Here's What I've Been Playing This Week:
Blood Rage: After completely missing the kickstarter, and the original release, hype, attention and praise of this CMON release - I finally got the opportunity to sit down and see what the fuss was about. First play fell flat. It was a two player game to get to know the rules and just get a basically feel for what Blood Rage was all about. I'm a huge fan of 7 Wonders and who didn't like Risk and world domination when they were younger? Combine both games, add in some impressive miniature figures, set it in the viking era and mythology and you end up with Blood Rage. Even though the two player game felt a bit disjointed and wasn't the greatest, it was enough of a taste to see the potential in Blood Rage for our next nights venture into a three player game. Before the first Age was over I was not only having a good time, but found myself hooked. By the end of my third age comeback I was officially loving Blood Rage. I need some more plays before I do a review, but from our first two games Blood Rage is definitely recommendable, looks great, plays well (and easily!) and will be a game I bring out to the table for a while yet.
Board Games Purchased This Week:
Blood Rage: Well that wasn't obvious was it? Why did I purchase Blood Rage - I basically just said it before. It mixes some elements of 7 Wonders with a Risk type domination (taking out dice rolling luck and replacing it with strategic card playing) and it just looks amazing. Look at the figures! When you bring your first Fire Giant onto the map or your first Troll - it feels good! You just feel so much stronger than everyone else (in fact they aren't that overpowered, but still definitely worth looking at playing), and their size in nature fills you with confidence. Why didn't I get this when it first released? A few reasons. First, the cost. With figures like these you know there's a fair bit of cost to recover hence the $100+ required for the purchase. But the main reason was the fact that as much as I knew I would love the game, it looked like an epic game that would hardly make the table and there's no point having a game if you can't play it. For example, Mansions of Madness. I've owned it for a while now and have really only been able to try it once. Not sure when I'll be able to get it out next as it's a bit daunting for most of the group I play with and even when you can convince everyone to give it a try you'll need a good 3-4 hours to set aside. Great game, but it will be a rare play as are a few other games I own. I didn't want to add Blood Rage to that pile but was recently told it wasn't as 'epic' as I was imagining. I'm glad I listened! 2 hours will get you through most games and I imagine that will be a lot closer to the 60-90 minutes suggested time once we are familiar with the game, know all the cards and generally can think and take turns quicker. I haven't played it enough yet to be able to call it a MUST BUY game, but I'd definitely put it in the BUY category if anything about it appeals to you.
Oh and just look at these monsters.. (taken from Gizorama)
