And trusts no one...

And trusts no one.... A review of Cutthroat Caverns

Cutthroat caverns is produced by Smirk and Dagger games. In the game you are one of a band of adventures grouped together to explore nine dungeons and aiming to be the one with the most prestige points after the ninth cavern has been completed. Its a very fun card game with a huge element of back stabbing. You have to work as a team to complete the challenges of the caverns, but always try and come out on top to be the only person to win prestige.

Opening the box you get

• Deck of cards
• 6 Character cards
• Encounter cards
• Encounter health chart
• Tokens and glass beads
  

The build quality of the game is very good, essentially its a deck of cards and some large card sheets and tokens. The artwork is very well done, its typical fantasy but the monsters have a dark and brooding style about them. It all looks good and will certainly last a large number of plays.

Setup is very easy, every player takes one of the character cards. There are 6 to choose from and all have an image of the character and a health meter on the side showing number 100 to 0 in multiples of 5. All characters are the same so its purely an aesthetic choice of character. Each player then gets dealt 7 cards to make up there hand.

The pile of encounter cards are then shuffled and the top card is drawn. This will depict the first monster the party encounters. It will show how many life points it has and describe how it can damage the players. A glass bead is used to mark how many life points the monster has on the chart. The party will now have to attempt to kill it by using cards from there hand. These are mainly damage cards showing a value from 0 to 100, item cards such as potions of healing or strength and interrupt cards which affect the damage being played by the other players.

Each player is dealt an initiative card for the first round, this will determine the player order for this round. Players then place face down one of the cards from there hand. Player 1 then reveals his card and lowers the damage marker by the amount of damage. Players can interrupt this action by playing any interrupt cards they have. These can do a number of things such as stop the damage with a critical miss card, double the damage with a critical hit card, swap cards with other players or change the direction of the damage. Play then moves on to the next player.

If a player has managed to kill the encounter only they take the encounter card and the prestige points marked on it. If the monster is still alive it deals damage determined by the encounter text. Again, you can play cards to redirect the damage or negate it using interrupt cards. Players then take a card to replenish there hand and the initiative cards are dealt out again.

The crux of the game is that you want to be the hero that kills the monster and to stop the other players from delivering the killing blow. This can be harder to achieve than you think, with interrupt cards being played by everyone sometimes a relatively easy encounter can take its time.

When the encounter has been finished, the bead that marks the number of counters is moved on by one and each player refills there hand to 7. The next encounter card is drawn and another battle is started. The majority of encounters are monsters, such as necromancers, orcs and Medusa's. Most will have a bit of text describing how they they damage the players, usually it will be player 1 takes 5 damage, or the player who deals the most damage will take 5 damage.

There are some not combat encounters in the deck. These are usually trick or trap type rules that damage the players depending on whether they pass or fail a task. These make a welcome change from the combat orientated encounters. The item cards can be used at any time, they usually heal the player or increase there damage. They can also be used to heal the other players, and if they agree the healer gains some prestige points.

After the ninth encounter the person with the most prestige points will win the game, if it is a draw then a final encounter is played. This is a great decider as everyone usually has a chance to win, even if they were not one of the tied players.

So Cutthroat Caverns is a very easy game to play and great fun. The opportunities to back stab your opponents are always there and you have to make sure that you take advantage of them. There are a number of expansions available for the game that add more encounters and cards to be played. This should increase the re-playability an already great game.

Summary

Presentation: Nice artwork and very readable cards. 7/10

Clarity of Rules: Well written rules make it an easy game to learn. 8/10

Game Length: Games take about 30 minutes or more depending on the number of players. 9/10

Value: Essentially a card game, but will have great re playability 7/10

Overall: A fun dungeon bash where its everyone for themselves. (8/10 not an average)

Army of Zero Review and Interview with Steve Mainprize

Army of Zero is the first game by Point Zero Games, designed and produced by Steve Mainprize. The game is a card game for 2 players who are using a squad of hardened warriors in a battle of strength and wits. The game also comes with a puzzle that can net the winner £1000 if they are the first to solve it.

Opening the box, what do you get.

• 3 packs of cards that make up the 84 different warriors and rules
• 2 dice
• Puzzle entry form.

The cards are made from good card stock and the artwork is very nice. There are a number of different clans that the warriors belong to, these take there names from animals such as Panda, Lion and Turtle. There is a slight oriental theme to the cards and they do remind me of a manga style comic. The animal clan affects the artwork, so for example the zebra clan members have white and black striped armour, while the lion clan all have long flowing blond hair.
The cards have the stats of the character at the bottom, these are Speed, Combat, Armour and Weapon. The value of each is from -2 to +2 with each character balanced out. i.e. if a character has +2 speed, they probably have -2 armour.
The cards also have a number of symbols down the left hand side. These are part of the puzzle but that's as much as I know.

Setup and play are both very simple. The 84 warrior cards are shuffled and 10 are dealt to each player. Each player then takes a dice and their 3 combat cards. These combat cards comprise of 2 sword cards used for attack and a shield card used for defense.
Each player then flips over their first character card. They then place face down either an attack or defend card. These are both simultaneously flipped and the outcome determines what happens. If they are both swords then each player rolls a dice and adds there speed value. Highest goes first and takes out there opponent.
If both players played a shield they stalk each other waiting for someone to attack.
If a shield and sword are played both players roll there dice and add there combat value. The highest hits the other and becomes the attacker. Both players now roll there dice and they add there weapon and armour values respectively. If the attacker is higher they have wounded there opponent and the card is removed.
If not then another round is started.
When a character is removed from play both players take back there combat cards, if not then only the defense card can be retrieved. This means that players can only get two attacks in before they have to defend. Knowing this can help the other player if they have been playing defensively.

The rules sound simple and they are certainly not as complex as other card based games. But they are very quick to learn and fun to play with younger children or as a filler before a bigger game.

The puzzle element and the £1000 prize is definitely an interesting concept and one that I haven't seen since the Perplexcity cards were released. I have spent a bit of time on the puzzle but so far I'm stumped. So if anyone has any clues then please pass them on.

Summary

Presentation 84 different warriors and a simple rule set. 7.5/10

Clarity of Rules Rules are clear, but a flow chart would be handy. 8/10

Game Length Games last around 15 minutes but could be altered by adding more characters. 7/10

Value Nice cards and an interesting incentive. 9/10

Overall A cracking card game that quick enough that it should hit the table during those odd times. (8/10 not an average)

Steve Mainprize is the designer and publisher of Army of Zero. He graciously took time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions about his game.

Army of Zero is your first game, what inspiration did you have to come up with it?

I'd been on sabbatical from work for a while, particularly wanting to spend more time with my two boys. We were playing a lot of games, particularly trading card games, and I think the germ of the idea for Army Of Zero must have come from all that. I wanted a multi-character card game that was easy to learn and didn't require as much investment in time: I think other parents will know what I'm talking about! So basically, what we've done is taken some of the tropes of very "busy" games like CCGs and RPGs, and filtered them through much simpler game mechanics that are closer to trump games and even rock/paper/scissors.

You have decided to self publish, is it easier to do this than find a publisher?

I don't think either route is what you'd call "easy"! As far as self-publishing goes, I personally think there's definitely something to be said for the satisfaction of following an idea through from the initial concept to having a finished product in your hand, but it probably depends on the kind of person you are. The most creative people I know aren't what you'd call "finishers": they might have a dozen brilliant ideas a day but aren't built to see them through to completion. If you're that kind of person, you're going to need to have a publisher, or at least a business partner, who's going to make sure your scheme ends up fully baked (instead of half-baked!).

So it just so happened that we had the resources and the inclination to self-publish. Your mileage, as they say, may vary.

The puzzle element is quite different. What made you decide to add this element to the game?

I read a story once - possibly apocryphal, possibly true - about two crossword compilers who disliked each other so much that they each independently started hiding insulting messages about the other in their crosswords. The problem was, the messages were so cryptic that neither realised the other was doing it.

I love codes, cyphers and hidden messages: at one point we were going to have the puzzles designed into the Army Of Zero cards but not even tell anyone! The plan was that someone would eventually realise that these unexplained elements on the cards meant something and would start figuring it all out, and the story would start to spread... but in the end we realised that that's a cute high-concept idea, but maybe not such a good business model. Ultimately you have to tell people about the puzzle competition because it's one of the things that makes the product unusual.

Do you have any plans to expand Army of Zero with additional characters or rules?

We've got plenty of ideas for new puzzles that could end up in a second edition. Some of those puzzles we didn't have room for in the first edition, some have only been thought of relatively recently. We've also got alternative sets of rules that we're playtesting at the moment: some of those just tweak the existing game, but others are basically whole new games, using the existing deck. The idea of an expansion pack that gives characters altered statistics - weapons, special items, that sort of thing - is an obvious option, but it's going to need a lot of playtesting because the balance of abilities between the characters is perfect at the moment and we don't want to mess that up.

Do you have any other games designed and waiting to be published?

Actually, no: we really like the Army Of Zero character designs, and there's a lot of time and effort that's been expended on them. We really want to develop the theme. Wherever we go next, it'll be an "Army Of Zero" product.

What designer are you a fan of and who would you like to work with?

I like Todd Breitenstein for his game Zombies!!! (or however many exclamation marks there are), which is definitely the game we've played most in the last year or so. It works as a game and the atmosphere is spot-on. And although it's not a game as such, I think there must be something in Kit Williams' book Masquerade coming through into Army Of Zero as well.

I implied earlier that there are RPG influences: back in my role-playing days - and we're going back 20 years now! - I used to love playing Paranoia, so I'd probably suggest that working with Greg Costikyan would be a hoot.

Dominion Review by Count Zero

Dominion is a card game that borrows heavily from the CCG market. It's currently taken the Board Game Geek crowd by storm and for good reason. It's a fantastic game that has been warmly accepted.

Opening the box you get 5 decks of cards, a rules booklet and a plastic insert. Not exactly brimming with components but as its in essence a card game you don't need anything else. Also the re-playability of this game is amazing, you are sure to get your monies worth out of these 500 cards. The cards are of good quality and are going to last, although card protectors are always a good idea. The artwork is pretty good, maybe not as good as the Race for the Galaxy artwork but they convey the role of the cards very well and all tie together with a common theme.

The rule book explains the rules very well with a couple of examples and explanations of the cards and effects. The plastic tray allows you to sort out the cards and stack them to make things easier to use in the future. There is a inlay available on the geek that makes sorting out the cards and finding them much easier.

The huge number of cards are broken down into 3 main card type. First up are the money cards, these show golden coins with either a 1, 2 or 3 stamped in the middle. The cards are your currency cards and are used in the game to buy other cards. Next up are the green victory point cards. These also come in three flavors and are worth either 1, 3 or 6 victory points and are used in the end game scoring.
The main bulk of the cards are the action cards. There are 25 different types of action cards and there are 10 of each. These action cards cover numerous places in your dominion and provide you with the game actions of your deck.

Game setup is very easy. The money and victory point cards are separated and placed on the table. 7 single gold coin cards are dealt to every player along with 3 single victory point cards. This gives each player a deck of 10 cards. These cards are shuffled and placed in front of the player. Next 10 of the possible 25 action point cards are chosen. The rules have a number of set combinations that help you get started but you could easily randomly select 10 action cards and use those.
The table should now have 3 piles of money cards, 3 piles of victory point cards, 25 action point cards plus a trash marker and maybe some other card types. Each card has a cost associated with it and is shown in the bottom corner. This can be anything from 0 to 6 gold.

From now on each players turn consists of a single action point followed by a single buy although the cards that you are going to play will seriously affect this. The first couple of turns are very straightforward. You draw 5 cards from your deck, so your initial hand will be a mix of gold coins and victory point cards. As you have no action cards in your hand you skip this and move onto the buy phase. You now discard a number of gold cards to buy a single card from the numerous piles of cards in front of you. You are mainly going to start by buying the action cards, but you can buy more of the money cards and the victory point cards. The card you have bought and the gold cards used are put on your discard pile along with any cards left in your hand. You then draw another 5 cards as your next hand.
Each payer then has there action and buy phases. When it gets back to you you will have 5 cards that are again made up of the remaining gold and victory point cards. You will not have an action phase but you will get the chance to buy another card. Again the gold cards, the card you bought and the rest of your hand are all placed on the discard pile. You should now have 12 cards in your discard pile. These are gathered, shuffled and 5 new cards are drawn for your next hand.
When it is next your turn you should hopefully have an action card in your 5 cards. In the action phase you will play this card and then use the actions or bonus's that the card gives you. These can vary from drawing extra cards, gaining extra actions, harming the other players, gaining gold or managing your deck. These first few hands are all about setting up your deck to be as efficient as possible. After your actions have run out you then get a buy phase. Hopefully you will have enough gold to buy another card for your deck.

This is the main crux of the game, everyone starts out on an equal footing and its up to the players skill and a little bit of luck to get there deck working as efficiently and effective as possible. There are numerous card combinations available. Some basic ones involve the village card (+1 card, +2 actions) followed by the smithy (+3 cards). This pairing allows you to in effect draw 4 cards from your deck then get to play an additional card. Other cards such as the market (+1 gold, +1 buy, +1 card., +1 action) are a good all rounder giving you a number of benefits. You can stack up any number of cards, so you could start with a market, the card you drew was a village, you play this and grab another card. This is a smithy which you then play. Out of the 3 cards you draw from playing this card you get another village. All of the cards actions and bonuses are accumulative so playing 3 market cards would give you +3 gold to spend.

After a number of turns you should have a fairly reasonable engine running allowing you to speed through your deck and allow you to buy at least one card every turn. When this has happened its time to start buying the victory point cards. You don't really want to get them too early as they make up part of your deck. They are in effect useless until the end game, so buying lots of them too early will dilute your deck. Drawing 5 victory point cards would make for a useless hand.

the game ends when either the 6 Victory point card deck is exhausted, or three other decks are exhausted. The current player then finishes his turn then all players count up there victory point cards. The person with the highest number of victory points wins the game.

I think dominion is a great game. It has taken the task of building a deck of cards into a game and it works very well. Due to the fact that there are so many types of cards each game will be very different. Plus, all players will start on a level footing. With CCG's the person who had the most money would generally have the better deck. There is an element of skill involved, finding cards that work together is very important and you can learn a lot from someone who has played the game. But the more you play the more combinations become apparent and the more your mind starts working out other tricks that can be played.

I can see that Dominion is going to have a large number of expansions. The designer started out with 100 different cards and picked 25 of these for the game. This means that we are going to see a fair number of expansions with new actions cards over the coming years. I believe that these expansions are going to be playable in there own right, which will also be nice for players who have maybe missed out on this great game.

Summary

Presentation 500 cards make for a very re playable game that uses new mechanics. 9/10

Clarity of Rules Rules are clear and concise, you will be playing in no time. 8/10

Game Length Games can range from 20 mins to 45 depending on the number of players. 9/10

Value Good card stock plus loads of re-playability. 8/10

Overall A fantastic card game that plays fast. It's going to stay on the hot list for some time. (9.5/10 not an average)