Hellas Review : Overlooked Classic

Hellas is a fast and simple game of conquest in ancient Greece for two players. It is part of the Kosmos/Rio Grande series of two player games which are very useful for players who have trouble finding several opponents for game sessions, as each one is designed to work perfectly for just two players. Hellas is fast becoming a favourite for two player sessions, as it combines my interest in Greece and Greek mythology with my passion for quick but involving board games.

As is the norm for this series of games, it is very nicely designed and illustrated, with components being very nice (although the Greeks and ships are a little on the small side, they perform their function very well) and storage within the box - a custom plastic tray - being very good indeed. The God cards in particular are gorgeous, evoking classic ancient Greek art with excellently stylised depictions of the Gods featured - Zeus, Poseidon and Ares.

The rules are clear and as concise as possible, with some nice examples taking up a page or two of space in the back of the book. Two cards are provided so that each player has a short summary during the game - this is double sided, with one side clearly listing the turn options and the other a clarification of 'difficult' rules. To have this included is superb - I would normally prepare my own player aid in order to accelerate both learning and teaching a game, but Rio Grande should be applauded for including this in such a helpful form.

The object of the game is to be the first player to own ten cities, which is a lot harder than it would at first seem. This is due to the fact that each player has a limited number of ships and Greeks, so owning and retaining ten cities means spreading your resources very thin indeed. To keep a city you must have at least one Greek in it, and to successfully make a voyage to a new city ships are required.

After initial board set up (each player takes turns to draw a tile and place it adjacent to either the starting tile or two other tiles - players place four tiles each), players take one of each type of God card (Zeus, Poseidon and Ares) and then the normal turn order can begin. Turn options are as follows:

1) Burst of Strength - Players can use this option to perform any three of the following actions in any combination they choose: a) place a Greek in a city owned by the active player (maximum three Greeks per city), b) place a ship next to a city owned by the active player (maximum three ships per tile) or c) draw a God card (hand limit is seven cards, and players must not hold more than three of any one type of God card). One last thing: some cities have temples marked on them - when a player owns the majority of temples in play they get to choose four actions instead of three during a burst of strength.

2) Attack - Players can attempt to conquer a city belonging to their opponent. Attacks over land require that the attacker place Greeks equal to the number of Greeks in the defending city (2 Greeks in the defending city mean that 2 Greeks must be brought from adjacent cities by the attacker), but attacks over water require 1 extra Greek to be brought into the fray. If the attacker loses, all attacking Greeks are removed from the board. If the defender loses, the attacker now owns the city and any ships in the newly owned hex are removed and replaced with ships belonging to the new custodian of the city.

3) Voyage - Players can attempt to voyage to a new city - this means drawing a tile and attempting to place it adjacent to two other tiles, but in order for the voyage to be successful, the active player must place it adjacent to two hexes where he/she has the ship majority. Once placed, the active player must 'pay' for the voyage by removing a ship from an adjacent hex, and finally he/she must place a Greek in the new city. If it is not possible to place the tile (either because the land will not fit next to land that the active player owns or because the active player does not possess the ship majority in any legal destinations for the tile to be placed), then the voyage is deemed unsuccessful and the tile is returned to the bottom of the stack.

That neatly summarises the turns, but added spice is brought into play with the God cards: these have varying (and often quite powerful) effects, with Zeus cards being all-powerful, Ares cards affecting attacks and Poseidon cards being used for voyage or ship based endeavours. God cards can be used at any time during a player's turn, and some can even be used on the other player's turn (those cards are marked with a special symbol to denote this). God cards are often incredibly useful. It is sometimes difficult to know when it is legal to play certain cards, and some cards have slightly ill-defined effects that are open to interpretation. As long as neither player takes the game too seriously, it isn't much of a problem. Also, given the length and complexity of the game, it isn't as jarring or annoying as it would be in a longer or more strategically complex game.

I have found Hellas to be immensely enjoyable - the theme is very well integrated with the gameplay in the form of the meddling Gods and their powers over certain aspects of the game world. The random nature of the cards and the strength of certain cards could have ruined the game entirely - instead it brings an added level of flavour to the ever-present, always interfering Gods. The exploration aspect is also very satsifying. Combat is fast and prone to oneupmanship with the use of cards, and feels slightly wooly with its all or nothing resolution. However, I don't find this to drag the enjoyment of the game down too much - it means that games rarely take any longer than 45 minutes. Hellas also has the agonising but welcome feature of wanting to perform more actions each turn than you are allowed! In short, Hellas is a light wargame designed for players who aren't much interested in deep, complex and drawn out conflicts - for two players that are usually turned off by wargames but are looking for a short, fun experience with a lot of conflict and a side order of God-based, card driven luck thrown in for good measure.

Summary

Presentation: Excellently produced map tiles, and very nicely designed God cards add to the overall flavour of the game. The Greeks and ships are a little on the small and fiddly side, and cardstock is pretty thin - which brings the rating down a bit. 8.2/10

Clarity of Rules: Simple to learn but there are many issues with timing that constantly arise during play. A small series of examples in addition to the one included would have helped immeasurably. 5.8/10

Game Length: Games often take around 45 minutes, which is perfect - but sometimes a stalemate situation occurs with seemingly endless tug-of-war style problems. 7.7/10

Value: A very replayable game in a nicely compact package - great components considering the low price point too. 9.2/10

Overall: A simple, fairly abstract wargame that provides a great deal of fun - the meddling Greek gods may add sometimes annoying chaos but this helps to create the unique, Greek-mythology based atmosphere. 7.8/10 (not an average)

Review by Jason M. Brown

Anachronism Review

Anachronism is a pseudo-collectable card game in which players each take control of a different historical warrior in a fight to the death. If you've ever wondered who would win in a fight between Genghis Khan and Spartacus, now's your chance to find out!

The starter set for Anachronism comes with two warriors, a playmat and dice. There is a promo set (which is the one being reviewed here), which contains Beowulf vs Miyamoto Musashi. The first series starter set contains Achilles vs Spartacus, the second series starter set is Ramses II vs Genghis Khan - and a third series is on the way. Each set also contains several cultures, each with their own set of warriors. These warriors come in packs, much like traditional CCG booster packs, but with a fixed set of five cards in each. So a big selling point is that the usual money pit effect of CCGs is avoided, as you buy only the warriors that you want to buy and you are guaranteed to get the same cards as someone else with the same warrior. Each warrior pack contains the relevant warrior and his or her four equipment cards. These cards can be weapons, armour, quests etc. and each one can have a different effect on the game - weapons can be used to enhance or change the warrior's attack area, armour add to defensive rolls and so on.
The object of the game is to either get your enemy's health down to zero or to be the warrior with the highest level of health at the end of Round 5.

Anachronism is easy to learn and very quick to play - a typical five round game will last no longer than ten minutes, and often it can be over in five minutes. Each player takes a warrior and places it in their starting row on the 4x4 grid. They then take their 4 equipment cards and place them face down in the order they choose, to be revealed one at a time during each round. Once this is done, Round 1 begins and each player reveals their first card. 'Reveal' effects are enacted as necessary (this will be noted on the card), and then the player whose card has the highest initiative acts first. In event of a tie, the warrior with the highest experience level acts first.

A warrior's Speed determines the number of actions he or she can take in a turn - therefore a warrior with a Speed of 3 can take 3 actions. Actions can be taken as follows:

• Movement can be taken (1 space and facing adjustment per action)
• Change facing without moving out of the current space
• Perform a basic attack
• Perform a weapon attack
• Use an 'action' ability from a revealed card
• Pass

Attacks are resolved simply and quickly - each warrior has an attack grid displayed on their card (used to resolve basic attacks) and each weapon also has an attack grid. This shows the spaces around the warrior in which they can make an attack, along with any dice modifiers that are applied. Two six-sided dice are rolled, and modifiers applied (eg if the attack grid shows -2 in the square being attacked, 2 is subtracted from the total rolled). The defender then rolls two dice (applying any modifiers from armour or other special cards or abilities they may have). If the attacker rolls higher, damage is subtracted from the defender's health (the value is taken from the warrior's damage value as noted on the warrior card in a basic attack, or from the weapon's damage value as noted on the weapon card in a weapon attack). Last man standing wins!

The mechanics are simple and clean, and there is very little room for confusion in the rules. Also, there is far more depth to Anachronism than at first appears. When first playing, it is all too tempting to just use the first actions to move next to the enemy and then both players spend the rest of the game just rolling dice to attempt to hit each other. However, it soon becomes clear that, when facing a warrior whose attacks do more damage, other strategies can and should be employed - for instance moving away and letting the other player move closer before moving in for one hit and moving away again. Warriors can also seem hideously unbalanced, but once you learn that each warrior must be played in a different way, this feeling is somewhat alleviated. Combat is a little unsatisfying - for a game based on evoking the theme of two legendary warriors battling to the death, simply rolling dice to resolve combat is a bit of a cop out, and adds a huge element of luck to the proceedings. Only the brevity of the game makes this part of the game bearable - in a longer game, the endless die rolls would be tedious in the extreme.

However, the main problem with Anachronism is the very thing that should be it's selling point - the cost of collecting the game. Due to it's pseudo-collectable nature (ie no random cards, but only what you want), in theory it should be a much cheaper game to actually collect than other CCGs. However, a Warrior pack of just five cards has an RRP of £4.99 - which works out to just under £1 per card. It has to be said that the production values on the cards are incredibly high - they really are gorgeous cards - glossy, tough and nicely illustrated, but in order to have a selection of warriors it is still a ridiculously extravagant expense. The starter set - containing just 10 cards along with dice and a folding paper playmat - is only marginally better value for money. Other CCGs, despite the prohibitive cost of collecting lots of cards, offer far more scope for strategy and deckbuilding than Anachronism will ever be able to provide.

Also, Anachronism is a joint venture between The History Channel and TriKing. Given that The History Channel are involved, you would think that the game would be rather educational. However, very little historical information is actually included, which is a rather wasted opportunity.

While Anachronism is fast, simple and reasonably good fun, it is not an essential purchase. The cost of a starter set and a few warriors to go with it is just too high for the amount of 'game' that is provided. If you consider that the starter set plus three or four warriors costs around the same price as a game such as The Settlers of Catan, it is obvious that Anachronism is very overpriced. Compare further with other CCGs, in which 60 card decks can be bought for less than £10, and Anachronism seems like even less value for money. The theme itself is appealing but isn't terribly well implemented, there is little atmosphere and the flavour of the game is lost when making roll after roll of the dice for combat. Recommended only for players looking for a very fast, light card game with quite a bit of luck and some costly expandability.

Summary

Presentation: Hard to fault, presentation wise - gorgeous cards on very sturdy stock, which are a far cry from the plain cards of the average CCG. 9.7/10

Clarity of Rules: A simple game with very few rules - however, a few questions on gameplay do arise, and there isn't a lot of clarification available. 6.8/10

Game Length: Incredibly short, allowing for multiple battles as desired. 8.8/10

Value: Not a lot here for the money - the content itself is very low for what is a very pricey game. 3.4/10

Overall: Anachronism fails both as an educational tool and as pure entertainment, although the lack of collectability and the gorgeous components go a small way to making up for its deficiencies. More historical information and gameplay depth would have helped it considerably. 5.5/10 (not an average)

Review by Jason M. Brown

My Messages Launch

We are happy to announce the launch of My Messages.

My Messages allows you to send customer support messages to the Infinity Games Web Team. In the future it will also allow you to send messages to other Infinity Games users.

Any emails received from Infinity Games will also appear in My Messages allowing you to be sure they are valid emails.

To access My Messages use the 'My Messages' link on menu on the left hand side at iguk.co.uk or click here.

To send a message use the Contact Us link on the My Account menu.

We hope you like this feature and please let us know if you require any further assistance.

P.S to implement this functionalty we had to make all users nicknames unique therefore some renaming had to occur. So if you were the 6th person who registered as 'Steve' your nickname would now become Steve6. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Arkham Horror: A Call of Cthulhu Board Game

Let's just get one thing out of the way right now: Arkham Horror is big. It's very big. The board fits on my table with not much space to spare, and then the components have to be arranged around it...and there are lots of them. So if you're interested in Arkham Horror, make sure you have a big table or some floor space to play on - you'll need it...

Based on the works of the influential cosmic horror writer HP Lovecraft, Arkham Horrror attempts to interweave a very solid theme onto a board game, and is pretty successful in doing so. Arkham Horror is a co-operative board game, which means that all the players work together to defeat the evil that is overshadowing the town of Arkham, Massachusetts in the 1920s. An Ancient One - one of a number of cosmic beasts - is stirring in its slumber, threatening to reawaken and rain doom upon the world. Unless the players can roam Arkham, closing gates to other worlds and defeating the nasty creatures wandering the streets of Arkham and put a stop to it before it's too late. Of course, all of this contact with evil creatures from other worlds and dimensions has a price - players can go insane or be killed - but surely with the fate of the world hanging in the balance, the sanity of a few people is a small price to pay?

The object of the game is to either

• a) seal 6 dimensional gates
• b) seal the same number of gates as there are players with no other gates open
• c) if all else fails, defeat the Ancient One when he awakes. The Ancient One awakens if there are too many gates open in Arkham or if the Ancient One's Doom Track is filled with tokens.

To start, each player chooses an investigator from the stack of investigator cards (almost half of which are women, which is very refreshing - well done Fantasy Flight for going beyond the usual token, single choice of female). The investigators all start with certain items and modifiers (some fixed, some drawn from card decks), and each one has different levels of sanity, stamina and abilities. The abilities, in a superb piece of game design, are able to be adjusted every turn - abilities come in pairs (Speed/Sneak, Fight/Will, Lore/Luck) - but when you increase one, the paired ability decreases. After everyone has prepared their investigator, it's time for the Ancient One to be drawn or chosen. Each Ancient One (creatures such as Nyarlathotep, Yig, Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath and Cthulhu himself, among others) affects the game in a different way - some affect the sealing of dimensional gates, others affect the abilities of certain creatures in the game and one - Azathoth - ends the game instantly if he awakens. In the case of other Ancient Ones, the players do get a chance at defeating them if they awaken...but to be fair, it's not much of a chance (in keeping with the Lovecraftian theme - the players do get a chance against the Ancient Ones in Arkham Horror for the most part - which is more than can be said for the characters in Lovecraft's stories!).

Once the Ancient One is chosen, the investigators ready at their home locations with all of their clue tokens placed at the unstable locations and the many decks of cards and piles of tokens prepared, the game begins. A Mythos card is drawn and resolved - this means that the following happens:

1. A dimensional gate opens at the location noted on the card and a monster appears at the gate location.
2. A clue token appears at the relevant location.
3. The monster moves if applicable according to the card.
4. Any other instructions or effects on the card are enacted.

Additionally, a Doom token is added to the Ancient One's Doom Track every time a new gate appears. Turns are then taken as normal in the following order:

1. Upkeep: Players adjust their skills and perform all necessary maintenance actions on cards they currently have.
2. Movement: Players in Arkham move according to their Speed value, players who have been drawn through to other worlds move to the next space in that world.
3. Arkham Encounters: Players draw an Encounter card matching the colour of their current location and act upon it, or if they are in a special location they may use that location's ability instead of having an encounter (such as buying items at a shop or restoring sanity at Arkham Asylum). If players are in a space containing an open gate, they are drawn through it during this phase.
4. Other World Encounters: Players draw from the Gate Deck until a card is drawn with a border that matches the colour at their location, then the appropriate encounter is resolved.
5. Mythos: A Mythos card is drawn and resolved.

If a player ends movement in a space containing a monster or attempts to pass through a space containing a monster, they must either fight or evade it. This means passing a horror check (a horror modifier is printed on each monster tile along with the number of sanity tokens lost if the check is failed) and then pass a combat check (the combat rating is also on the monster tile along with stamina value lost if it fails - to pass, the number of successes in the check must meet or exceed the monster's toughness rating which is also, unsurprisingly, on the tile). All checks (even non combat ones - sealing gates can use either Fight or Lore as the attribute to roll against) use a simple dice system, where the ability needed has a number (eg Fight with the number 6), which is the amount of dice rolled. Modifiers from items, a monster, a gate or an encounter card can add or subtract the total dice used. Players roll this number of dice - any 5 or 6 is counted as a success. Pretty much everything except most combat situations require just one success to be rolled.

Those are the basic mechanics of the game, but what this does not illustrate is just how atmospheric and thematic Arkham Horror is. Due to the overwhelming odds that the players face through most of the game, a real sense of tension and pressure can be felt. Additionally, due to the high amount of flavour text on cards and monsters, a real feeling of being involved in a Lovecraft story is present. The atmosphere really does pervade every ichor-filled seam of the game. Lovecraft fans will love all the references contained within the game, and non-fans should extract great enjoyment from being introduced to such a fully formed and consistent world as the one presented in Arkham Horror.

One complaint is that, for the first few games at least, games can last in excess of three hours. Once the turn sequence becomes more familiar, however, the playing time does drastically reduce - which makes for a much more enjoyable experience. The first game or two will see players referring back to the rule book quite a bit, but the rules do become second nature quicker than you would expect for a game of this size, length and complexity. A major selling point is that it can be played as a solitaire game (the game caters for between 1 and 8 players), which is highly unusual for a big boxed game such as this.

Fantasy Flight have once again produced an amazingly heavy package, filled to the brim with tokens, cards and the aforementioned behemoth of a board. It's very heavy and once again seems like great value for money considering all of the well produced bits contained within.
Lots of dice rolling and initial rules do seem to be a bit daunting for the new player, but Arkham Horror is a very rewarding game if persevered with. Stick with it and you're sure to have a very creepy, very different experience every time you play. Even those players that have a hard time finding people to play with are well catered for with Arkham Horror given that it plays nicely even with one player. Another excellent Fantasy Flight product for fans and non-fans alike.

Summary

Presentation: Brilliantly illustrated - the creepy Lovecraftian imagery is everywhere. Very tough to fault the consistently excellent design. 9.8/10

Clarity of Rules: It all falls apart here - the rules are not clear or set out in a logical way. Player aids with difficult rules clarifications included would have helped immensely. 4.8/10

Game Length: Varies depending on the number of players and can be incredibly long with too many players. Four to five players seems to suit the game perfectly, any less and it feels quite short. 8.0/10

Value: A fantastic amount of replayability, a huge amount of components and a Cyclopean board round out an excellent package. 9.0/10

Overall: A brilliant tribute to the Cthulhu Mythos, and a stunning game for any Lovecraft fan. Those not familiar with the Mythos may be on shaky ground with a lot of the theme and mechanics, but there is still a lot of game here even for those who don't know a Shoggoth from a Deep One. 9.1/10 (not an average)

Review by Jason M. Brown