First up I thought we'd play a horror-themed game since it is so close to Halloween: Herocard Nightmare. This is one of the six Herocard games that I own, and I think is the fourth of them that I've actually had a chance to play. Like the others, the core combat mechanic uses the Herocard duelling system, but the game wrapped around it is very different.
I forgot to take a photo of this one, so enjoy the random pic of the components from the internet. In a nutshell, Nightmare is a deduction game. All of the players are trapped in a shared dream of scenes (cabin, forest, lake, etc...) and killers (beast, zombie...). Each player knows where they will die and who will kill them there. The challenge is to move the scenes around in order to figure out who is scared of which combination without giving your own away. Once you have learned (or think you have) what combination another dreamer is afraid of, you can try to kill them there. If you do they're out. The goal is to be the only dreamer still alive.
So this one has a very unique theme and the board is cool. The pieces are good and during the game the scenes and killers are removed to make it more and more likely you can find a killing combination. Being our first play through of course we made some mistakes, but I quite enjoyed the unique idea. It is certainly not for everyone however, because it is a very dark theme, even it if's not particularly bloody or horrific. Although it's a fast game, there is player elimination so that is something to keep in mind as well.
I'll be keeping this one to try a few more times, hopefully with a full four-player complement.
Our second game was one I've been wanting to play ever since I picked it up: Sons of Anarchy - Men of Mayhem. Being a 3 or 4 player game only, it's proven a little tough to manage. People just seem to flake out at the last minute or not bother answering invitations. It's actually quite frustrating, but that's a discussion for another day.
We got things set up pretty quickly for our three gangs and jumped right in. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. The game plays very quickly and each gang has different strengths and weaknesses. There were a few throw downs, opportunities were taken and hassles arose, some members died, took the fall and generally did bad things in the name of making cold, hard cash.
There are tons of location tiles and anarchy cards in this game. Since you only use a limited number of each in a game, I can see a ton of replay-ability in this game. We had to call the game after five rounds instead of six, and my Mayans fell three cash short of the Grim Bastards for the win. I'm really looking forward to playing it again!
Sidebar: two of the cast members from the show were at the Calgary Tattoo expo this weekend, but I was sadly not able to make it. I would have loved to take my copy of the game down for them to sign!
One of our players had to leave at this point, so we decided to try out a skirmish between heroic duos in Sentinel Tactics. I used Tachyon and Absolute Zero against Bunker and Visionary. It was getting late so we decided that once a character was incapacitated for the second time they were out of the game. I lost Tachyon first to a massive 10-dice strike from Bunker, shortly after she took Visionary down for the first time. Absolute Zero had to chose between chasing Visionary and her decoy around or taking Bunker down. He chose Bunker, and died.
It was a tough game and I know we weren't playing the skirmish rules the right way. I believe it's supposed to be 3-on-3 an the first to three incapacitations. Either way it was still fun.
I will be rebasing the minis on 30mm rounds at some point, because I really don't like the clear hex bases. Other than that I'm pretty happy with the game so far. It will certainly see more play in the future too.
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