating bite which can turn the heroes against each other and themselves. Once all of the heroes are infected, their only remedy against the poison is to do damage to friendly targets.

I really enjoy the way that Plague Rat mixes up the Sentinels formula. By forcing the players to attack each other, it creates the feeling that the heroes are afflicted by a mind altering pathogen that turns the conflict against Plague Rat into a conflict of self as well. When you think about it, that is a pretty deep theme for a simple card game.

Heroes -

Expatriette - The first of the two heroes included in the Rook City expansion would give John Rambo a run for his money. Daughter of the villain "Citizen Dawn" in the main Sentinels game, Expatriette is a master of firearms with her sights on bringing justice to the world one bullet at a time.

Expatriette's deck is filled with firearms and ammunition, and her gameplay is all about swapping weapons and keeping them loaded with a variety of different types of rounds. Playing this harbinger of pure firepower is like standing next to a hailstorm of bullets. It's easy to imagine the game shifting into slow motion as the smoke swirls around her and the bullet casings spill to the ground, clinking against the pavement like steel rain. She may be straightforward to play, but the feeling of pure unadulterated firepower she presents is a lot of fun.

Mr Fixer - If Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid dropped the home maintenance angle and decided to start breaking evil's kneecaps, the result would be Rook City's Mr. Fixer - an ex martial arts instructor, who has turned his life to the pursuit of extracting justice for the brutal slaying of his students.

With an arsenal of car repair tools and knowledge in a myriad of martial arts styles, he is a force to be reckoned with; changing up his nature like others change clothes, and keeping his enemies guessing. Through the use of the different cards in his deck that represent tools and fighting styles, Mr. Fixer plays like a bunch of different characters in one. Choosing what style to use at any given moment can be very strategic, and empowers the player to feel like he is defeating his enemies not only with superhero skills, but with a calculating mind as well. While more subtle than Expatriette, he is just as fun to play.

Environments -

Rook City - Rook City is dangerous in many ways. Its sewers run green with toxic sludge, its crumbling buildings threaten to crush the unaware, and dangerous criminals roam it's darkened alleys. The villains that the heroes must confront are tough, but the city itself may be their toughest obstacle. That's not to say that Rook City doesn't have it's share of citizens working for the greater good. Even in an unlikely place like this, heroes may find some allies... or at least distractions for the enemy.

The Rook City deck may represent the most common type of environment found in comic books - the crime infested city. This common theme isn't a bad thing though, as it fills a thematic hole in the base game. The heroes of Sentinels needed a city to clean up, and it has been graciously delivered to them by Greater Than Games in the form of Rook City.

Industrial Complex - Lots of crazy things can happen in an Industrial Complex when there is little to no regulation. Filled with science experiments gone bad, the complex in Rook City has wonders that can both help and hinder hero and villain alike. But some of the technology found here isn't fully baked, and can combust in a shower of green goo and pain. Oh.. and watch out for the vermin that roam the dingy hallways - this Industrial Complex prefers to spend it's money on research over sanitation.

Unlike the Rook City deck that seems tipped in the villains' favor, the Industrial Complex is fairly neutral. The different vat cards stay in play and have effects on both villains and heroes alike. Sprinkled through the environment deck, however, are chemical explosions which cause the vats to blow up, and cause damage to all targets in play. The rat cards in the deck can be a hindrance, but if the experimental mutagen card comes into play, all of the rats will come out of the discard pile, and they will be much tougher to defeat.

Out of the two environments, I think that the Industrial Complex is my favorite. The cards within the deck seem to have more interplay with each other, and there is a lot more potential for catastrophic damage, both to the heroes and the villains.

Conclusion:

All in all, I was extremely impressed with Rook City. Not only did it rectify some of the scaling issues from the base game, but the heroes, villains, and environments were all a blast to play. The components themselves were also upgraded with higher quality cards and a box that allowed for better organization.

The only complaints that I have about the expansion are minor. While the box is better than the one in the first game, it still doesn't really address the storage problem with the game. Greater Than Games has plans to address this in upcoming releases, but until it is in my hot little hands, I'll have to make due. 

I suppose that it is also bit disappointing that the scaling mechanic only works for the Rook City cards. It would be nice to have the effects retroactive into the base game. This too is being addressed in a re-release of the base game, though, so players will soon have the opportunity to play with the best of both worlds.

It's rare that I have practically nothing negative to say about a game, and wax lyrical about it instead, but I find myself in that position with Sentinels of the Multiverse: Rook City. The additions in the expansion only work to enhance the game experience, and every one of them is welcome and well conceived. If you own Sentinels of the Multiverse already, Rook City is a must buy. If you don't own Sentinels of the Multiverse, wait for the second edition of Sentinels to be released, and then buy it - along with Rook City!

Titans of Industry - Kickstarter Preview

I recently had the opportunity to check out a prototype of a surprisingly fun new game designed by Brian Lewis and published by Gozer Games called Titans of Industry. Titans is a worker placement game set in the industrial sector during the roaring 20's, and is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter. As of this writing, Titans is almost halfway to its funding goal, and has a little more than two weeks to raise the remaining funds.

I really enjoy Titans of Industry, and I feel that it is a game worth Kickstarting. Even in its prototype form, Titans of Industry delivers solid gameplay and sells its art deco theme well; I expect finished artwork and professional printing will really allow the game to shine. (Due to the fact that the copy of the game I played was in prototype form, I'm presenting this as a preview instead of a full-on review, so keep in mind that the components seen here are handmade and use art that may change.)

The Game:

Titans of Industry puts players in the spit-shined shoes of a corporate magnate during a seven year period in the roaring 20's - a time when the production volume of factories was rapidly accelerating due to technological advances in manufacturing, and the skyline of urban America was changing as glittering structures were being erected from steel, glass and concrete, and dared to touch the sky with their art deco spires. Embroiled in the middle of this new prosperity, players in ToI are attempting to grow their companies by accumulating resources and erecting ever taller factories and businesses.

Titans of Industry's core game mechanics revolve around worker placement, and while the worker placement mechanism has become almost ubiquitous in modern games, I'm still surprised at the unique style and interesting play that continues to be produced in the genre. Titans of Industry embraces the spirit of the games that have come before it, without retreading the same ground. While Titans builds on some of the cardinal concepts of worker placement, it hits a sweet spot for me with its combination of resource utilization, building upgrades, and non-confrontational player interactions. In a way, it feels a bit like a cross between Caylus and Seven Wonders, utilizing the worker placement and variable structures of the prior with the empire building and social feel of the latter; players not only manage their own empire, but find that they must strategically utilize the services and buildings of their competitors in order to succeed.

Components:

Since the copy of ToI I have is a prototype, I am not going to address the component quality or specific art details individually, but the general art direction of the game, even in it's prototype form, gives the game a unique look and feel. The components are all designed with an art deco flair that really personifies an era. It's a style that is woefully underrepresented in board games, so it's a special treat for me to see it presented so boldly in this game.

Cards: The game utilizes 3 decks of cards throughout gameplay, one deck represents factories that players may purchase and upgrade, the second contains businesses that players may purchase, and the third represents "Corporate Strategy" - special goals that the player can acquire, which will give him bonus points should he reach them.

Workers: Being a worker placement game, the workers are a central part of the game. The prototype copy I have utilizes typical meeples in the 5 vivid player colors. There is also a grey meeple which can be co-opted as a "temp" worker during gameplay.

Tokens: Tokens are used to represent the seven different types of goods that players can collect during the game: Wood, Stone, Brick, Tar, Concrete, Steel, and Glass. Each type of resource token is color coded, and displays an icon identifying the resource. Money is also represented with tokens instead of flimsy paper bills, which scores bonus points from me.

Board: The game board is large, and manages to capture an art-deco feel in the shape and structure of the office that it represents. This makes the board clear and understandable, as well as pleasant to look at.

Gameplay:

Gameplay follows the standard worker placement model, with a few twists. The game takes place over 7 years, with each year equating to a game turn. Each game turn is further split into phases: purchasing buildings, placing workers, resolving workers, and cleanup.

Each turn starts with the opportunity for players to purchase factory and business cards. These cards represent buildings and upgrades that generate goods, money, and victory points for the player. The buildings that the player chooses to buy can have a large impact on how the game plays out. During the course of the game, players will usually find themselves utilizing their opponents' factories and businesses in order to generate and sell resources. This means that purchasing buildings that are in demand can net the player a lot of victory points - however, he needs to be careful not to become too reliant on others in the process.

Next, the players will place their workers. Players may put workers on one of the many spaces on the board which allow them to gain basic resources, bend certain rules, acquire new goals, or gain new workers.  Players can also place workers on their own buildings, or their opponents buildings. Utilizing these buildings is the very core of Titans of Industry.

Divided into two types, Factories and Businesses, the buildings drive the producer-consumer economy of the game. Factories generate resources for the player using it, while businesses consume the resources and reward the user with money or victory points. It is to the player's advantage to select the factories and businesses that give him the best payout and align with any special goals he may have. However, he must be careful - when a player places his worker on a business or factory that doesn't belong to him, the owner of the factory automatically receives some victory points. This can make for tough decisions when a player has to decide if the benefit of using the building is worth helping his opponent in the process.

After everyone has placed their workers, the player's actions are resolved. This happens in an order that moves roughly clockwise around the board. During this phase, players receive goods, sell goods, and gain special actions or cards based on the actions that they have taken.

On certain years, players must pay rent on the buildings that they own. This happens after all actions are resolved, during the upkeep phase. Hopefully the player has earned enough money to cover these costs, otherwise he is required to take out high interest loans that must be repaid in order to avoid a stiff victory point penalty.

Play continues this way until the end of the seventh round, when players count up the victory point value of all of their buildings, goods, money, as well as any bonus points they have earned from successful corporate strategy goals.

The person with the most victory points is the winner and can revel in his obscene wealth - for the next two years, at least - until the stock market crash of 1929 causes him to lose the shirt off of his back.

Conclusion:

Titans of Industry is a solid game that really deserves to be made. With so many worker placement games out there, it is sometimes hard to look at a games description and immediately see it's potential - but ToI definitely has it.

Surprisingly, Titans turns out to be a very social game; even though the rules expressly forbid direct trading, the fact that players must utilize the other players' buildings to succeed introduces a definite social element. This aspect of the ToI reminds me a lot more of games like 7 Wonders than Caylus. While Caylus has a similar mechanic where players must pay rent to use opponents' buildings, Titans does it in a way that is much more congenial. In fact, the mechanics in the game that govern businesses actually reward players who choose to cooperate, by awarding a bonus when multiple players are on the same building. This design choice transforms the entire nature of the game from a cutthroat competition to a more subtle balancing act. That's not to say there isn't plenty of opportunity for backstabbing or opportunistic play, it just manifests itself in a way that isn't as obviously antagonistic as many other worker placement games.

Players that like to build economic engines will especially enjoy Titans of Industry. The process of purchasing and upgrading buildings, producing resources, and turning those resources into money really speaks to the part of me that loves civilization building games and likes to pump out long card combos in Dominion. It feels odd to say that, because Titans of Industry is very much in the Economic Worker Placement camp and shares very little in common with Dominion or Civ games; yet it somehow manages to scratch that itch for me.

I really appreciate the art style and theme of Titans of Industry as well. Watching it evolve from a spartan prototype with an almost monochromatic color scheme, to the colorful art-deco inspired incarnation that it is today has been exciting. I can only imagine the potential that the game could reach with the proper funding to be professionally printed.

I fear that with only a little over 2 weeks left in its Kickstarter campaign, Titans of Industry may face an uphill battle to secure the rest of the funding it needs. It is a game that really deserves to be played, and I am glad that I was given the opportunity to purchase a prototype copy. If you are sitting on the fence about this one and like worker placement or economic games, I would urge you to head over to Kickstarter and pledge for a copy of your own. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Prêt-à-Porter - A Review

And so there I was, front row center in New York's fashion district, watching as the next season of clothing strutted across the catwalk. I wiped the cheese dust from my fingers, and casually stroked my fashionable neckbeard. (From what I could tell, neckbeards appeared to be trending last season in Milan.) The auditorium dimmed and I waited, nervously.  Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy" began thumping from the sound system as the lights rotated into place, illuminating the thin walkway that my models were about to grace.

My first model set foot on the stage... and there was a collective gasp of horror from the audience. My worst fears were realized! I had spent all of my money following trends, and paid no attention to the quality focused market here. I made a gamble by trying to save money on inferior materials, but the audience definitely wasn't buying the "Burlap Chic" angle. This would be the end. I had borrowed money on empty promises and the hope that "Meeple Tees" would take the world by storm. Instead, my kneecaps had an inevitable meeting with Guido in the alleyway. It was this painful regret that would spell the end of my career as a fashionista... until the next game of Prêt-à-Porter, at least.

Ignacy Trzewiczek has always impressed me with his game design. I gave solid marks to his fantasy siege title "Stronghold" and I was very excited to see what he had been cooking up at Portal Publishing in the past year. Luckily, his recent release, Prêt-à-Porter is now being distributed through Eagle Games in North America.

Surprisingly, this new game doesn't feature the castles, mutants, or postnuclear settings that Portal has become known for, instead opting for the ruthless world of off-the-shelf fashion. While I might have originally been a bit nonplussed by the fashion theme, once the confusion passed, I was happy to recognize Prêt-à-Porter for the deep, meaty, worker placement oriented business simulation that it is. 

In Prêt-à-Porter, players are growing a fashion business from the ground up, and trying to find success in an ultra-competitive market. Gameplay revolves around managing money; purchasing designs and materials; as well as managing a staff of workers, real-estate, and contracts with the ultimate goal of selling Prêt-à-Porter (ready to wear clothing) through a series of fashion shows. The player who can best juggle all of these aspects of business will make the most money and emerge as the next Vera Wang of board game simulated fashion.

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Toc Toc Woodman - A Dexterity Game Review

Mayday Games is best known for it's line of card sleeves for the hobby game market, but has recently jumped into the game publishing market with a nice selection of original and reprinted games. One of these games is a quirky Korean import called Toc Toc Woodman, designed by Justin Oh. Toc Toc Woodman is a dexterity game that tasks players with using a plastic axe to chop the bark from a large plastic tree without causing the tree to collapse. On the surface, it may sound similar to other popular dexterity games like Jenga, but make no mistakes, this Woodman has a whimsical style like no other.

Components:

The components in Toc Toc Woodman are made from a sturdy, lightweight, molded plastic that is built to withstand the repeated hits from the small plastic axe used during gameplay. Included in the game is a small plastic base upon which the rest of the pieces are stacked to form "slices" in the trunk of a small tree. Each slice has a central, lightly colored "core" with four brown pieces of "bark" that slide into it. Although quite simple in construction, it is surprising the way these components interact with each other to create a structure that is both strong and precarious at the same time.

Gameplay:

Toc Toc Woodman's rules are easily described in just a few sentences. In fact, although printed rules are included, a player can simply read the large lettering on the back of the box, and know everything he needs to play. During the game, players take turns hitting the segmented tree trunk with a plastic axe, trying to knock the bark off of the center core. While this may sound simple, it is usually easier said than done; as players hit the tree, the different stacked segments will be pushed around, causing the pieces of tree trunk to shift their balance. If a player is skillful, he will only knock the brown bark off of the tree, but a misjudged strike can cause one of the center cores to fall - or worse, the entire tree to collapse. For every piece of bark knocked off, the player scores a point, but, if one of the core pieces is knocked down, the player loses 5 points.  Each player must take two hits before the next player gets a chance to wield the axe. When all of the bark has been knocked from the tree, the player with the most points wins. More times than not, however, the game actually ends when the entire tree comes crashing down due to a misjudged chop - which can be very cathartic for the other players when it's the lead player doing the chopping.

That's really all there is to the game. It plays very quickly, and often times, the setup takes longer than the game itself. There are a couple of gameplay variants printed in the manual, and while these add some variety, there is an enjoyable simplicity in the basic game that I prefer.

Conclusion:

Even with the short play time and simple rules, there is a lot of fun to be had in this quirky game. The tension of the barely-balanced tree elicits gasps around my table, and giddy cackling from the children when one of their siblings, or, heaven forbid, one of their parents has caused the entire structure to collapse. In fact, this is one of those elusive games that can be enjoyed by adults and children alike, and more importantly - together. The nature of tapping the plastic trunk with a small "toc, toc" doesn't require the same extended control of small motor skills that a game like Jenga does, which is a great equalizer when it comes to younger folk.  Players only need to decide where to hit and how hard, which actually makes Toc Toc Woodman as much of a press-your-luck type game as it is a dexterity game. Hitting the tree hard can knock a lot of bark off, but there is a high probability that disaster will strike. On the other hand, a player who is too timid with his strength can come away empty handed. When many games I play with my kids can be mind-numbingly boring in their simplicity, it's refreshing that Woodman is able to take very basic rules and deliver something that is actually fun.

Although I have had great success playing Toc Toc with my children, it's important to note that it isn't just a kids game. The fun of being a miniature lumberjack is universal, so even when there are no kids in sight, Toc Toc is still a great experience with the right crowd. Toc Toc Woodman isn't going to be winning any awards for deep strategy, but as a quick social game to play with family or friends, it works exceedingly well. Where children love the simple rules and the inherent destruction of watching the tree collapse, adults will love the quirky theme... and the inherent destruction of watching the tree collapse.

The only negative thing I really have to say about Woodman, is that the 45 seconds it takes to set the game up can sometimes seem disproportionately long; especially when the game can take as little as 2 minutes to play. But then again, it ONLY takes 45 seconds to set up, which is arguably faster than any other game in my collection.

When deciding if you should purchase Toc Toc Woodman, there are a couple of angles to consider: For adult gamers, Toc Toc is firmly entrenched in the silly-fun filler game category, and will find success in a lively game group that enjoys the occasional light game... and perhaps the occasional cocktail. For parents with young children, though, Toc Toc Woodman makes for a great opportunity to bring the family to the table, and offers a chance to truly enjoy the smiles and laughter that gaming with kids delivers - and for me, this is where Toc Toc Woodman really shines.

Paul Koenig’s Market Garden: Arnhem Bridge - A Review

This is a review from a series of articles I am writing about my foray into wargaming. The introduction to these articles, with a bit of background can be found here.

Over the past few months I have been taking a journey into the world of hex and counter wargames. Facilitated by Victory Point Games' varied and beginner friendly catalog, I have been learning to enjoy a genre that, to me, was shrouded in complex rules and drenched in history that I regret to say, I didn’t really pay attention to in high school. As I grow older, however, my interest in learning and understanding this history grows, and I am finding these games to be both fun and interesting. I am bringing my two teenaged kids along for the ride, and I have enjoyed witnessing their reactions to these games.

Today we take on a Paul Koenig designed game about the 1944 World War II conflict “Operation Market Garden”. Aptly named: Paul Koenig’s Market Garden: Arnhem Bridge. This Koenig designed game has players experiencing part of the Allied operation that sought to utilize paratroopers to gain control of several strategically important bridges in Germany; an operation that, had it succeeded, would have opened the way for an armored attack on Northern Germany.

Components:

The components are typical Victory Point Games quality. They are printed using Desktop Publishing equipment, but are clean, and serve their purpose well. The maps are supplied on thick card-stock, with vivid colors that do not bleed or smear, and the chits are double-sided in full color, with a matte finish.

The map itself is clear and colorful, and the graphic design allows enough detail in the terrain to be interesting, but not so much that it becomes overwhelming. Player aids are printed at the top of the map, allowing for clean, easy access to the most commonly referenced information.

There are three parts to the full-color rulebook: The general rules that are to be shared by all of the games in Koenig's Market Garden series; the exclusive rules that apply only to the Arnhem Bridge game, and optional rules that allow players to add some extra flavor to their games. I had to read through the rules a couple of times to understand how everything worked, and the separation of rules across two sections made that process a bit more difficult than it could have been.

Gameplay:

Like the previous games that I have reviewed in my beginning wargame series, Paul Koenig’s Market Garden: Arnhem Bridge (PKMG:AB), is a hex and counter based game. But, though it has many of the same cosmetic underpinnings as others I have explored, it plays very differently.

The most notable difference is that Arnhem Bridge does not utilize zone of control as a game mechanism. Units can freely pass adjacent enemy units, and even enter the same hex as an enemy unit to perform close combat. This lack of ZOC gives the game a very claustrophobic feel, which works well in the close urban spaces that are being simulated. Hexes are restricted to containing two units - a mechanism called “stacking-limit”, which opens up some interesting strategies. Simply occupying a hex does not limit an opponent’s movement into the hex; only by doubling up on defense in a given hex, can movement into that hex be truly blocked. Since the Arnhem Bridge itself acts as a bottleneck between the north and south portions of the map, taking advantage of the stacking limit is critical.

Koenig’s design also steps away from a structured, predictable turn sequence, opting instead for a “chit-pull” mechanism. When determining the units that can be activated, a representative “HQ” chit for each color-coded group of units is placed into a cup. During play, these chits are are randomly drawn, allowing the corresponding units to take their actions. Due to the random nature of activation, players never know the order that the units will move, which makes it somewhat difficult to coordinate tactical maneuvers between the different units. Since disorganization and loss of communication were some of the major hurdles that the Allied soldiers faced during Operation Market Garden, the chit-pull mechanism makes strong thematic sense.

Combat in Arnhem Bridge is interesting as well. The design does a lot to simplify combat calculations and forgoes lookup tables by calculating success through the comparison of a die roll against the strength of the attacking units. That’s not to say combat is simple, though. In fact, PKMG:AB allows for 4 different types of unit actions, three of which are combat related: Full fire, mobile fire, and close combat. All of these combat types can result in damage to the attacking or defending unit; or an exchange, causing damage to both units. Units in Arnhem Bridge are fairly resilient, and can withstand multiple hits before being completely destroyed, using small double sided “Hit” counters that slide under the chits to show how much damage they have taken. A unit can sustain a single hit without any negative impact, but the second hit causes a loss of attack power, and a third hit destroys the unit entirely.

Of the three combat types, full fire is the one that is the most familiar; a unit in an adjacent hex can use his entire action to roll against his strength and see if he hits the enemy.  Mobile fire is the second type, and acts as a movement/combat hybrid; while only half as effective as full fire, a unit engaging in mobile fire can move using half of his movement, and then perform a half strength fire, or vice versa. Both Full fire and mobile fire only take the attacking units' strength into consideration when calculating the outcome of a battle. As long as the number rolled on a 6 sided die is less than the combined strength of the attacking units, the defending unit takes a hit.

Close combat however, is a bit different that the previous types and gives an advantage to the defender. In close combat, the attacking player enters the same hex as the defending player, and combat commences, with each player rolling against his unit strength until a player takes a hit or chooses to retreat. In this scenario, however, the defender gets the first attack. This is a very important rule that has some very dramatic implications. I overlooked this rule for my first couple of plays, and it resulted in a shockingly unbalanced experience that allowed the attacking player to steamroll the competition. When played correctly, however, close combat is quite a gamble for the attacker. But, with the density of units in the close quarters of the urban landscape, it is often critical to take a gamble with close combat in order to move forward in the greater strategy.

One of the most interesting aspects of wargames is the use of terrain, and Paul Koenig’s Market Garden: Arnhem Bridge uses terrain effects quite effectively. Different types of terrain can affect movement, as well as the effectiveness of full and mobile attacks. In addition to terrain in a given hex, features of a given hex side can affect gameplay as well. For example, a hex side that borders a river cannot be crossed, and there are several sloped hills on the map that can affect combat accuracy. I really enjoyed the diversity of terrain on the map, and the different tactical options that could be considered. Unfortunately, most likely due to my general inexperience with wargames, I found that there was not a whole lot of opportunity to utilize the terrain on the outskirts of the map, as it was often a mad rush to get to Arnhem Bridge before it was completely barricaded by the enemy. While I wanted to sit on a hill, and rain death upon my enemy, more often than not, without zone of control to slow my enemy down, I would simply watch as they zipped past me and out of range.

Scoring in PKMG:AB was surprising to me as well. Where most of the beginning wargames I have played had very strongly defined win conditions, success in Arnhem Bridge was much harder to easily quantify. Similar to many Euro style games that I have played, certain objectives scored differing numbers of victory points, and the player with the most is declared the victor.

Destroying an enemy unit, occupying city hexes, and securing Arnhem Bridge itself are all worth differing points. These objectives aren't arbitrary though, as the scoring system takes into account the important factors that would influence the likelihood of success in the conflict after the events of the game. One of these factors is the positioning of the German 16th SS infantry batallion. This unit is introduced during gameplay, and must be successfully exited from the bottom of the board by the German player. Failure to accomplish this gives the Allied player a giant point bonus, because this unit plays a pivotal role for the Germans later in history. The introduction of this special unit adds an interesting twist to gameplay, and turns what could have been a strictly area control game, into a bit of a cat and mouse game.

Conclusion:

Paul Koenig's Market Garden: Arnhem Bridge intrigues me with smart design choices that closely fit the theme of the game. There was obviously a lot of thought put into the design to exemplify the feeling of loss of communication and cramped urban combat. The scoring system rewards actions that would have a meaningful impact on the larger conflict, confronting the players with some hard decisions about where to focus their manpower.

While I enjoyed the game and appreciate all of the thematic nuance, it's gameplay didn't really resonate with me. Much of this may be due to the nature of the conflict; in simulating communication breakdown and organizational chaos, Arnhem Bridge is inherently chaotic. Players do not know how much support they will receive in any given round, nor how many of their units will be wounded or killed as they parachute into the battlefield. The order that units are activated is completely random, due to the chit-pull mechanism, which can drastically affect the ability to build a strategy, as unit locations can change a lot during play.

Determining success during game was difficult too, as the myriad of conditions that generate victory points need to be analyzed, opening up the potential for analysis paralysis. Personally, I like to have a concrete goal in 2 player games, and feel that victory points can often kill the tension of the end-game when players move to tally their points to see who won. There is something viscerally rewarding about a game that slowly converges to the ultimate end where the point of success is inherently known by all players.

Playing Arnhem Bridge got me thinking about wargames as simulations. It seems that wargames can be very different things to different people; one could almost say that some titles may have a bit of an identity crisis. They work to both simulate historical events, but also provide a fun, competitive gaming experience. Some gamers take the "game" out of wargames entirely by calling them "Conflict Simulations" - and I can certainly see how this distinction rings true in some games. Paul Koenig's Market-Garden: Arnhem Bridge succeeds wonderfully as a conflict simulation. Its mechanics and rule choices really drive a rich, emotional, thematic experience. In order to effectively portray this historical conflict, a feeling of hopelessness and chaos was necessary. Unfortunately, that chaos did not personally make for a great gaming experience. During some of my games, I would get frustrated as I lost units due to combat or being shot down before I had a chance to utilize them. I felt that I had no control over this, and things often felt very unfair. I want to say that the game would have been made better by decreasing the amount of randomness, but in that conversion it would lose a lot of it's thematic flavor.

So I'm torn. Arnhem Bridge succeeds in one area, but leaves me wanting in another. It's success is largely determined by what you are looking for in a game. If you are looking for an unrelenting, chaotic, and often cruel simulation that puts you in the shoes of the brave soldiers who fought in Operation Market Garden, then Arnhem Bridge is a definite success. If you are looking for a balanced game as a military themed contest of wits between two players, then Arnhem Bridge may not be your cup of tea. I find myself somewhere in the middle - Arnhem Bridge is a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.