Hey! Thats my Fish review by Count Zero

Hey! that's my fish review by Count Zero

If you are not fed up with watching Mumble dancing away in happy feet and can squeeze in more penguins then Hey! that's my fish is worth a look. Don't be put off by the child friendly cover, this is a great game that will get your brain working.

Opening the box you get 60 hexagonal ice flow tiles, each depicts a number of fish from 1 to 3. You also get 16 wooden penguins in 4 colours. Not a huge amount of pieces but its fine for the money.

Setup is very simple, the ice flow tiles are placed in a grid of 7 hexes by 8. They are staggered slightly so that the hex pieces work. There is a good diagram in the manual showing how you should do this. There is also a good play sheet available on board game geek to help kids set the game up. Once the ice flow has been put down players take it in turn to place one of there penguins on ice flow pieces that only contain a single fish.

Once all the penguins have been placed the game starts. Taking it in turns a player moves one of his penguins any number of spaces in any direction from his ice flow hex. The only limits are that they cannot move over any penguin including there own, or over an empty space. Once the penguin has been placed on its new hex the player removes the starting hex and places it next to him. So after a few moves you will see the ice flow starting to diminish as hexes are removed.
This can help or hinder you by allowing you to either cut yourself off or cut other players off. Sometimes its not the best strategy to go for all the 3 fish pieces.

Play continues until you cannot make any moves, you are now out and the other players continue until everyone can no longer make a move. The tiles your penguins are left on are now taken away and added to your collection. Add up all the fish you have and the winner is the one with the most fish.

As you can see there isn't a great deal to the rules of Hey! that's my fish but its a quick game to get on the table, teach and play. The game box recommends it for children aged 8 and above, but my younger kids enjoy playing it, even if they don''t get the strategy just yet.

Summary

Presentation
Quality pieces and well put together. The penguins look good as well. 9/10

Clarity of Rules
Rules are very well put together, colourful and full of examples you will be playing in minutes 8/10

Game Length
Games take about 20 mins, so there is always time for another 9/10

Value

Good quality pieces that feel good 7/10

Overall
Don't be deceived by this game, it's not just for kids. A fun light game abstract game that will played again and again (8/10 not an average)

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Infinity Games UK - Newsletter - January 2008 Edition

Happy New Year All!

Thanks to everyone for sending feedback last month. The suggestions were great and we'll be trying to implement as much as we can over the coming year.

We have another Give Away and a January Sale, check out the details below...

• January Give Away – Age of the Rag'narok Confrontation
• January Sale - Grab A Bargain!

January Give Away – Age of the Rag'narok Confrontation

We're giving away a copy of Age of the Rag'narok Confrontation Starter, everything you need to get started with a 2 player game!
Click here to sign up!, we just need your email address and if possible a small comment on what games you are looking forward to in 2008.

The winner will be notified in February.

Congrats to matherd who picks up a copy of StarCraft The Boardgame from December's Give Away!

January Sale - Grab A Bargain!

We have lots of items on offer with great reductions.

Sale ends 31st January!

All the Best for 2008!

Beyond Thebes Review by Count Zero

Indiana Jones always made archaeologists look good, and now its your turn to be Mr Jones. Thebes brings archeology to the games table in a light but fun way. Players each play the part of an archaeologist spending up to three years researching, digging for artifacts and put on exhibitions, all in the quest to get the most victory points and win the game.

Opening the large box you get a playing board depicting Europe and some of the middle east. This is nicely produced and features the 5 cities where you do your researching (London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Moscow) and the 5 locations for your digs (Crete, Greece, Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia).
A stack of cards depicting exhibitions and knowledge improvements as well as a couple of other types. 5 cloth bags, 1 for each of the dig site. A host of counters depicting treasures and artifacts as well as dirt. Some wooden figures and markers and finally 4 time wheels that have to be punched out and put together.

Setting up the game is pretty simple, all the tokens are put into there respective bags and placed to the side. Each player takes a coloured adventurer and places him on the Warsaw location and a matching coloured marker goes on the outside time track.
The cards are shuffled and separated into three stacks. The exhibition cards are then placed in these stacks and they are finally all stacked on top of each other. The top 4 cards are placed on the board in a marked area.

These cards are vital to the archaeologists, they show a number of bits of information. At the top is the location on the board where this card can be found. Also, how many weeks it will take to get this card and finally what the card gives the archaeologist. This is generally knowledge of a particular dig site. Its all colour coded to make life easier. So for example you may see a card with a yellow book on it, the top would read London, 2 . This would mean that if the archaeologist travelled to London and spent 2 weeks there he would take the card and it would give him 1 knowledge point of Egypt.
As well as the colour specific knowledge cards for the 5 dig sites, there are also general knowledge cards that provide knowledge for all of the dig sites. These are highly sought after, but they cost much more in time to research them.
Other cards give the players assistants that must be collected in multiples to give knowledge bonuses, shovels that give dig bonuses, several transport cards that cuts down the travel time for players, finally there are rumour cards which are like the book/research cards but are one use only.

After the board is setup players can perform one of three actions, they can either travel to a city and spend the time required to pick a card, travel to Warsaw and swap the 4 displayed cards for 4 new ones or finally travel to a dig site and perform a dig. Whatever is chosen italways takes time, and this is recorded on the time track around the board. Time is a big factor in the game and it also determines the playing order. Whoever is behind plays next. In some cases this allows a player to take multiple turns. For example if player 1 decided to spend 10 weeks in Egypt looking for artifacts he moves his token on 10 weeks plus the travel time to get to Egypt. This gives player 2 a number of weeks to play his turns until he is inthe lead on the time track. So he could go to London and research some knowledge on Crete for 2 weeks, then move on to Paris for 4 weeks of research on Greece.

When you decided to visit a dig site and look for artifacts, this is where the luck part of the game comes in. You count up the number of knowledge points you have on the location, this can be made up of specific and general knowledge as well as from other bonus cards. This value is selected on the dig wheel, this will display a column of numbers. You now need to scan down the column looking at the number of weeks you are spending digging, this will give you a value. This is the number of tokens you can pull from the locations bag. Any artifacts you keep, blank or dirt tokens are put back in the bag. It may sound a little tricky, but the mechanism works really well. The luck factor can be a pain, after spending 10 weeks and drawing 10 blank tiles you know you have wasted a huge chunk of the year.
There is a limit on the number of digs you can do a year, its one per location. This is enough as you will generally not have enough time inthe year to continually dig for treasure.

About half way through the card stack exhibition cards will start to be drawn. These represent a location and again the number of weeks required to win the card. They will also depict a number of artifacts that the player is required to own in order to put on the exhibition. There are only 10 of these cards in the game and as they are one of the revenues of victory points they are always sought after.

After 2-3 years of hitting the books and digging in the deserts the game will end and its time to add up the points.
Players get points for the artifacts that they have found. For the exhibitions they have put on. Congress cards give points depending on the number you own and finally the player who has the most specific knowledge in each site gets bonus points. The player with the most points wins.

For the main Thebes is a pretty light game, its fun to play without being too much of a brain burner. Luck plays a part with the digs, but half the fun is rummaging around in the bags looking for those elusive artifacts. The game is put together very well with great pieces

Summary

Presentation
This is a very well produced game. Queen games have used quality components, the bags and wheels add to an already theme oozing game. 9/10

Clarity of Rules
The rules are pretty basic and quick to learn. You should be up and running after a quick read 8/10

Game Length
The game length is altered depending on the number of players, but on average a 3 player game takes about an hour and a half 8/10

Value

You get allot of game for your money, its well worth the price tag 8/10

Overall
Thebes is a great game and one that I think would make a good gateway game. The luck factor has given it some bad comments on the geek but if you can handle a bit of luck then add it to your basket now (8/10 not an average)

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Rulebook Review

With this Second edition by Black Industries, one of the most respected RPGs has been completely reborn.

The original WFRP was a cult classic. Famed for its excellent career system, its grim and dark work, its emphasis on role-playing, and its lethal combat system, it was played by many until its last publishers, Hogshead, went out of business.
Now, finally, the game has been brought up to date with a second edition, the first in twenty years. And what an update.

For those who have never played WFRP or its tabletop counterpart, Warhammer Fantasy Battle, fear not. There is plenty of background information and an introductory adventure in here to get you started, and even more adventures are freely available on the Black Industries website, so you don't need to know the setting before tou start- which is quite a feat, considering the amount of published information about Warhammer's Old World.
For those veterans of the first edition, fear not. None of what you love has been removed, except possibly the 'peasant' career. But almost every aspect of the game has been completely reworked- and all for the better.

Character creation is an entirely random process- you're allowed to choose your race and gender, and everything else- from your starting characteristics to your career to your eye colour- you get to roll for. The careers are worth special mention - your character can start as anything from a hubmle rat-catcher or a simple grave digger to a wandering duellist or imperial soldier, and progress to be a mighty wizard or gladiatorial champion. And actually, thats fun. Sure, it means some characters are weaker than others to start with- but as previously hinted, in WFRP, the emphasis is squarely on role-playing, and by the time you've got some experience, you'll soon work out that everyone in the group has their own important role to fill... even when it comes to combat, which is the meat of many systems, let’s be honest.

Combat is actually pretty simple. You have a % chance to hit based on your characteristics, and if you hit, you just roll a D10 and add your strength. That’s how many wounds the target takes, minus any armour or toughness bonus. If he drops to 0 wounds, he starts to take critical hits until he eventually dies horribly. But you won't ever have a lot of wounds to spare- it’s quite feasible to drop a foe with a single attack, even from a humble sling. And again, that makes the game fun- your characters are not muscle-bound heroes- you're just trying to survive.
There’s a fun magic system too, which few characters can access without a lot of dedication, but which offers great power- and substantial risks. Failure to cast a spell can mean your wizard gets sucked into another world, the daemonic realm of the Warp, and if he’s not dead, then he's certainly insane.

What makes the whole system work so well though are its underlying mechanics. Everything in the rules *makes sense*, which is a rarer thing than it might sound- if you're ever stuck for a rule, chances are you can work it out pretty easily, because every part of the mechanics follow a central logic that’s really easy to grasp for both players and GMs, and never becomes too complex or cumbersome for the game to run smoothly- and never feels too simple, either.
WFRP turns out to be, overall, a stunningly put together game. Its productions qualities are top-notch, rivalled only by the excellent content on offer here. WFRP is well worth a look for any fantasy role-playing fan, especially those looking for something that’s maybe a little darker and a little more daring than the standard D20 fare.

Summary
Presentation: A tough hardback cover with some lovely artwork that’s marred only by the cheesy text on the back cover houses a lavishly presented, full-colour book with a wealth of good quality artwork. 9.0/10

Clarity of Rules: The rules follow a core mechanic that’s simple to grasp but allows the game to be flexible and varied enough to withstand long campaigns. They’re also presented in a very logical format, so it’s never too hard to find that rule you’re looking for. 9.5/10

Value: With a character career system that spans everything from rat catcher to noble and expansive career advancement options, you’ll not run out of things to do here. The main rulebook really does contain everything you need to play any type of character in the Old World- supplementary books add further options, but there are no glaring omissions here. The GM’s section is a little sparse, particularly on world background, but the inclusion of an intro adventure helps things along. 8.9/10

Overall: WFRP has always had a special place in many gamers hearts, and this second edition is head and shoulders above the first edition. There’s no excuse not to step into the grim world of perilous adventure now. 9.6/10 (not an average)

Reviewed by: splinter

For Sale Review by Count Zero

Estate agents are like Traffic wardens, hated by all. But now thanks to Uberplay you and your friends can deal in properties from the safety of your games room without getting the abusive phone calls and hiding the rising damp reports.

For sale is a bidding and bluffing game that is simple but yet ingenious. Opening the box you get two decks of cards and a bag of cardboard coins.

The first deck shows the properties available to the would be estate agents, each has a number in the top corners and they range from 1 to 30. This shows the "value" of the property. Number 1 is a cardboard box in an alley, while number 30 shows a space station in orbit. The rest of the cards range from lighthouses, caves, mobile homes, mansion and castles. All of the artwork is very nice and its amusing to see the different properties as tehy come into play.

The second deck of cards represents cheques, these range in different values from $1000 upwards but also include a number of void cheques. These cheque cards are used in teh second phase of the game.

The cardboard coins represent your starting cash and are shared out according to the number of players. The coins come in two sizes, $1000 and $2000 and are your standard cardboard fare.

The game starts with the bidding phase. Four property cards ae dealt face up into the center of the table. Players now take turns bidding using there starting cash. The bidding continues until someone passes. They now take the lowest value property card from the table and half of there money back. the other half of the money goes back into the box. Bidding or passing continues, with each player who passes taking the next lowest property from the table and half there money back.
the winning bidder is left with the highest value property but has to put all of his money into the bank. Another four property cards are dealt and the process continues.
Its a good idea to hide your money at this point, as you can easily be outbid and end up picking the lowest property if you don't have that much money left.
The properties are continually being bid until the deck is exhausted. Each player should now have equal sized hands of properties. Now it is time to sell them.

Teh secod deck of cards representing the cheques is now brought into play. Four cheques are dealt face up and each player places one of his property cards face down. when all players have placed there cards they are turned over and the highest value property takes the highest $ cheque card.
This continues until all of the property cards have been sold. Players now add up the values of all of there cheques and any left over $ from the bidding round. The player with the most $ wins.

Summary

Presentation
The games presentation is very well done. Although its only two decks of cards and some money counters the cards have a vinyl feel to them. The artwork is very nice and easy to read. 8/10

Clarity of Rules
The rules are very basic and quick to learn. This game will be up and running within minutes and played by all ages. 9/10

Game Length
The box says 10-15 minutes and I would aggree. We burned through this game playing about 3 games in 40 minutes 8/10

Value
Great value game, at under £10 it should be on everyones shelf 8/10

Overall
For sale is a very basic game and can be played in about 15 minutes. Its a light game but fun. Successfully getting $7000 for the cardboard box property is amusing and its so quick you will want to get just one more game in. (8/10 not an average)

Dungeon Twister review by Count Zero

Dungeon Twister by Asmodee Editions has been called a dungeon crawl game in the past, but its not really a dungeon crawl at all. There is far more strategy involved in a game of Dungeon Twister than any dungeon crawl I have played. I have only recently started playing the game, but it has jumped straight up into my top ten games mainly because of the devious way that it is played.

Opening the box there are a number of cardboard sheets that need to be punched out. This provides you with the 8 dungeon tiles, the character tokens and object tokens. There are some other tokens but these are mainly to mark things on the boards such as open portcullises. There are two screens, one for each player and a deck of cards for each player. Finally a rulebook and some plastic stands to put your character tokens in. Everything is very well presented, the artwork is slightly cartoon style but it works well.

The aim of the game is to be the first person to get to 5 victory points. Victory points can be won by either getting one of your characters out of the dungeon. This is done by working your way through the dungeon to your opponent’s starting line. Or by killing an opponent’s character. The box reckons that a game will take 45 minutes, but from my experiences it is nearer to an hour and a half. Maybe because we are still working out the game, but probably as we are trying to think about our turns to much.

Setting up the game the 8 dungeon tiles are placed in a 4 x 2 grid between the 2 players and a starting line piece of board caps of the line at each end. Now the players need to decide which 4 of the 7 characters they are going to place on the starting line. The 8 characters are your usual fantast fare, there is a warrior who is good in combat and can break closed portcullises. A cleric who can heal, a thief who can open locked portcullises and dodge pit traps, a troll who hits hard but has slow movement. A wizard who can levitate over traps, a goblin who is by far the weakest character but because of this he is worth 2 victory points if he escapes, the meckanork allows you to control how the dungeons are rotated. The last character is a wall walker who can walk through walls.

Once your chosen characters are placed on the starting line you take turns placing your other characters and the equipment tokens upside down on the dungeon squares. The objects are sword, armour, fireball wand, speed potion, rope and treasure. These are only revealed when your characters enter the rooms. Once all of the tokens have been placed its time to start the game.

As the dungeon is explored the tiles are revealed. Any tokens on that tile are now placed. The revealer places all of the tiles, except for his object counters. These are placed by your opponent. This bring more choices to the game, did you leave your combat based characters on the starting line or place them further into the dungeon? Do you reveal the tiles as soon as you can so that you can place your opponents pieces in really hard to get places?

Each player has 4 action cards, which depict the number of action points for that round. This is a number from 2 to 5. The action points allow the characters to move, fight, use an ability, jump over a trap or rotate a room. Playing the right number of actions a round is important, you may need 5 points to get your warrior to dash out of the dungeon, or you may only need to play 2 actions to setup the rooms for a later round. Once all of your action cards have been played they are returned to your hand ready for another round.

You also have a hand of combat cards, these are 9 cards with values from 0 to 6and are played whenever a character initiates combat. Combat is resolved by both players choosing a combat card from there hand and placing it face down. The cards are then turned over and the value shown on the card is added to the combat value of the character. The looser is then wounded and cannot move or do anything until they are healed by the cleric. The important thing to note hear is that once a combat card is played it’s removed from the game. The only exception here is the 0 value card which will always go back to your hand. This makes combat very tense, do you use up a high value combat card to ensure a win or play a lower one and hope that your opponent is also doing the same thing?

As the name suggests there is a twisting element to the game, this doesn't involve you putting your left hand on a red square or your right leg on a green. Each of the 8 dungeon tiles has a rotation cog symbol on it. If a character is on this square they can rotate the tile in the direction of the arrow. Each tile has its partner and that is also rotated if it has been revealed. This can cause havoc as you rotate the tiles to better your position and to hinder your opponent. On several occasions characters who have made a break for freedom have found themselves rotated back into the dungeon to become face to face with an angry troll.

Although the initial game is only for 2 players, there are expansions that allow you to increase this to 4 players. In addition there are other expansions which give you more characters to choose from as well as new rooms and objects. The support for this game is very good, expansions are being produced every 6 month’s or so and there are a number of fan based scenarios which allow you to play the game in slightly different ways, either in teams or with different dungeon placement mechanics. All in a good game which will hurt your brain at times.

Summary

Presentation
Everything is very well presented, the artwork is nice and the theme follows through the game. The counters and board are made from thick cardboard and the cards are a good size. My only slight wish would be for the characters to be nice plastic miniatures, but this is something that you can buy separately. 8/10

Clarity of Rules
The rules are good, and the rulebook has several examples but it could be better. The geek has plenty of rules questions and the Dungeon Twister site has a FAQ. Not a good sign but at least there are people who have asked the questions and the answers are there. 6/10

Game Length
The box says 45 minutes; I say an hour and a half. But that’s an hour and a half of enjoyment of a great game. It probably gets faster after a few plays but if you have an opponent who suffers from analysis paralysis it could take longer 8/10

Value
For the money its a good game, the expansions add more and increase the game experience but are not required for a basic 2 player game. Replay ability is high, there are so many combinations and strategies to try you will want to keep playing it. 8/10

Overall
I really like this game, I thought it was going to another dungeon crawl but it is much more than that. The amount of strategy in the game is good, the more you play it the more things you discover. It can be frustrating at times, but when you win you feel like you have earned it. 8/10 (Not an average)