Strategy Series – Devious Intentions

Hey everyone. I know I’ve been a ghost here for the past few months, but I didn’t want you to forget about me, so I decided I would write a few strategy articles for various games. I can strategize unfettered and fill in my review gaps! Anyway, to kick this off I thought I’d bring you a breakdown of my first successful A Game of Thrones LCG deck, which was a Lannister deck. Please bear in mind that I am not a competitive LCG player. I play with friends, and I am competitive, but I am not a tourney player. I am sure there are people out there who could find a zillion things wrong with what I write here. Suck it up. It ain’t your website! This article covers in detail my plot deck. You’ll notice from my discussion and the construction itself that I fight tons of Stark decks. The result is always the same. Winter comes, and then I punch it in the face.

Devious Intentions
House Lannister – No Agenda

Plots
Building Season (Core S195)
Hear Me Roar (Core L192)
Blockade (Core L193)
Fleeing to the Wall (Core B187)
Fury of the Lion (Arms 26)
A Song of Summer (Ravens 20)
The Winds of Winter (Ravens 40)

The Opening Gambit –
Without a doubt, Building Season stands out here. A properly constructed deck in my favored style should yield a setup hand with at least a few cost reducing locations right from the get go. The beauty of Building Season is that it is strongly favored as an opening gambit by many houses and through this is it extremely feasible to get all three ”Street” locations in play, which is important for the Lannister mid-game.

Defensive Feint
Frequently my turn two and three are comprised of Hear Me Roar and Fleeing to the Wall, depending on the game flow. Hear Me Roar is a strong early game card, yielding 5 gold, and severely weakening the starting forces of less intrigue-heavy houses. This is possibly the single most important defense against a strong Stark rush in this plot deck, buying Lannister precious time to lay out the rest of its assets. Additionally, due to its frequently early use in game, it tends to avoid being blockaded.

As for Fleeing to the Wall, this is another important card for thinning out the possibilities available to opponents. This is particularly handy against Targaryen decks based on the core set style setup, and (again) Stark. While any Stark player in their right mind would not opt to discard their kennels, this will often yield a decrease in their overall income, especially if they play their gold yielding locations early in the game. Most importantly, Lannister players should not panic if they don’t get the full effect of these plot cards. Their inclusion is solely for the purpose of slowing down decks that are fast in the early game and in the case of HMR a quick infusion of income.

Mid-Game Skirmish
Blockade is a key mid-game card for Lannister. At a certain point, Lannister tends to receive almost obscene amounts of gold from characters and locations, as well as soft income from cost reducing locations. Frequently Lannister will be playing with a grand total of as much as 10 gold on a turn with Blockade once past the early stages of the game. Add to that the fact that Lannister will be playing a fair amount of unique character duplicates, and you have a lot of wiggle room (and hopefully defense against Valar Morghulis and Wildfire Assault). The four initiative on Blockade is actually quite high as well, opening up venues to soften up the power that other opponents have already stockpiled through the first few turns. A Song of Summer is also a strong mid-game card. Don’t let the plot effect concern you. While it adds a bonus when you are playing against a summer deck, this deck is largely season agnostic by design. The important thing here is the gold income and the high initiative. This card has a high chance of being Blockaded at this stage in the game, so if you lose the gold don’t panic. It can be handy, to be sure. What you need to take advantage of is the high initiative. Use this to strike a few meatier blows at this point, or alternately intentionally throw combats and take advantage of cards like A Lannister Pays His Debts if you have not already used them up. Thinning out the opponents lines is the key part of this point of the game. Your next two plots are designed to make you win the game, and it is not uncommon to take upwards of six or more power for your house in the last few turns.

End Game
This deck rarely goes beyond one rotation of its plot deck. If the plot decks reshuffle, this deck almost assures another player using Valar Morghulis or Wildfire Assault will open the next rotation with those cards, and additionally a Blockade will be highly likely. The Winds of Winter with it’s high claim value is very strong here. This will dissuade aggressive players from tapping out early in the phase if they earn initiative. You can use this to your advantage by liberal application of Lannister’s events-that-become-attachments during your part of the challenge phase. This is intended as a final thinning of the ranks before the death blow that is… Fury of the Lion!

This card is particularly strong against Stark and Martell, but not at this late stage of the game. This card has a whopping 7 initiative, which you should use to mow down your opponents early and aggressively. Go all out. At this point in the game, as long as you have had a proper flow going, you can tap out most of our available characters and still have enough things left to easily claim domination. If you haven’t won by this point, make sure you are well prepared for a very destructive 8th round. In the majority of games I have played with this deck, the game draws to a close violently when Fury hits the table. Most opponents can’t hope to avoid the rush that awaits them.

While this plot deck is designed to specifically safeguard against Stark’s harsh early beat downs, it also fares well against Targaryen and Baratheon. Next time I discuss AGoT LCG strategy I’ll either be bringing you more information on the deck that pairs with this, or a new shadows themed plot deck. Reader’s choice. If anyone out there wants to hear about a specific game or aspect of a game, leave it in the comments! Cheers!

Tales of the Arabian Nights: In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

raise be to Allah, the Beneficent King, the Creator of the Universe, who hath raised the heavens without pillars and spread out the earth as a bed.  The games of former generations are a lesson to posterity; that a man may review the remarkable games that other have experienced, and be admonished.  Extolled be the perfection of Him who has thus ordained that the history of former games be a lesson to those which follow.  Such are The Tales of Arabian Nights, with its intriguing stories and clever gameplay.

In Tales of Arabian Nights, players take turns going to locations on an ancient map of the world, centered around Baghdad, The City of Peace.  When a player moves to a location, he flips over the top card of the fate deck, gaining the pleasure of having an encounter with an elephant, for example.  Random modifiers are added which tell the player what matrix they are using for this encounter.  That player then chooses his response from a selection on the matrix (for example, he may pray to the elephant, or perhaps, try to kidnap it) and the person with the story book opens to the appropriate encounter number.

That player’s mini-story is then told by the narrator, but the result may differ based upon the character’s skills, or a choice they make within that story.  For example, while playing in a game last week,  I encountered an evil Vizier who had come into power in the of city of Cairo.  It was rumored that any man who dared speak against this powerful sovereign of the Sultan would be set upon by his savage ape that blasphemed against Allah by learning how to talk like a man.  A crowd, curious to the Vizier’s Ape’s expostulations had pressed in close, but I saw cruelty in the Vizier’s eyes and wished nothing but to slip away from the crowd.  The Vizier, though, hawk-like in his demeanor and desirous to learn the faces of his new subjects, spotted and made a lesson of me.  “Look at that man, over there!” he triumphed, “Confronted with a wonder as strange and mysterious as my talking ape, he tries to shirk away as if to avoid it would be to akin to it not existing.  Verily, his actions remind me of the story of the farmer and the Ifrit.”

The result is nothing short of magic.  There are over 2002 stories in the story book, many unique to specific locations.  Each choice on the matrix is altered by so many numbers that it is dizzying to imagine the editors getting the tangle of their story lines straight.  Adding to the magic, the active player rolls a die that determines if he will get that story, the story on the number before it, or the story on the number after it, so even if a player gets the exact same thing in the exact same location adding all of the same modifiers together, and choosing the same responses, they have a good chance of not experiencing the same story twice.  The Ifrit may be kind, or cruel, depending on which story is being read.  Even though the farmer had never witnessed an Ifrit before, he knew that this was one of the most beautiful creations to stand beneath the splendor of Allah.  The Ifrit’s hair entwined around her most pleasing frame, and lusty was her nature.  With a single bound, she launched into one of the farmer’s date trees and made a wedding bed of it, beckoning the farmer to approach, as was her want.

The farmer had heard of terrible things that Ifrits have done to mere humans, and was panicked.  He knew hat running from a predator was bad, but, too afraid to answer the Ifrit’s beckons, he continued to maintain his field.  The Ifrit doubled her efforts and cooed lewdly to the farmer, but the farmer ignored the Ifrit, and doubled his focus on his crops.

Spurned by the farmer’s vigilance, the Ifrit pouted, “Allah be praised, but I do not understand you humans.  All you talk about is embracing one another, but when the opportunity presents itself, you are too pious or restrained or old to do the act.  Perhaps if you were a savage full of strength you would vault yourself to me.” And with that, the Ifrit turned the farmer into an ape.

“Oh no!”  Cried the ape, “What am I to do!  Even in this form, I could not possibly expect to beat an Ifrit in combat!  But, yes, I have heard that the Vizier of this land is a powerful wizard!  If anyone can help me it must be him!”

It’s hard to call Tales of Arabian Nights a game;  it feels more like an adventure in a box.  Sure, there is a semblance of strategy.  Players may find it wise to choose options that reflect their skills (for example, if you have piety, praying will probably be better than bad).  Most decision making, though, is arbitrary.  That’s not to say players aren’t taking an active part in the game, but the ‘good gameplay’ here means  deciding upon interesting interactions, and absorbing storytelling skills.  Like Eastern Philosophy to a Western Imperialist, the game can be damnably evasive.  People must approach the game desiring to have a good time over employing good skills or they will experience neither.  It was a mantra that the Vizier took to heart.  For if his wife ever found that he had dalliances with the local peasantry, she would never forgive him.  That was, of course, why he had to create a Simulacrum of himself to sit upon his throne while there was no business to attend to.

The farmer, now turned talking ape, burst into the throne room of the Vizier, dragging royal guards behind him.  No one was allowed to see the Vizier’s royal Simulacrum when he was away.  It was too dangerous, since the Vizier’s Simulacrum had no proper knowledge of how to run a state, nor did he know any true magic.  The ape, though, having burst into the Vizier’s chambers, recounted his endeavor with the Ifrit and stunned his audience.  The Simulacrum, moved by this tale, armed himself and ordered the ape to direct him back to his farm so that he could deal with the Ifrit.  When they arrived, they found the Ifrit asleep in the date tree.  Knowing that Ifriti are deep sleepers, the simulacrum ordered his guards to take the Ifrit back to his palace.  Upon the throne of his master, the Simulacrum commanded the Ifrit to awaken.  “I am Vizier of this city!” He stormed, “And a powerful wizard!  Upon hearing my humble servant’s story of how you treated him, I called the winds to transport you before me so that you may defend yourself against your accuser.  What do you have to say for your actions?”

The Ifrit quaked in fear, for any wizard powerful enough to turn the winds against her must be potent.  She dropped to her knees and pleaded for her life, and promised to Allah On High that if the Vizier forgave her that she would turn the ape back into a farmer and leave his city at once.  “No,” replied the simulacrum, “then you would learn nothing.  Instead, I shall give you a trial.  There is a man in this city who is a powerful wizard.  His hubris is so great that he has dared to turn his countenance into mine!  Destroy this miscreant, and all shall be absolved!”

Two player games of Tales of Arabian Nights should work well, but may be too intimate to play with another friend.  When is the last time you called a friend over so that you could lounge on pillows and tell each other fables of far off places?  That said, this game seems like a perfect date game among two creative people… especially if one of those people isn’t a gamer.  That’s an important point, so I’ll stress it again:  If you have friends who don’t understand your gaming hobby, this might be the perfect game to show them.

Tales of Arabian Nights can either pose as an introductory game to the gaming hobby genre for those who are interested, but don’t want to get invested.  It can also pose as a game to play with people who don’t like games; just explain that Tales is more like a Choose Your Own Adventure Book, and see if they take the bait.  She did, and flew off to find the Simulacrum’s master.  With tremendous speed, the Ifrit tore through the city, searching every shop and alley for the Vizier.  When finally she encountered him, the Ifrit took the wizard by surprise and removed his torso from his waist before he could utter a spell.  Afraid to return to the palace, the Ifrit then left the city, never to return.  When the Simulacrum’s story reached the ears of the Sultan, he was saddened at the loss of a Vizier. But, decided the Sultan, if the Simulacrum was made of the same material as the Vizier, he should make a good Vizier himself.  The Sultan gave his blessing to the Simulacrum, but put him in charge of Cairo to make certain the people of his own city did not rise against him.  “And that is why, I stand before you as your Vizier.  And also why those that foolishly avoid confrontation will be confronted with their foolishness.  Arrest that man!”

While a two player game may be intriguing, Tales of Arabian Nights has the unusual distinction of being an ideal game for three players.  During a player’s turn, the person to the active player’s right handles the Story Matrix, while the person to the active player’s left reads from the Story Book.  In a three player game, this keeps everyone involved in each other’s story, and not wandering off to the refrigerator, or checking something on the internet when it isn’t their turn.  In Tales of Arabian Nights, keeping players at the table can be crucial.  It may not seem important, but the more disjointed each player’s story appears, the less people talk about their stories as a whole.  The less people see their story as part of a larger adventure, the more the game just seems like a bunch of random one-liners.

I felt the massive hand of the ape come down upon my shoulder.  His grip was, at once, strong, but kind.  As we walked away from the center of town, I turned to face him, but he looked away, as if he was embarrased to be arresting me.  “It seems to me,” I said, “that the Simulacrum was most unkind to you.  He could have let you turn back into a farmer, but instead he used his clever nature to increase his status, and keep a powerful warrior.”

“It is true,” replied the ape.  “I miss my fields, my wife and my children.  I would do anything just to be with them again.”
“Anything? Tell me friend, have you ever heard the story of the Singing Lamp of Bombay?”

Can You Survive a Night at the House on the Hill?

I buy many games a year. Some I play often, some I play once, and some I have never opened. Betrayal at the House on the Hill holds a special place because it is such a great game for Halloween. It has become a tradition in our home to play the game at our Halloween parties, but the game is fun enough to played any day of the year.

Betrayal takes place in a haunted house, and each player assumes the role of a stereotypical horror movie character. The house is randomized every time you play, and you reveal rooms as you progress through the corridors. The first part of the game is meant to gather items and grow stronger (and avoid getting weaker!), but once an Omen card is revealed the Haunt may start. When the haunt begins, one player is revealed as the traitor and must leave the room for a few moments to study his diabolical plot.

In one of my favorite haunts, a witch had turned the heroes into mice. Their only escape from the house was to fly a toy airplane out of the attic window.  They were pursued by her cat while they tried to find batteries.  In another game, they had to survive until morning to collect an inheritance, but the traitor wanted the heroes dead so he would not have to share any of the money. There are a wide variety of haunts that cover the whole spectrum of horror. With fifty possible haunts and a randomly explored house, the game is never the same twice.

Sometimes the haunt can seem unfair or unbalanced, but winning and losing is not the point. Betrayal has light roleplaying elements, and exploring the house and revealing the haunt tells a shared story. As you explore the house you will meet creepy ghost children, receive telephone calls from your future self, and walk through doors that bring you to the other side of the mansion. The random situations make the game fun in the same way as Z-Man’s Tales of the Arabian Nights, for example.

Betrayal at House on the Hill was published after Hasbro bought Avalon Hill, and put it under the Wizards of the Coast banner. It was released along with Monsters Menace America, Sword & Skull, Nexus Ops, and Vegas Showdown. All of these games have been discontinued, and Avalon Hill only lives on through the several Axis and Allies games still in production. Since its discontinuation, Betrayal has gained a reputation in the gaming community, for good and ill. Many people love it because it is dripping in theme, but people also dislike its sloppy rulebook. The game is notorious for errors like an underground lake in the attic of the haunted mansion. Despite its flaws, it is still great to play.

Because of its reputation and rarity, it is an expensive game to acquire. It is currently averaging around $75-100 through the secondary market, and I have even seen copies go for $300. I would recommend getting a copy if you find it for less than $100. The game has fantastic replay value, and the components are worth it too. I think I spent $50 on my copy, and that is a steal for this game.

Betrayal at the House on the Hill is in desperate need of a reprint. The game is just too awesome to be kept away from the world. If Wizards receives enough feedback about it, they could be motivated to publish it again. I tried to email them myself, but the email form on their customer support website wouldn’t work for me on three different browsers. Fortunately you can still reach them by phone or snail mail.

There are some Facebook pages claiming to be dedicated to reprinting the game, but they seem to be focused on tips of where to buy the game and sharing homebrew material. There is a strong community for this game that creates new haunts and variants. One interesting variant has printouts for turning the character cards into the gang from Scooby-Doo and I think you could make some great Buffy the Vampire Slayer mods as well. An official expansion is out of the question, and until a new edition, we are left to our own devices.

Betrayal is one of my favorite games, and I recommend that everyone track down a copy. Better yet, flood Wizards of the Coast with requests for a reprint. They might even listen. Thankfully, many games have been released since Betrayal that contain themes of distrust and exploration, though none are so appropriate with a good Vincent Price film. Happy Halloween!

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Check out this Facebook page for tips on where to pick up the game and some links to new haunts. You can find plenty of great resources the Geek.

You can call Wizards of the Coast at 425-226-6500. You can also send them physical correspondence to:

Wizards of the Coast LLC
PO Box 707
Renton, WA 98057

They could be emailed from their help page, but good luck getting it to work.

And Beyond.

A wonderful thing about board games is that opinion can easily change with multiple plays. If you like a game your first time playing, a second game a few months later might be terrible.  The mood you’re in, the people you play with, or learning a rule you missed the first time can all alter your initial perception of a game. I had this experience with Ad Astra, and I want to offer a follow up to my previous review.

FFG's PR Team

I played Ad Astra again, this time with a full group of five players. This doesn’t drastically change the game like it would in something like A Game of Thrones, but it did feel like a substantial difference. Three people had played before, and the other two picked it up very quickly. This meant that a lot more strategy was happening from the start. Where the programming cards felt messy to me at first, the five player game limits how many you are able to play in a round.  Since everybody can use other players actions, this creates a bit of the mind game that I thought was missing.

While Laget may have compared the starships to Catan’s roads, I think they are more than that.  Commanding your fleet feels more like sending out explorers or ships full of colonists waiting to build a new settlement.  Once their job is complete, they are free to move wherever they have the fuel to go.  This adds to the feel of guiding the remnants of humanity to a new home more than just using them as a bridge between planets.

The game in action.

I stand by my opinion that the game is derivative of other games, but the game gains an identity once all the aspects gel.  As I mentioned previously, the scoring is a unique part of the game.  It’s the best part of the game too.  Having three cards with six options can lead to some great combos.  The flexibility is a blast, and knowing when to play which scoring action is an important part of the strategy.  Building terraformers is the strongest way to victory, but I managed to halt an opponents victory when one of my ships landed in another star system so that I could score big on the system influence scoring phase.  Our five player game actually ended with one person’s final scoring action being the arbitrator of whether one of two other players would be the victor.  He chose to abstain from the choice, and the game ended as a tie.

I’ll take a moment to mention that all the components are of good quality. There are four pawns that represent colonies, factories, terraformers, and starships, and these are unique designs made of plastic. the planets are thick card board, and they are really fun to place around the table. The game lacks a board (excluding the scoring/action card track), but the empty table space between solar systems counts as the deep space portions of the field. The character designs are fun, and they add some incentive to want to play a particular race.  The races are mostly inconsequential to play, but the combinations of planets and resources on the action cards vary for each species to add some strategy to their selection.

I admit, I was hasty to review Ad Astra the first time.  I was unable to see into its unique strategies and mechanics in my first few games.  It seems silly to have a second opinion from the same reviewer, but it can happen sometimes.  Five years ago I could have told you Risk was the greatest game ever made, but I would not be so kind now.  I liked Ad Astra my first few times playing it, but this last game blew me away with how much fun it was.  It is fast to play, quick to set up, and well balanced.  I think some of my fellow players find the terraformers overpowered, but I think the system is flexible enough.  Please do yourself a favor, and check out SPACE CATAN!

Sorry, I did it again!

To the Stars…

[UPDATE: If you want to know what I think about the game after a few more plays, check out my follow-up review. ]

Ad Astra is the first of Nexus Games’ Nexus Designer Series, published in North America by Fantasy Flight. The Designer Series shines a light on specific designers; for this first entry they chose Bruno Faidutti and Serge Laget, the authors of Mystery of the Abbey. This is an interesting project, but I believe it falls short. The manual offers a cool history of the creators and their previous games, but that is all that distinguishes this game from anything else they might have done. As for the game itself, it may not be the best showcase for their talents.

The game is great, but it is a clear mash-up of Settlers of Catan (randomly placed resources to gather) and Race for the Galaxy (programmed action cards). Ad Astra is unique enough to not be “Settlers – IN SPACE,” but the mechanics seem cherrypicked more than “designed.” If this was to showcase their talents then I think they should have come up with more on their own. This almost feels like Nexus Designer Series: Teuber/Lehmann’s Ad Astra.

That being said, the random placement of planets, which represent the resources, and the programming of action cards work well within the game’s universe. The actions include exploring planets, harvesting resources, and constructing colonies. When you enter a solar system with a ship, you can flip all of the planets over secretly, and then you choose one to land on. Thanks to the scoring actions, you can vary your strategy throughout the game. For example, you can choose to score for the size of your fleet, or you may choose to score by your influence in systems.

I need to play through the game a few more times, but the scoring may be the biggest flaw in the game. While I like the principle of the system, in practice there may be a run away leader. In a three-man game, Jeff scored big several times by being the only player with terraformers, but he would still earn enough points to stay ahead if we tried to score on anything else. What propels someone in his position so far ahead is that the player who earns the most on the scoring phase receives a three-point bonus. I hesitate writing it off, however, because I suspect it could just as easily fling someone ahead in an opposite scenario.

While I may not have been impressed with the marketing of Ad Astra, this still remains a strong recommendation. At first glance, it is easy to make comparisons to other games. Even Serge Laget compared it to Catan several times in an interview, but the game is distinguished by what it doesn’t borrow from its influences. The importance of luck is diminished, and there is no correlation to that damned robber. On its own merits, the scoring is unique, and the exploration is fun. Ad Astra is a good start, but I hope the philosophy of the designer series improves in the following releases. I’d hate to see a Zooloretto/Blokus mash-up.

Actually, that sounds pretty rad. Nexus Games, get Knizia and Selinker working on that.

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Here is a neat list on BGG where Bruno Faidutti mentions all the influences to Ad Astra. It is interesting to hear him speak so candidly, and I do feel more was “borrowed” than stolen. He also says RftG is not an influence, and that Puerto Rico inspired the action cards. I’ll believe him, and back up my comparison as an opinion based upon never playing PR.