Welcome to issue seven of 'The Cardboard Cartographer,' here on 'The science of selling yourself short.'
In this issue we are going to be doing something a little different.
Yet another new feature.
Some foreshadowing;
Here at The Cardboard Cartographer we accept that any review needs to be based on real life experience of playing the game being reviewed.
Due to life happening most of the reviews posted here will feature games that are good few months old at least. Not only does this allow for games to be played alongside real life issues, but it also allows for more research to be done on the games and their accompanying material.
This issue throws those rules out of the window.
This issue features a product that is a couple of weeks old at best (at time of posting). It is new enough for a fair amount of people to have not even noticed it was out at all.
This is not a review.
This is the un-boxing of 'Firefly: Pirates and Bounty Hunters;' an expansion for the Firefly board game.
To have something this up to date is a fairly exciting prospect here for
'The Cardboard Cartographer,' and is certainly something we'll try to
do more of in the future.
I digress!
Google Fu.
For those of you who have yet to encounter 'Firefly: the board game,' or indeed the television show it is based upon, I suggest you Google it.
Failing that you can read issue one of 'The Cardboard Cartographer.' It was our very first review!
Check it out - Firefly Review
Caught up? Good.
On to the contents.
This picture contains everything in the new expansion.
as you can see there are new ships, cards, tokens and missions.
Before we continue I would like to point out that there are some new rules. These will not be covered in this issue, but will be explained in a future issue where we review the expansion. So stay tuned!
In the mean time we'll get acquainted with the new stuff; starting with the new ships.
This ship is the SS Walden. The ship is the salvage vessel from the episode 'Out of gas.'
as you can see it has a huge amount of storage space, something which *spoiler* will be invaluable in some of the new missions!
The other new ship is the Interceptor.
This is the bounty hunter; Jubal Early's ship from the episode 'Objects in Space.'
This ship has minimal storage space, crew compartments and upgrade space.
The plus side? It re-roll failed boarding tests.
In addition it is super fast!
Almost the exact opposite of the SS Walden.
While we're on the subject of speed, it should be noted that both the new ships have unique drive cores.
The SS Walden has a small range, but does not suffer heavy load penalties (another new feature), while the interceptor is outrageously fast, and requires no fuel.
New ships mean new captains.
Meet Jubal Early and Sash.
Again, their card text features modifiers based on the new rules.
We'll have to wait and see how effective they prove to be
Speaking of new rules, pretty much everything from here on in concentrates heavily on them.
The new missions for example;
'Jailbreak,' 'The choices we make' and 'Another man's treasure,' are missions specifically for the expansion. 'Choices,' and 'Treasure' are PvP based. Nice.
There is extra loot to be had. Five new cards for each trading post
The biggest addition to these cards is the new class of crew; The Lawman.
A Lawman is an alliance operative. They work for free but will not participate in illegal activity.
Each contact also has five new cards.
These are mad up entirely of jobs that involve piracy and bounties.
Oh wait, what?
Yes, an entirely new card type called 'Bounty.'
While the specifics of this new card will not be known until we've played the game, it is safe to assume that you can obtain or abduct certain people and trade them in for cash.
I picked out a few that caught my eye.
I almost lost it at Two Fry's 'unlicensed haberdashery.'
Finally we come to the new tokens.
As well as some extra tokens for already existing items such as parts, fuel, warrants and so on, there are some new ones.
Seven to be exact.
These seven have numbers printed on one side; these are destinations, whilst the other side are Havens.
So there you have it!
First impression.This is the first 'first impression,' written at the time of my first impression.
I pretty much summed everything up in issue one. Pieces wise nothing has changed.
The tweaked game mechanics are where this will get really interesting. I love the concept of player verse player and I also live the new ships.
I am also curious to see how piracy, boarding, stand off's and bounty's work
I don't know about you guys, but I am looking forward to playing this expansion.
In issue one I stated that I thought the game could do with some player verses player interaction to lend some urgency to play, and here it might well be.
That is all for this issue.
If you have any questions about 'The Cardboard Cartographer', this or past issues, and/or anything else, feel free to drop me a line.
Also, if you fancy leaving some feedback you can do that too.
Comment bellow, or hit me up on Twitter @DarKHaZZl3 - Use the hash tag #TCC.
I'd love to hear from you, especially if you've managed to play Pirates and Bounty Hunters yet!
Thanks for reading
-DH-
Welcome to issue six of 'The Cardboard Cartographer,' here on The science of selling yourself short.
Before we begin I'd like to take a moment to apologise for the delay in the second round of issues.
After the rapid succession of the first five issues, my will to write dried up.
As I have previously said on The science of selling yourself short, if I do not want to write, for whatever reason, I will not write.
I feel that forcing myself to write is counter productive. Not only does it make my hobby a chore, but it also makes me resent it. This will be conveyed in my writing, which unless you watch people suffering (and hey, who doesn't every now and then?...wait...what?), wont be enjoyable for you guys reading along.
The urge to write is coming back, in fits and starts.
Please, bear with me. In return you will see better quality content; more pictures, more writing and a wider variety of games and topics.
I have already started preparatory work on the next few issues, which should speed up the process.
Also, on a side note. My mouse is playing up. Editing this issue has been a nightmare (Y).
On with the show!
In this issue we'll be looking at Betrayal at House on the Hill (BaHotH).
If you already are familiar with BaHotH feel free to skip the Google stage (the bit ahead in blue).
For the rest of you who have not heard of this game, well, take it away
Wikipedia!
Google Fu.
Betrayal at House on the Hill is a board game published by Avalon
Hill. Players all begin as allies, exploring a haunted house filled with
dangers, traps, items and Omens. As players explore the mansion, new room tiles
are chosen at random; accordingly, the game board is different each session - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betrayal_at_House_on_the_Hill
BaHotH was first published in 2004 by Avalon hill under Hasbro. It was later
acquired by Wizards of the Coast and re-released in 2010. It is a game for 3 -
6 players, whom assume the role of the explorers, searching the House for Loot
and the like. Partway through the game the 'haunt' begins, where the house's
influence starts to take hold and strange and malign happenings begin to occur.
For more information head to its page on
Board Game Geek - http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10547/betrayal-at-house-on-the-hill
I was first introduced to this game Via Wil Wheaton's show TableTop;
(If you would like to watch the Table Top episodes featuring BaHotH check them out:
Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MINNKyE4fjs
Part 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgbQwxQIhbw)
Ever since I watched these episodes I have wanted to get my hands on Betrayal at house on the Hill.
However, due to 'the Tabletop factor'
this game rapidly went from general board game obscurity to sold out
everywhere.
For months it was simply not available anywhere, except eBay at crazy prices (I
think the highest I saw it for was around the £500 mark).
Then, about four months ago it comes back in stock.
I managed to get my hands on a copy before it went out of stock again!
Yes, I had essentially been waiting to play this game for 6 months!
So I hoped it would be worth the wait!
First Impressions.
When first opening the box you are greeted with a vast array of colourful
cardboard composite pieces to punch out, along with some very nice room tiles
and nice clear, crisp cards.
In addition to this you have some dice, and some plastic figures.
At first glance the figures look nice, but...
What can I say?
They are in fact very poorly painted, and very flimsy.
Much like the Firefly pieces I spoke of in issue 1 (Read issue 1 here - Firefly review ), they are
made from a flimsy, rubbery plastic.
So poor were these pieces, that one of them came bent; bent in such a way you
know it will break in the future.
I planned on returning it but with the game out of stock again, I think I'll
just deal with the damage. (The whole Amazon saga that has lead to this
decision will be told in a future edition of The Cardboard Cartographer. Needless to say, I'm bloody annoyed!).
Anyway, moving on.
The character cards are pentagonal, which I thought was a nice touch.
Visually pleasing, but again another problem.
To measure your stats throughout the game you use 'sliders,' attached to these
character cards (those little black plastic things attached to the sides).
These are just terrible.
They don't 'grip' the board and as such they slide
around during the game, which can be annoying if you happen to knock the
card/table.
The dice are a bit bland, but in all fairness they do the job they were made to
do. So no real complaints there.
In short. Great visuals, full of character, but just lacking in quality in a
few key areas.
Game play.
The game is fairly simple to play.
Players take it in turns to explore the
house. Every time they enter an unexplored door the uncover a new room.
Rooms are drawn from the pile of room cards and placed accordingly. A room can
only be played on the corresponding floor;
Example.
If player A; The Girl in Yellow, explores a new room on the Ground floor, then you must place a tile
with 'Ground' illuminated on the back. if the tile on top of the deck is does not have 'Ground' printed on it, draw tiles until one is found.
Note: If more than one floor is illuminated
that means you can use it on any of the floor that are highlighted.
Each tile takes up one movement. A player can move up to the number currently show on their speed stat, which
can be found on their character card, or until a card is drawn.
In order to explain cards, we'll carry on with the above example game.
Player A has only moved once, so can move again.
Player A has entered a room with a symbol, and some text on it.
Rooms often have special symbols.
These are;
Ravens = Omens
Ram Skull = Items
Swirl = Events.
If a player is the first to enter a room with one of these symbols in, that
player's movements is over, and they must then draw the corresponding card.
The player reads out the card , and employs whatever action the card states (if
any).
A player may also have to do additional actions depending on the text of the room tiles.
In our example, player A will have drawn an event card.
Due to Player A drawing a card their movement ends in this room.
Therefore, once the card is resolved, Player A 'may' gain 1 point of sanity, as per the text on the room tile.
The Haunt.When exploring the house a room tile with an Omen symbol is uncovered, the player would draw an Omen card as usual. However, at the bottom of each Omen card it instructs a player to 'make a Haunt roll now.'
A Haunt roll is made using six of the dice. A player must roll equal to, or
over the total amount of Omens drawn in the game so far (there is a bar to
measure such things).
If the test is passed the game continues as normal.
If the test is failed the Haunt begins!!
The Haunt is where this game really gets interesting.
Up until this roll is failed, you are all fellow explorers. After this, the ill effects of the House start to take control!
Exactly what Haunt you get is randomly determined by the room the player to
fail the roll is currently in, and the Omen that was drawn, so it is different
almost every time!
Needless to say however, that someone in your team is more than likely going to
betray you.
When this happens the 'Heroes' read the Haunt requirements from the Survivors handbook, while the traitor reads their mission requirments found in the Traitors handbook.
The game then takes on an 'us vs. them' mechanic.
While I'd happily go on talking about how the game pans out, I feel that, in
the case of Betrayal at House on the Hill, revealing too much of the game sort
of spoils the fun.
It is much more challenging and enjoyable not knowing what is going to happen
when the Haunt starts.
Personal Opinion.
After waiting such a ridiculously long time to get my hands on this game I was
apprehensive.
It would have truly sucked if the game
turned out to be terrible.
The game is a slow starter as players
explore the house, but unlike a lot of games, this slow build up is a good
thing.
It allows the players to get comfortable with concept of exploration, and of
course, allows you to kit up a bit before everything comes crashing down.
The Haunts I've played so far are all eerily entertaining.
Needless to say there is fighting, self serving attitudes and general horror
related panic/fleeing/dramatic last stands.
All of which makes for a fun and slightly cheesy horror themed game!
As for the games mechanics, they tend to be fairly well balanced.
While all the various 'skill tests' are based on luck, there is plenty of room
for players to use their judgement in such cases.
For example, items like the Blood Dagger
give great benefits (massive damage bonus), but come with a price to use
(literally sucking the life out of you).
My one 'balance issue' would be the it is fairly difficult for the traitor
player to really punish the heroes.
This might be down to specific haunts, how players are kitted out and where
the tiles are drawn and placed. As all the above are randomly generated, it isn't
something that is done on purpose, and as such, is hard to plan for.
Obviously there is a flip side to that.
This is the price paid for random generation.
The random generation means that there is quite a bit of replay value to this game.
The houses layout will
be different each time, as tiles are drawn randomly.
The Haunt has a similar random quality.
The only issue I have in terms of replay value is that there are not a great
deal of cards, especially when it comes to omens.
Due to the limited amount of Omen cards, you will see the same Omens almost
every game.
Obviously, having more would have an adverse effect on the Haunt system.
I still think BaHotH is a game that
would be ripe for an expansion in the future, however, I think that is probably
an unlikely prospect.
It isn't the newest game, and it hasn't had an expansion
as of yet.
I digress!
Overall I think that the wait was worth it.
This is a great game!
Easy going, simple to understand, full of flavour and competitive to a degree.
Something I'd recommend anyone wanting to play an engaging Board Game, but want
to have the ability to sit back and relax at the same time.
It is also great for those who aren't
into complex games, whilst retaining enough substance to keep those who crave a
bit of difficulty interested.
If you're interested in playing this game (you'll be lucky to find a reasonably
priced copy mind), I strongly recommend downloading a 'Betrayal Character
Sheet' app on your phone/tablet, or simply using a pen and paper instead of those black clip on
sliders.
It will save you a lot of hassle.
I use this one found on the Google play store.
It is a pretty simple and elegant design.
And, it is free!
Can't go wrong really!
That's all for this issue of 'The Cardboard Cartographer.'
I hope you enjoyed this slightly longer than normal issue.
Until next time, if you want to get in touch I'd love to hear from you!
Have you played Betrayal at House on the Hill? What did you think?
What other horror themed games do you like?
Do you have any recommendations to play or avoid?
Feel free to comment on this blog, or Tweet me @DarKHaZZl3
Thanks for reading!
-DH-
