Don’t commit Zombicide!

Zombicide is a very strategic, gee, zombie game. Big surprise, right? Uh-huh. Anyway. You pick characters, and get one random piece of equipment. You also get a special bonus depending on the character. My character, Phil, started with a pistol. My random piece of equipment? A pistol. This was actually convenient for me, as on the equipment card it says you can use them as dual weapons, meaning I could shoot with both using just one action. Phil got the pistol at the beginning because Phil is a cop.Zombicide

In the scenario we played, we started in the middle of the board. Our job was to grab 5 objective tokens, spread all around the board, and search rooms to find canned food, rice, and water. Once we found/collected all of the objects, we had to get all 3 required objects (food, rice, water) to the exit.

There is a catch to killing every zombie you can see. For each zombie you kill, you get an experience point. In this game, experience points are actually a bad thing. There are levels for experience points. When any one player reaches the next level, you start spawning the next level’s number of zombies. In other words, the more zombies you kill, the more zombies will spawn.

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This would have been a +1 to rating +1 to rating+1 to rating+1 mto rating+1 to rating game, but it was just too long. We started playing at 5:30. We handed over the board to the people that were hosting (they owned the game) so that we could go home around 9:00. Nobody even died until around 8:00!

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Do you want Codenames?

Your answer should be yes. Codenames is a fun strategy game that can play with two or more players. If you have two or three players, you are on the same team; it is a cooperative race against the clock to have your teammates guess the locations of your team’s Secret Agents.Codenames

If you are playing more than three players, you split into two teams. One person on each team is the Spymaster (just like in 2-3 player). They pick a key card at random, placing it between both Spymasters. It shows placements in the array of random cards that are the names they need you to guess correctly.

As Spymaster, you give a 1-word clue and a number of your team’s Codenames that it applies to. They can guess that many Codenames, one at a time, plus one extra (to make up for ones they couldn’t find on previous turns), until they either run out of guesses or find a Codename that doesn’t belong to their team.

There are four teams that you could find a Codename for.

Your team: place one of your team’s tiles on top of the Codename card.

Other team: place one of their team’s tiles on top of the Codename card. This acts as a point for their team.

Innocent Bystander: place an Innocent Bystander tile on top of the Codename card. This does nothing, it simply shows that the Codename has been guessed.

Assassin: Whichever team found the assassin automatically loses. Game over.

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Are you going to Ninja Camp?

In Ninja Camp, you are all students, going through the training course and collecting points. Avoid walls and traps while earning points and messing up the other players!Ninja Camp

When you can’t find any legitimate moves to make, you must Pass, at which point you are out of the game. Even though you are out, you leave your pieces on the board, right where you last had them. Now that you are out, these pieces serve as obstacles. Count up how many points you have by counting the point  value on each card in your discard and hand.

It doesn’t matter who is the last one standing. Whoever has the most points wins! They get personal training from the Sensei!

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Schrödinger’s Cats

Schrödinger’s Cats is a small card game with a lot of betting and (go figure!) cats. You are betting how many boxes (cards in the round) have dead cats, alive cats, or nothing at all! You are all Cat Physicists, trying to prove that you are right about the statistics.Schrödinger's Cats

It is an elimination game, so each round one player gets out until the next game. If there are 5 players, you each start with 5 cards. Then the next round 4, then 3, etc., until there are only 2 players with 2 cards each.

The Cat Physicists all have names and powers (unrelated to the name). Some names are Sir Isaac Mewton, Stephen Pawking, Albert Felinestein, and Madame Purrie. The powers include skipping your hypothesis (bet) for one turn, adding 1 empty box to the findings, and using a power someone else has already used this game.

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You Have To Babysit Lil’ Cthulhu!

Lil’ Cthulhu is another Kickstarter game. You are cultists of Cthulhu, and he has given you a challenging task: babysitting his young son, Lil’ Cthulhu. And you thought his Dad was bad!Lil' Cthulhu

You make toys for Lil’ Cthulhu, play Dark Toys to foil with other cultists, and endure many a Tantrum from the Lil’ Brat himself. I enjoy playing this with a plush Cthulhu to play out the Tantrums. One particular time, the title of a Tantrum card referenced “My Father”, as in, Cthulhu. My plush acted this out well:

Lil’ Cthulhu (as acted by my plush) “I’m telling my Daddy!”

Me: “Shut up, Malfoy.”

I have only played against Mom, winning twice out of three times. There are two ways to win: be the last with sanity or make Lil’ Cthulhu’s three current favorite toys (picked at random from the deck of 6).

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I’m A Chrononaut!!!

Want to film the Creation of the Universe? Want to go to the future and bring back a cure for cancer (in easy-to-swallow pill form)? Now you can, in Chrononauts!Chrononauts

Everyone has an ID with a timeline containing 3 things that either need to be changed or need to stay true in history. For instance, in 1939, instead of World War 2 initiating, fair-goers could enjoy German cake! You also have a mission involving what artifacts you want, like the Shakespeare’s Last Play. These are how you win. (There’s also the evil giant cockroach that wants the world to explode, which happens if there are 13 unpatched paradoxes).

Rewrite history and collect artifacts to make the world a better place (or, you know, to win)!

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English Lesson: The English word “chrononaut” comes from the prefix “chrono”, meaning “time”, like in chronological, and the suffix “naut”, meaning “traveler”, like in astronaut. Thus, “chrononaut” means “time traveler”.

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Virus Alert! Virus Alert!

Virus Alert is a computer-oriented card game involving strategy and sabotage. You add different parts of the computer, like graphics and software (it doesn’t matter which ones) to the collection in front of you. You can sabotage the other player by playing piracy, which lets you steal 1 card from their collection, or cards like virus, which allows you to put virus tokens on the other players’ cards. You can also play cards to remove virus tokens from your cards. You win by having ten computer pieces without viruses on them.Virus Alert

When I played with my mother, I won! I actually won with closer to 13 computer pieces, since six of my cards had viruses early on. I however, managed to play a card that, by chance (rolling a d6), let me clear six virus tokens. That was great! I had around 4 graphics cards in play by the end.

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Kids of Catan

Kids of Catan is a children’s game from the Settlers of Catan. It was, unfortunately, discontinued before they came out with Catan Junior. I’ve played it since I was 3, and I personally enjoy it. While not necessary, I found the back story in the instructions quite fun, and also wryly amusing, as the Mad Robber is called Eric (I know several Erics).Kids of Catan

The characters are placed in slots on a spinning table, kind of like a Lazy Susan. Behind each character are 3 slots for resources. The red-roofed buildings are split into groups depending on the number of players. When you role the die, move 1, 2 or 3 spaces (depending on the role), and pick up the resource in that space if you don’t yet have it. If you land on Eric, take a resource of your choice out of your cart and put it in a matching color-coded space.

When you reach all three resources, unload them all and place one of your red-roofed buildings. When you run out of those, the next time you earn all three resources you place the green-roofed building. This symbolizes that you won.

Each of the little buildings has markings on it. They are actually symbolizing real places. There’s a church, a bakery, a butcher, a school, a tower, a gate, and 2 different types of houses, both of which come in larger quantities. The green-roofed building is the Town Hall. I love the simplicity of this game, yet at the same time the complexity of the story and buildings. I like the fact that the story isn’t necessary, but very complimentary.

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World of Warships

World of Warships is an intricate strategy game. You choose which ship you want to play, then click ‘Battle’. You wait in queue until enough people in your rank range also click ‘Battle’, then you get drafted into a randomized battlefield. That’s when the fun begins.World of Warships

You have multiple bars for what speed you want to go at. You turn by pressing A and D, move faster by pressing W, and slower by passing S. You can choose a spot on the map to autopilot to using M, and Shift will let you scroll in. 1 and 2 are different shell types and 3 is torpedoes, if you have them. R is repair, which you use if something is immobilized or a crew member is injured. T is your special skill, if the ship has one. You left click to shoot.

This, like other wargaming games, is a fast-paced, quick decision simulation game. I like the fact that though you shoot stuff, there’s no gore.

This game is fun, interactive, and strategic. It is also historical as the ships are modeled off of genuine ships. I play it with my father, uncle, and older cousin.

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Rally the Warhamsters!

Rally the Warhamsters! Prepare for the greatest race of all time… in Warhamster Rally! Warhamster Rally is a wonderful game involving strategy, luck, and sabotaging the other players.Warhamster Rally

In it, you choose a Dork Tower character. This is your character for the game. Each character has a special power that can be used once. Each space has an arrow on it. Whichever way it’s pointing is the way the Warhamster wants to go. Thus, at the beginning of the turn, you take your card that you chose last round, align it so the arrow on the card matches the one under your character, then move to where it says to go. Your goal is to get to past the Battle Budgie on the far end, cross the Post, then cross the post on the other side behind the other Battle Budgie.

To make a long story short, you drive a giant Warhamster around the board in a mad attempt to win a pointless race! Well, its not pointless. You know what I mean.

I recommend this for geeks who aren’t afraid to get their Warhamster butts kicked.

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