Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
Gambling With Success – The Gang Review
Poker can be a really hardcore game, and quite cutthroat too.
Bluffing your opponents into thinking you have an unbeatable hand when you have nothing but crap is a mainstay of the game.
Why is he betting so much on that flop?
But what if…and just hear me out before scoffing…what if, it was a cooperative game?
I know, right?
The Gang takes Texas Hold ‘Em poker and makes a cooperative game out of it, and does a really nice job of it.
It’s basically turned into a deduction game where you can only hint at what you have, but it’s important for the other players to actually have an idea.
Designed by John Cooper and Kory Heath (RIP), with artwork Fiore GmbH, the game was published in 2024 by Kosmos.
And it is surprisingly addictive if you like working out hidden information.
Do you need to know how to play poker?
Not necessarily, as there is a player aid that ranks all of the hands and the instructions do tell you what it all means (for those of you who think “flop, turn, and river” are Greek words).
It helps to have somebody knowledgeable about the game just for advice (in between rounds, of course) in how to read some of the tells from other players.
In this game, tells are good!
Read MoreTerraforming Mars: The Legacy of Mars – Coming to Gamefound
Two posts in one day, but when I become aware of something (or in this case, become aware that a link is live even though I knew it was coming before), that’s news!
This may be a day or two old, I’m not sure, but there has long been talk about a Terraforming Mars Legacy game, and now there is an actual link to give people.
Terraforming Mars: The Legacy of Mars is coming to Gamefound…sometime in the near future. No date has been set yet.
The campaign preview is now live, but unfortunately there is no Boardgame Geek entry for it and none of the pictures on the Gamefound page are linkable, so no pictures here.
You can go to the link and sign up to be notified when it does go live.
As with all of the other Terraforming Mars games, this is going to be published by Fryx Games and Stronghold Games.
Here’s the blurb from the Gamefound preview:
“Terraforming Beyond Mars! Mankind has finally dragged itself out of the hole that is Earth’s gravity well, and now has the entire solar system at its feet. We are now ready to take terraforming – the true legacy of Mars – to new worlds! The Legacy of Mars is a fully replayable campaign divided into two parts. In this campaign we launch Part 1 covering missions 1-4. Gameplay is based on the original award-winning Terraforming Mars boardgame, so if you’ve played that game, much will be familiar, while still introducing new mechanics and hundreds of new cards to explore! Since no components are destroyed or permanently altered, the campaign or individual missions may be played again at any time.”
What’s that you say? Divided into two parts?
Yes, not only the game, but the actual campaign is divided into two parts.
Read MoreWhy Do We Play Games?
I enjoyed board and war games as a kid, though I obviously didn’t think a lot about them.
There was, of course, Monopoly and Candyland and all of that childhood trash that we look back on and say “did we really play that?”
As I mentioned in my “How I Became a Gamer” post, though, I also played some wargames with my brother because he had bought them, and they opened my eyes to what games can be.
I also treasured that time with my brother.
I had my 90s lull after college (college is where I played Squad Leader and Titan a whole bunch) and picked them up again in 2012 by visiting a convention’s gaming area.
But that’s not what I’m talking about today.
Instead, I want to explore why I (and maybe by extrapolation, we) play games.
What does it do for us?
What do we enjoy about it?
Why is it something we do over doing many other things?
There are a number of reasons for me, so let’s explore them and see if you’re of a similar mindset.
Read MoreLiving on the Edge – Forest Shuffle – Woodland Edge Expansion Review
I want to say that the Alpine expansion for Forest Shuffle was the first one, but I’m not 100% sure.
That one (as I mentioned in my review) helped by adding a few different cards that mitigated some other favoured strategies in the base game.
No matter which was first, though, I have to say that the Woodland Edge expansion is so good at this!
Forest Shuffle: Woodland Edge is another expansion designed by Kosch with artwork by Toni Llobet and Judit Piella. It was also published by Lookout Games in 2024.
If you must own only one expansion, this is the one to get!
Not only does it help with some overpowered strategies in the base game, but it adds so much good stuff to help other strategies, and with only 36 cards.
Read MoreHe Comes For You in Your Nightmares – Final Girl – Frightmare on Maple Lane Review
Nightmare on Elm Street was one of the few horror movies I could really stomach as a teenager (I’m not really a fan of horror movies, especially with jump scares and the like).
There was just something about Freddy Krueger that was cool, plus I liked the actor who played him (Robert Englund) because he was the nice alien in the “V” TV movies and series.
Freddy is such an obvious horror trope that you knew the Final Girl franchise would emulate the movie and character pretty early.
Sure enough, it’s a Series 1 feature film!
Frightmare on Maple Lane is a hilarious (well, to me anyway) pun on the title.
Designed by A.J. Porfirio with art by Roland MacDonald, this Final Girl feature film was published in 2021.
Let’s talk about Maple Lane first since it is such an interesting location with somewhat limiting mechanics (though still pretty cool).
Read MoreFinding a Stranger in the Alps – Forest Shuffle – Alpine Expansion Review
(100,000 bonus points for anybody who gets the (kind of) movie reference in the title)
I’ve been a fan of Forest Shuffle for quite a while, as you can tell from reading my review.
This wonderful tableau-building game never really gets old and plays equally well at 2-4 players (I’ve never played it at 5, but I imagine it does).
However, there were a couple of strategies that were dominant in it (especially the Wolf/Deer one) and some strategies were pretty weak (bats and butterflies).
With the arrival of the expansions, though, that has greatly been helped!
I’m not sure which arrived first, but let’s talk Forest Shuffle: Alpine first.
Also designed by Kosch, with art by Toni Llobet and Judit Piella, this expansion was published in 2024 by Lookout Games.
This expansion is a simple card expansion, adding two new trees (7 cards of each), 12 top/bottom animal cards and 10 left/right animal cards for a total of 36 new cards.
So it’s not very big, but it does have a pretty big impact on the base game.
Read MoreCombat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario M8 – Closing Outer Camp
Some months the luck gods strike you down, and some months the luck gods…well, don’t.
They still needle you some, but maybe they decide to strike somebody else down instead?
That’s Combat Commander in a nutshell!
Yes, it’s time for another adventure from the Combat Commander ladder (trademark: Patrick), that monthly tournament of one of the greatest games out there.
Or maybe that’s just my mood right now.
Administered by the stunning Patrick Pence (he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame), this tournament lets you play a monthly game of Combat Commander, and sometimes even more!
In fact, in a rare occurrence, I actually played twice this month!
I did a practice run of this scenario, and thank God I did.
That one did not go well, though it was fun!
This time I was much more prepared.
For this month’s scenario, I was paired up with Ben T, another second-time opponent, last seen in May 2024 (I mean last faced by me, not that he’s been missing since then).
This scenario is taken from the New Guinea battle pack and has a Japanese force (white – me) defending one of the well-entrenched camps outside of Buna against an Australian force (tan – Ben) hell-bent on breaking through and disrupting even more of the defenses.
(Don’t forget that you can click on a picture to blow it up)
Here’s the initial setup map.
Notice a few things?
Like broken Japanese units and already a couple of fires?
That’s the special rules, baby!
The Japanese set up first, up to 12 columns from the left side of the board.
They also have a bunch of Wire and five Caves which gives the Japanese in them a lot of protection.
In my practice play of this game, I set up in caves very well forward and my opponent tore me apart with his massive squad and heavy machine gun firepower, then waltzed off the board at least once.
This time, other than a couple of sacrificial squads to fire at the Australians advancing through the palms, I set up in the back where at least only the HMGs could reach and not the squads.
Anyway, there was a massive air raid just prior to this scenario, so after setup the Japanese player draws 6 random hexes and breaks any Japanese units in hexes adjacent to those.
Then, after the Australian setup, the Australian player draws two random hexes and puts blazes in those.
Having a blaze right in the middle of the palm trees in front of all of Ben’s heavy machine guns was not pleasant for him, though it wasn’t game-killing.
Yet.
Finally, two “radios” are set up in the final column on the right side of the board (Ben placed both of them under units so you can’t see them in the picture) representing two tanks that can be fired twice at the same target with an Asset Request.
Only 6 firepower (5 assuming it’s going through the palm trees), but it’s something at least.
Let’s see how this one went!
Read MoreBook Review – The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 by Rick Atkinson
I’ve been reading Rick Atkinson’s military history books for years and years, partially because it has taken him years and years to get them out!
The World War II Liberation trilogy was simply sensational, and took 11 years to actually get finished.
Now, Atkinson is taking on the American Revolution.
The first book, The British Are Coming, came out in 2019 and covered the first 3 years of the war, from 1775 to 1777.
Now, the second book is out.
The Fate of the Day covers 1777 to 1780 and goes through the uncertain future of the Revolution as the American Colonials faced defeat after defeat, super-cold winters (including one that could be said to have almost ended the rebellion at Valley Forge in 1777-78), and an ineffective Congress.
In these middle years of the war, only a fateful victory at Saratoga, and the ill-fated occupation (and then withdrawal from) Philadelphia by the British, lifted American hopes that the British could actually be defeated.
Otherwise, money shortages, shortages of ammunition and supplies, and deserting troops made American defeat very possible.
Atkinson is a great popular military historian and his books are always well-researched (which kind of explains how long they take to get published).
His books are filled with historical footnotes, images, and the like. I read books mostly on an e-reader, and I can say that the main text of this book only takes up the first 43% of the book or so.
The tons of endnotes are just staggering, showcasing just how deeply researched this book is.
Read MoreHave Fun Storming the Castle! – Castle Combo Review
One of the really common things about our Sunday game days, unless we are playing a couple of really deep games that take too much time, is to have 30-45 minutes left after the main game and then trying to decide if we should all go home or if we want to try something short and sweet.
There are so many great short and sweet games, that my choice is always to play one of those, unless everybody else wants to go.
One of the common ones, depending on who is there (since I don’t own the game), is Castle Combo.
This game hits the very definition of both options: short and sweet.
It plays in about 20 minutes and can play up to 5 players.
Which is also good on those odd days where we have a bunch of people.
Designed by Grégory Grard and Mathieu Roussel, with cute artwork by Stéphane Escapa, this game was published in 2024 by Catch Up Games.
This is the ideal filler because it’s easy, doesn’t take a lot of thought but does take some, and it’s really just a great cool-down after a brain-burning game like Civolution.
Castle Combo is a card-drafting game where you are drafting cards to build a 3×3 tableau of cards.
It’s the scoring combos that make the game interesting.
Read MoreNew to Me – September 2025
I love months where I play a bunch of games that I have no experience with.
September gaming was great for the number of plays, but even better for the new to me games that I got to play!
I especially love it when there’s a good mix of lighthearted, relatively short, interesting games and those games that make your brain burn if you’re not careful.
September was a good example of that mix.
Even better for the Cult of the New to Me was that the ages of the games were mixed too.
Yes, there were a few 2025s and most of the other games were 2022 or later, but two of them were from before COVID.
I guess that’s how we’re defining time frames now.
Pre-lockdowns and post-lockdowns.
Anyway, they decided to give me a temporary pass on rebelling, at least for this month.
But no promises for next month if I don’t get some older new to me games played in October.
Who knew that cult members could be so unruly?
So without further ado (all of my ado was lost on some cosmic joyride anyway), let’s begin!
Read More
Dude! Take Your Turn! 