Big Game Hunting - Eldritch Horror in review

This month sees the release of Eldritch Horror, a fantastic cooperative board game from Fantasy Flight Games. In this game, you can travel the world, so long as you remember to close the gates of hell and stop otherworldly creatures from pouring through along the way. Oh, and don’t forget about the deadly Ancient One, ready to awaken and destroy the world!

Eldritch Horror is, at its heart, a horror survival game. It allows for anywhere between 1 and 8 players, with the difficulty escalating in relation to the number of people playing. Each player chooses a character from the pool of “investigators” provided, and each investigator has their own unique abilities. These abilities can prove to be crucial during gameplay, so it pays off to try for a strategic combination of skills that complement each other. It’s a refreshing change to have a game that caters to single players as well as larger groups - far too many times we’ve sat down to play a game only to discover we’re unable to play with only one or two people, and that's not the case here.

Every game features one of four Ancient Ones, each of which comes with their own deck of Mythos cards. Mythos cards are essentially events that take place during the game, and can help just as often as hinder. They also each have their own set of mystery cards, which players must resolve in order to win the game. The mystery cards have varying goals, each of which are specific to the Ancient One they accompany, making each game a unique experience - and also increasing the importance of having a group strategy.

Over the course of the game, you’ll struggle against monsters coming through the various gates opening across the world. This is where travelling becomes a highlight, as often you must travel to a particular world location in order to gain clues, close gates, or solve mysteries. It also is where games with less players tend to suffer slightly. At the most, you can only move along three paths in a single phase, and then only when you have picked up enough travel tickets to do so. The board does wrap-around, allowing for players to get from one side of the board to the other quickly, but if the location you need is four or five paths away, the chances of you getting there quickly are small. Working in tandem with other investigators who may be nearer allows players to achieve goals with less travelling required.

Despite being surrounded by elements and monsters who are determined to make you fail, there are plenty of objects that can be acquired to support you. Every investigator has a starting set of bonuses, which may include weapons, allies, or spells. These can be gained during gameplay, and can also be traded with other investigators who may be able to use them to their full advantage. To complement these (or perhaps just to make winning an even bigger challenge), the game includes Condition cards. Conditions can be beneficial or detrimental - for example, a Blessed condition makes it easier to succeed on dice rolls, while a Back Injury comes with the possibility of dropping items from your hands should a reckoning come along.

What’s a reckoning, you ask? It’s probably the most evil symbol in the whole of the game. A reckoning is essentially an event which makes bad things happen. If this deadly little symbol pops up on a Mythos card, you can all but guarantee the coming of bad stuff. Monsters, conditions, items, and even the Ancient One often carry extra dangers that are activated when a reckoning occurs. These can be minor, but can also be devastating, so removing monsters or condition cards with these symbols can at times prove to be essential to moving forward.

All in all, Eldritch Horror is another Lovecraft-themed adventure that proves to be completely engaging and a welcome challenge, being just difficult enough to make winning feel like a real accomplishment, but not an easy ride. I have no doubt this game will have a good number of play throughs in the coming weeks in our household!

If you want to give this game a try, pop in to Proud Lion on Saturday, 14th December, where we will be running an Eldritch Horror demo! Stay tuned for more details!

Rae is wandering through the Dreamlands...

Big Game Hunting Live - Eldritch Horror

STOP PRESS! Big Game Hunting Live now takes place on the second Saturday of each month!

It's not long now until the return of Big Game Hunting Live! This is a monthly gaming event that takes place on the second Saturday of each month. Players will get a chance to learn and play a different game every month.

On Saturday 14th December, we will be playing Eldritch Horror! This new globetrotting Lovecraftian board game from Fantasy Flight is "a cooperative game of terror and adventure in which one to eight players take the roles of investigators working to solve mysteries, gather clues, and protect the world from an Ancient One - an elder being intent on destroying our world. Each Ancient One comes with its own unique decks of Mystery and Research cards, which draw you deeper into the lore surrounding each loathsome creature."

This is a rare chance to play a new game ahead of it's official release which follows later in December. Here's a quick look at what's in store for the would-be heroes:

We'll be able to show you the ropes and get you up to speed on how to play! Just pop on down, no sign-up is required, though participation will be on a first-come, first-served basis. We'll be having open game sessions at 10:30 – 1pm, and 2 – 5pm. 

All participants will receive a voucher that entitles them to 10% off Eldritch Horror when it's released.

If Mansions Of Madness is Scooby Doo: The Board Game, Ben Fardon is wondering what Eldritch Horror will become known as in local circles!

Big Game Hunting - Are expansions really worth it?

Instead of reviewing one expansion, I thought I'd do something a bit smart and focus on what expansions bring to games.

Well, aside from the obvious.

We own several (many lots) board games, for which Proud Lion has furnished us with expansions. In fact, we have a standing order for both Death Angel, Battlestar Galactica and Mansions of Madness expansions. I'm going to be reviewing Death Angel later, but I thought I'd focus on the other two this time - Mansions of Madness and Battlestar Galactica.

Mansions of Madness has several expansions, from small to large (in fact, Fantasy Flight the company that makes the board game sent us the fix for the latest large expansion). Some come in boxes, and are quite hefty. Others are smaller Print On Demand expansions - simply cards and little quests. Both contextually add some solid dimension to the games. Season of the Witch, the first expansion, has been amazing. We have really gotten a great deal out of it - and it's the smallest of the expansions.

So, in the case of Mansions of Madness, I wouldn't hesitate to pick up the extras - it doesn't just add to the value of the game, it really does give it new depth.

Battlestar Galactica on the other hand has two expansions. With the first one, Pegasus, the gameplay remained remarkably unchanged. Though new characters were introduced (something MoM hasn't done - yet), there wasn't anything ground-breaking, mechanics wise, other than the Resurrection Ships and infiltrating (something which I've never understood tactically - once people know you're a Cylon, you're going to get killed whenever you wreak havoc on the ship. Sabotage comes down to luck at that point).

While the expansions have brought extra pieces, gameplay areas and more to the game, once you get the basics of Battlestar Galactica, bar one new mechanic, you've got it all, in my opinion. Be devious, or don't - either way, you can predict how a game is most likely going to end at the halfway point and none of the expansions have changed that. It may just be the style we play, but you CAN do without - though, that said, the expansions do bring some kick-ass characters. The second final expansion had three different options - one of which brought an interesting mechanic, something I'll be discussing in a later review, but for now I'll just say 'it's nasty'.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that expansions are great - some are better than others - and it depends on the game. If you're bored with the regular play, pop down or find out if the game has an expansion - you might reinvigorate your love for your board game - or discover that there's a new tactic to learn.

This week, Kai is very, very tired but working on the next article - 'The One Ring'.

Big Game Hunting - Actual Play: Mansions Of Madness

We’ve been looking for an Arkham Horror-like game to take the place of the Cthulhu horror classic for a while. Although we really enjoy Arkham Horror, it takes forever to set up and play, plus if there’s a lot of people it’s difficult to keep everyone engaged in it sometimes. We’ve been wanting to find a game with that ‘feel’, but not that level of detail or laborious setup. So, when we heard about Mansions Of Madness, I thought it would be ideal.

The first thing I noticed was how neat the game actually is. It’s got a very nice setup system – which means that we could design our own scenarios. Double-sided map tiles (for indoor and outdoor areas) slot together to make up the play area – and there are five scenarios, each with variations already provided. The mechanics within the game for the ‘GM’ (or bad guy) is quite cool – there’s a set of variables within the scenario, but they can be in different areas and used in a variety of ways, depending on the multiple choice answers the GM gives to set up the game. Most maps had two or three Objective cards, depending on those choices, and some of them have additional ‘end result’ conditions linked to your selections during the setup. So, though there are only five scenarios, it’s conceivable that you could play the same scenario, with different events each time.

From the player side, it’s a difficult game. It’s not an easy game to win fights either – they’ve kept a lot of the mechanics from the original Arkham Horror, including dodging and horror values assigned to monsters. The twist now is that they’ve got much more hit points and a way to track that.

Our first play through saw two characters dead within half an hour, and resurrected as zombies, but we won, only just. The second play through saw the GM (me) win, but only because I insisted on setting the whole area on fire.

The models are gorgeous – new sculpts of the old cast that you might have encountered in Arkham Horror, if you’ve played, and lots of good looking monster miniatures, as well as one or two new ones.

I think the thing that had me most excited - and still holds my attention even after a dozen plays of the game or so (we’ve since bought the Season of the Witch expansion, which brings up the count on the game scenarios to six) - are the puzzles. There are several puzzles in the game, where you have to complete basic tasks – rewiring, matching up symbols on tumblers, or reorganising pictures to match diagrams. On the surface, it doesn’t sound difficult, but it’s really refreshing to find a game that actually challenges people to do something other than roll dice. Fighting is still dice rolling in this game, and attributes are pretty much fixed once you've chosen cards, so the ‘puzzle’ mechanic makes this a unique and utterly captivating game that I return to often when I’m looking for a challenge.

We’ve still not instituted the "60 seconds to solve" rule (which they suggest to make the puzzles even more challenging) but to be honest, I don’t think we need to. It’s a lovely game, and well worth taking a look at, especially if you’re a horror or Arkham horror fan. Find a GM with a wicked streak and I promise you, you’ll have a really enjoyable night.

D Kai Wilson-Viola is back where it all began, getting ready for the exciting next step...