Review: Coup: Rebellion G54 – Anarchy

As I have reviewed Coup: Rebellion G54, I’ll not be going over the rules. Instead I will look at what the expansion adds to the game and examine the cards in detail.

Contents:

18 influence cards (3 of each role)

7 role action cards (1 of each role, and 1 Social Media)

1 general action card (bank)

1 role token (bomb)

6 role dividers (1 of each role)

Two new general actions are available:

Social Media (General action): Take 1 card from the deck. Return 1 card to the deck. This cannot be challenged or blocked.

Bank, enables Loan (General action): Take 1 coin from the treasury. Add 1 coin to the bank. This cannot be blocked or challenged.

The roles and general actions in this set

The roles: 

Plantation owner (finance): Active player takes 1 from the treasury. Then any other player may claim Plantation owner. Once all claims have been made, challenges have been resolved, everyone gets the number of coins equal to the surviving claimants.

Financier (finance): The Income General Action card is swapped with the Bank card, enabling people to take the Loan general action. Active player may claim the financier to take all the coins from the bank card.

Anarchist (force): Active player does not have to claim anarchist to take this action. Active player pays 3 coins to the treasury and declares a target. The target gets the bomb token and can either Defuse or Pass the bomb to a new target. If they do not Pass or Defuse, the target loses a life. Counteraction: Target may claim anarchist to either Defuse (discard) or Pass the bomb to another player. The bomb may never return to any player that had the bomb, including the player that first took the bomb action.  

Paramilitary (force): The player declares a target and pays 3 coins if the target has 2 lifes remaining or 5 coins if the target has 1 life remaining. Target loses a life. Counteraction: Target may claim paramilitary to prevent the loss of a life.

Arms dealer (Special interest): Active player names a character role and then turns over two random cards from the deck. If any of those two cards is the named role, the player gets 4 coins from the treasury. Return the cards to the deck and shuffle.

Socialist (Special interest): All other players must give either 1 coin or 1 card. Active player keeps all the coins. The player then looks at the cards acquired, adds 1 card from his or her hand and chooses 1 card to keep. Then they add 1 card from the deck, shuffle and give 1 card to each player that gave a card. The leftover card is returned to the deck.

Thoughts and review:

 All cards are advanced, and add two new roles to force, finance and special interest. For finance and force it's nice to have more options, as they had less options in G54. Communication is missing, but replaced with Social Media. Now every turn, someone can swap a card with the deck and hopefully assume a new role. This has influence on the communications card that people might wish to use, as some of them lose their purpose. I can’t say much about them in play, as the mechanic of G54 is different with each set of cards.

Plantation owner: Another special mechanic. People are encouraged to claim plantation owner, as everyone benefits from it. However, the danger is that you might just help your opponents too much, because now they have more coins than you’d wish them to have.

Financier: To take all the coins in the bank is interesting, but the downside is that everyone is also eyeing it. There’s also no counteraction for this, except challenging the player directly. The biggest change is that it influences the general actions, so people might think twice about gaining income and instead steal coins from their opponents.

Anarchist: Anarchist is interesting, as you don’t need to have the anarchist yourself in order to claim the bomb. Also you can’t get the bomb back yourself, so there’s an incentive to light the fuse. However, because another player can defuse or pass on the bomb, you’re not guaranteed that someone will lose a life.

Paramilitary: Basically, it’s a guerilla, which always costs 4 coins, but with some cost variations. The first time people pay less, as they have more lives remaining. To finish them off costs more, so the incentive could be to equalize gameplay.

Arms dealer: The arms dealer can acquire a lot of money in a single turn, but only if you’re feeling lucky. You might just get what you want or be left empty handed. I like this card.

Socialist: My personal favorite in this expansion! You either mess with other people’s plans. If you’re targeted by this you can buy yourself out or might just end up with a new card. Again there’s a luck component, but due to the general reshuffling, you might just end up with the card you needed (or not).

Does this expansion take Coup G54 to a whole new level? Not really, as basically G54 remains G54. However, what it does add is another 6 roles, which are of various interest. Most of them are fine and fun additions. The Plantation Owner, Financier, Anarchist, and Paramilitary are all equal to me. Nice to have, but it’s no harm if you don’t have them. The two remaining roles are exciting, Socialist and Arms Dealer. The Socialist, which allows you to mess with other people’s cards and plans. They can have a plan with their roles, but you can mess these up. The Arms Dealer is also nice, but mostly because it’s amusing when you guess correctly. The remaining cards are nice, but more on the same level for me. Overall, I would certainly recommend this expansion. However, keep in mind that as it’s no radical overhaul of the game, but an addition to the existing game. G54 can also be played without it and plays perfectly fine. If you want more options, however, then certainly get this expansion!

Critical Component Comparison: Coup & Coup: Rebellion G54

A while ago we reviewed Coup on this blog and recently Coup: Rebellion G54. Of course a comparison is logical to make. The purpose of this post is to review the components of both games and share some thoughts on the mechanics. This review shall start with a overview of what’s in both boxes, before examining them in detail.

Coup (Coup)

Players: 2 – 6

Publisher: Indie Boards & Cards

Year: 2012

Coup: Rebellion G54 (G54)

Players: 3 – 6

Publisher: Indie Boards & Cards

Year: 2014

Both games are about deception and bluffing. Both games are published by Indie Boards & Cards. They’re set in the same universe and the goal is to eliminate other players. Coup was published first, while Coup: Rebellion G54 came out later. The following aspects will be compared: total components, player aids, cards, coins, box, extra's.

Total components

Total components

Coup comes with 15 characters cards, 6 summary cards, 50 coins, a rulebook.

G54 comes with 75 influence cards, 2 general actions cards, 25 role actions cards, 8 role tokens, 50 coins, rulebook, 25 role dividers, 2 dividers.

Judging by the components alone, G54 gives a lot more than Coup. Not only in terms of cards, but also other additions as well, such as the tokens and everything else. The nice aspect is that it’s not just the game, but also storage of the game that they thought about.

  

Player aids

The player aids

Coup comes with simpler version, which is double sided. One side features the available actions, while the other side shows the roles and their related actions, explained in two sentences. Illegal actions, or actions that can’t be taken are marked with a cross. Also symbols related to the roles are shown.

G54 comes with cards that explain the role, as well as general action cards. These cards are divided into several sections (force, communications, special interest, finance) and that makes swapping them easier.

Equal. Both serve their purpose. The benefit of Coup is that they are personal and are in front of you. It would be impossible to fit all the cards from G54 on a player help and it are separate cards. Because of the space, more text can be put on it, so more complex roles can be added to the game.

  

Cards

The cards

Coup comes with bigger and sturdier cards. On it the person and their action is shown. These stand up better to repeated playing, shuffling and transporting. Sleeves for these cards are less easily available.

G54 comes with smaller cards, features the artwork and a box with the text. The cards are numbered in the bottom, relating to their set and the game. They are also better sleevable, making them more durable and standing up to repeated play.  

G54: Cards are a smaller size and sleevable. While they would be equal and both have benefits, the size is the dealbreaker.

  

Coins

The coins

Coup comes with 50 coins. These are all valued 1. They look like a cross between poker chips and sim cards for your phone. They are good to wield, except that they are all the same value.

G54 comes with 50 coins. These are valued either 1 or 3. The look like small sim cards for your phone. The value 1 is silver, while the value 3 is gold. It ensures there’s enough money to go around for every player, while you don’t need to gather big piles in front of you.

G54: Because the coins have different values.

Extra’s: Dividers and tokens

Extra's

Coup doesn’t have this feature.

G54 comes with 2 big divider cards and 25 role divider cards. These can be inserted in the box to split the cards and to make it easier to take out the cards that you want. You can use them, but it’s optional. While they are okay to have, I haven’t used them so far and to me it doesn’t seem to add a lot to the game. G54 also has tokens, which can be used to make more complex roles.

No points awarded.

Box

The boxes

Coup comes with a smaller box, which contains everything. The game is much more manageable and transportable this way. This is a huge benefit compared to the other box.

G54 comes with a big box, which can hold everything. You can even fit the box of Coup in there. The size is also the detrimental here, because it’s not easy to carry around. While Coup can easily be added to your backpack or taken along, G54 fills the whole bag. However, it’s nothing that can’t be fixed by putting the game in a different container.

Coup: has a better box.

Even the Coup box can even fit in the G54 box!

Score: Coup – 2 (Box, player aids) G54 – 4 (Coins, cards, player aids, total components)

Final thoughts.

G54 comes out better in comparison. Coup is leaner and might have trimmed out some of the unnecessary fat, such as the divider cards, but it also lacks the extra possibilities of G54. Of course, this can be explained as Coup was published two years before G54 came out. Therefore it’s logical that G54 is like an improved version compared to the previous game. There’s several benefits to G54 that make it more suitable than the basic game, such as the different coin values. However, the main feature that really improves this game is that there’s so many cards that can be used and added. Where as Coup can only be played in a certain pattern with the same cards, in the same environment, G54 offers the possibility of changing everything. This way you can introduce new mechanics, new strategies and a whole lot of more replay value to the game than just basic Coup. It stays interesting, even after several playthroughs in a single session and elevates it from a light filler game to something that can be used to spend the evening. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this comparison and it might help you make a better decision if you’re still on the fence about which game you should buy.

Review: Coup: Rebellion G54

Coup: Rebellion G54

Players: 3 – 6

Publisher: Indie Boards & Cards

Year: 2014

Coup: Rebellion G54

Rebels and traitors are indeed some of the most famous aspects of science fiction stories. That stories borrow or steal from another is well-known. However, some stories may even appear so similar that it’s hard to tell them apart. While it could be said that coup and coup: Rebellion G54 are similar, after all the use the same mechanics and share the same universe, they are different enough to justify their own reviews. I won’t be pointing out similarities, as these will be reserved for another post.

In Coup: Rebellion G54 every player is dealt two cards face-down. These are referred to as influence. On each of these cards is a role, which would allow you to act out certain actions. For example, you could acquire more money or acquire protection. There’s also two general actions, which can be done regardless of which role you have: acquiring one coin income or paying seven coins and putting a coup on someone. On your turn, you play an action. This could be one of the general actions, one of the actions on your cards, or an action on a card that you claim to have. Whether you have the card face-down in front of you, or not, is irrelevant, as long as no one challenges your claim, you are allowed to carry out the action. The explanations of the roles can be placed in the middle of the table, so that everyone can read it. The game continues until there’s one player left. The box also contains coins, with a value of 1 or 3. In the box are also dividers, so you can easily find the appropriate cards.

Of course there’s danger to this, as people can challenge your claims. You could demand money from another player, but some cards can be countered by the same role, which they could claim to have. So you, or they, could potentially be lying. Here’s where the catch some is, because these claims can be challenged. In that case the player that is challenged, has to prove they have the card they claim to have. If the player indeed has the card they claimed to have, the challenging player loses one life. If the challenged player doesn’t have the card that they claim to have, the challenged player loses a life.

This game is easy to teach, easy to carry and easy to set up. Great for vacation or on the go. The game can also be played with large groups, which is a benefit as well. One of the reasons why this game is so easy to teach, is because the roles only interact with the other cards of the same role. So only a ‘guerilla’ can counter a ‘guerilla’ or only a ‘politician’ can counter a ‘politician’. This makes it easy to explain. A game is resolved fast, so if you’re eliminated, a new game will be starting soon. Usually we let the player that’s eliminated first look for a role to be swapped during the next game. The cards are also the regular size and can be sleeved. There are 25 roles, so the game can easily be adapted. You can tailor the game for your personal tastes. Some roles allow you to quickly acquire money or trade several cards, but these can be swapped for others that might push for a slower growth or less trading of cards.

A downside is that the box is so big. The box is huge, while the game is little more than a stack of cards. It might give some wrong expectations. Our game is also not kept in the original box. The many roles can also serve as a bit of a determent, as new people might need to adapt to the new roles (and new opportunities they bring). While I don’t perceive it as a negative, luck and bluffing plays a role in these games, so not all players might like it.

The same contents, but from a different angle

The box, the dividers and a card

Everything together, this game is fast, social and a lot of fun! It’s highly recommended! While we may not play it as often as we’d like, every time it hits the table it’s a lot of fun and a hit with every group. While the chances of your rebellion might be uncertain, you’re guaranteed to have a lot of fun.

Review: The Cards of Cthuhu

The Cards of Cthulhu

Players: 1 – 4

Publisher: Dan Verssen Games

Year: 2014

Imagine a world where dark forces are actively trying to bring about the destruction of humanity. They have unlimited resources at their disposal. To prevent their dark dreams from becoming reality, there’s only you, and perhaps a few allies or trinkets. You are all that stands in the way of eternal damnation. Those odds don’t look very good, do they? However, it captures the gist of The Cards of Ctulhu.

Set up and ready to play!

In this game you’re an investigator trying to stop an invasion by not one, but four elder gods as they try to take over the earth. Each of these gods, and their cultists, is competing with another to take over the world. Every turn you draw four cards, place them on the appropriate board and try to stop the cultists from awakening their gods. The goal of the game is to stop the gods from awakening before the deck runs out. The gods awaken if at the end of a turn a single god has five or more minions. The drawing of cards can be influenced by open gates on the board or other cards. Minions are needed to summon the god, but they can’t be attacked directly if there are awake Horrors on the board. 

A horror is about to wake up!

While the rules might seem simple, this game is really hard. The actions you have every turn are limited and there’s always several places where you need to be, while you can only be present in one location. It’s as if there’s a whole house on fire, but you and the fire extinguisher can only save one room at a time. Besides that, the cults will slowly whittle away your sanity as you try to stop them. Open gates allow monsters to pour into reality. Expect to lose a lot of games. You can have luck and acquire the perfect card at the precise moment you need it, or you can watch all the good equipment pass by at the wrong moment and be left with little more than your fists to stop nightmares-turned-flesh from wreaking havoc. Expecting an easy turn, but then drawing two gates can really put a damper on your plans.

Or three in this case...

What I like about this game, is that it’s co-op! It can be played solo, but I like games where people have to work together towards a common goal. This can be quite stressful, as you have no idea what turns up next and people might have different ideas about how to solve current crisis. However, it also has benefits as you have more tools and abilities at your disposal to stop the invasion. Other than that it’s easy to learn and quick to set-up. Besides that, the components are really nice. The metal experience coins are well made! The theme also suits the mechanics really well. It feels as if you’re trying to stop a tidal wave of monsters from overtaking our reality.

Of course this game is influenced by luck. You can have a walk in the park if the right cards come up at the right moment. On the other hand, you can easily lose, despite all your best intentions, because the cards weren’t stacked in your favor. Although the metal coins are nice, at some moments there might not appear to be enough, especially when you’re playing with more than just one player. Another minor drawback is that some of the flavor texts at the bottom of cards don’t really blend well together. Some try to be humoristic, while others appear to be gloomy or serious.

Overall, I would highly recommend this game. Luck plays a huge part in this game, as it determines what choices you have to make and where you need to be.  However, the experience is well worth it.

Review: Warfighter: The WWII Tactical Combat Card Game

Warfighter

Players: 1-6

Publisher: Dan Verssen Games

Year: 2016

An immensely popular period in media is the Second World War. Besides countless books, there are many movies and videogames coming out. In this review, we’ll deal with a different sort of medium, a boardgame: Warfighter: The WWII Tactical Combat Card Game.

The game is suited for one to six players and allows the players to lead a squad of soldiers in combat. The game is divided in two halves, one regarding the preparation for the mission and the other one carrying out the mission. The base game allows players to play as the Americans against the Germans. People play together on the same team to fulfill the mission.

The first part consists of selecting the soldiers and their equipment for the mission. Often this is up to the player, but some missions and objectives can impose certain restrictions on load-out and/or equipment. A mission that will take longer needs to be prepared in a different way than a mission that is resolved in a few turns. The points can be used to buy special equipment, such as weapons or tools, but also skills that can be used. Some skills even allow the player to spend more points on equipment, as they have certain detrimental effects. Part of the fun of this game consists of gearing up your soldiers for battle. Bringing more soldiers might seem beneficial, but you also need to take care of them, as in moving them forward and if they die they influence your remaining soldiers. Will you take a medic or would you rather spend the points on a sniper rifle? The bazooka is fun, but the grease gun also looks interesting. Certain choices will need to be made and these will impact your options during the mission.

               As soon as your team is ready, the second half can start. A turn plays out as follows: the player has a limited amount of action points that can be spent on the soldiers. These points can be used for combat, moving, reloading or other actions. Combat often consists of shooting, where enemies can be killed, suppressed or missed. The chances of suppressing the enemy are significantly greater than killing, or missing, them and this is vital to the game. Suppressed enemies pose a smaller risk than unsuppressed enemies, because they are hiding from your bullets. Unsuppressed enemies often results in wounded or killed soldiers. After it the enemy’s turn is resolved. They get reinforcements, attack their designated targets and try to get closer. Lastly a suppressed counter is removed and the mission timer is advanced by one.

The Set-Up help 

The turn and attac ksequence help

What I like about this game is that it’s co-op. There’s a huge narrative element in the game and it feels as if you are playing out a movie or videogame where a squad of American soldiers saves the day at the last moment. There are several interesting mechanics as well. The main drawback is, for me, the rulebook. There are many processes, rules, exception in this game. The rules are not always easy to grasp and they can be a bit confusing. A list of keywords is supplied, so a lot of cross-referencing will be done to check if everything is correct or to clarify the rules. On the board there are several reminders and helps to smoothen the gameplay.

On the other hand, it’s admirable how the creators managed to create such a rich game as this. There are so many options to choose from! There's plenty of weapons, soldiers, skills and other equipment to equip your soldiers with. The game can be played solo, which is a benefit as well. Everything together, this game feels like a videogame or movie and it’s suitable for people that prefer playing a boardgame above watching a movie. Grab a few friends, a few drinks and play this game.

Review: Star Realms: Crisis - Bases and Battleships

Review of Bases and Battleships, Star Realms Expansion

Star Realms – Crisis: Bases and Battleships
Release: 2015

As I have already reviewed Star Realms before, I will not be going over the mechanics of the game. Instead I will look at the cards involved and examine them in detail as well as how they change the game.

 

The cards in the expansion

12 cards are acquired in this expansion, divided into 8 cards. These provide no new mechanics into the game, as some other expansions (such as heroes, events or gambits) do. This expansion is heavy on ships and light on bases. Another expansion, Fleets and Fortresses, provides more unique bases.

The cards included are:

Trade Raft (TF ship (2))
In itself not very special, but can be useful in certain circumstances. The ability to scrap it for another coin make this a sort of ‘throw-away’ card. If you have unspent trade (coin) at the end of your turn, you can buy this one.

Defense Bot (MC ship (2))
This card is good. It allows you to scrap and if you have enough bases, it becomes a strong attacker as well.

Fighter Base (SE base (2))
Another outpost, which is nice and it can force your opponent to discard a card. Not the first choice, but in a yellow (Star Empire) deck, this can be a part of a powerful combo.

Trade Wheel (Blob base (2))

It provides a single coin and if you have more Blobs, you gain attack points as well. It’s a nice addition and a good alternative to the Blob Wheel.

Imperial Trader (SE Ship (1))

An excellent ship, and basically an upgraded Survey Ship. It has decent attack skills.

Mega Mech (MC ship (1))

This one’s interesting, as it could provide unique mechanics. A base is returned to it’s owner’s hand. This provides interesting examples, when for instance combined with bases that allow people to draw cards. It can also be used to lift an opponent’s outpost and then allow a direct attack on them.

Construction Hauler (TF ship (1))

A ship that serves similar to the Freighter, but then for bases. The base that you acquire is directly put into play, serving as a nice way to build up defenses fast.

Obliterator (Blob ship (1))

A decent attacker that grows more powerful if you opponent has two or more bases.

How do these cards change the game?

This expansion can be added in it’s entirety to the base game. No cards need to be taken out, although of course this can be done according to the players wishes. As stated before, no new mechanics are implemented. Some reviewers describe it as ‘more of the same, but different’, which I can understand and partially agree with. Compared to the other expansions, it doesn’t provide radically new mechanics. However, it could serve as a way to turn one-sided battles. Overall, the shift is made towards a more base-heavy playstyle. This could also potentially make the game more defensive, considering how fast people can build bases. The three of the ships involved have abilities directly tied to how many bases you or your opponent has. Another card has abilities allowing the player to put bases immediately into play. In my personal experience, it seems to make the game slightly longer as people can put up more defenses. Of course, the tools to dismantle these defenses are also provided. Regardless, it’s great to have more variety in cards and they serve as a great expansion to the base game.

Review: Star Realms

Star Realms Review

Players: 2

Publisher: White Wizard Games

Year: 2014

Deckbuilding games are played for quite some time. One of the most popular games in this genre, is Star Realms, released by White Wizard Games. Read the review to understand a bit about why it’s so popular.

Part of the game, the traderow at the top and the personal cards at the bottom.

Star Realms puts you in charge of a small fleet and your goal is to annihilate your opponent. A turn consists of playing your cards and acquire new ships or bases or dealing damage to your opponent. The trick is to scrap unwanted cards, so that the good cards come by frequently.

The space ships generate trade (coins), authority (life), or combat (damage). The bases do the same, but remain in play, while the ships go to the discard pile at the end of the turn. The bases and ships are divided across four factions: the Trade Federation (blue), the Blobs (green), the Star Empire (yellow), or the Machine Cult (red). A turn will consist of playing the cards in your hand, spending the trade on preferred ships and/or bases, and dealing damage to your opponent. The ships or bases that can be bought are laid out in the traderow.

The game is swift and brutal. Sometimes matches can be unbalanced, due to a couple of bad draws or because no suitable ships are in the traderow. Matches can be battles of attrition or curbstomping victories. We have played battles where the victor had 75 authority remaining, while others were won with just one life left. The luck of the draw has a huge influence. However, because it’s so fast, a new game can quickly be played.

What I like about this game is that it has a huge community. There’s even an app where people can play online. The physical game is cheap and portable! Expansions to tweak the game are available for a small price. While they are not mandatory, it’s nice to have the option. Even better is that it can be taught to others easily and so new players are quickly to grasp the game. Also, the game involves a lot of strategy. You need to manage your own deck, keep an eye on the cards in the trade row and make the maximum use of the cards in your hand. The game fits together nicely.

A downside is that the starting set is only playable with two players. Three or four would have been nice, but another set (or another expansion) is necessary for this. However, the game can be played with more people with a few rule modifications. Sleeves for the cards are recommendable. You’ll be doing quite a lot of shuffling and it detracts from the game if cards become marked. The biggest detractor to me personally are the authority cards. There are 18 of them, numbered 20, 10, 5, 1. They are unwieldy and take up a lot of space, which could have been used better in my opinion. However, many solutions are available.

Overall, I like this game a lot, because it’s so quick and easy to learn, while still being complex enough to remain interesting. It’s a small game that remains interesting. Although our deck has gone through a dozen of play already, it will go on to play quite a lot more.