King of Tokyo

The big winner this Christmas, game wise, is King of Tokyo. This game first came to my notice when I read a post on GeekDad. My youngest is a big fan of the original King Kong and Godzilla. So I thought this would be a great game for him. And it is.

In King of Tokyo you are a giant monster on the rampage in Japan. Your goal is to either wreck a large portion of Tokyo or destroy the other monsters. You do this by accumulating 20 victory points or reducing the health of the other monsters to zero. This is a dice driven game that uses six special dice to determine how much damage you do to other monsters, how many victory points you gain and how many energy points you get. Energy points allow you to buy cards that give you special monster powers such as Solar Powered which allows you to gain an energy point if you don't have any. There is a small game board which shows Tokyo. A monster is either in Tokyo or not and only one monster can be in Tokyo at a time (except in games with 5 or 6 players.) When in Tokyo you gain extra victory points but the downside is you become the target of all of the other monsters attacks.

All in all this is a fun game. It has a heavy random component with the dice but there is some strategy involved. Mainly, whether to stay in Tokyo or bail. Everyone in my family enjoys playing including my wife who is often reluctant to play board games.

Loot

Yep, if Calvin can call it loot, so can I. I received two game related items this year. I received a hardback copy of Stars Without Number. I also received and expansion to the Small World board game.

Cool.

Battle Cry

We are big fans of the board game Memoir '44 in the Narmer household. For those of you unfamiliar with this game it is a World War II game that uses figures to represent infantry, tanks and artillery. It doesn't attempt to be a strict simulation of WWII combat but intends to capture the flavor. It uses cards to determine what units can act. This is to try to capture the "fog of war" aspect of battle. It is part of the Commands and Colors series of games created by Richard Borg. I also own the Ancients version of the game but haven't had the opportunity to play it yet.

So, I was pleased to see that Avalon Hill (well, WoC) reissued the original game of the series, Battle Cry. Battle Cry is the Civil War version of the game. It went out of print be

fore I was away it existed. The current version is billed as the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War edition. I don't think there have been any major changes but am excited to acquire it. I found out about it to late to get it on to my Christmas list though.