Kingdom Builder

Today's game review is of the 2011 release, Kingdom Builder.  For 2-4 players, it plays in 45 minutes.

Overview
In Kingdom Builder, your goal is to earn as much gold as possible by building settlements on a map (see below).  The map itself is modular, constructing by randomly choosing and joining 4 quadrants (8 are provided).  It features different types of terrain, some of which can be built on (grass, desert, canyon, flower field, forest) and some of which cannot (mountains, water, castle, locations).

Map sections; image from here

How much gold you earn is based on conditions specified on the 3 Kingdom Builder cards used in a game (there are 10 possible Kingdom Builder cards, 3 of which are randomly selected for each game- see below).

Kingdom Builder cards; image from here

On your turn, you play settlements only on the terrain card you drew for that round.  They show one of the five possible building terrains on it (see below).  The main rule for settlement placement: you must build adjacent to one of your existing settlements if you can.  That means you have to be smart about where you lay your settlements- especially early in the game- as it can restrict you later on.

Terrain cards; image from here

Simplified Gameplay
The first player takes his/her turn and play proceeds clockwise.  On your turn, you

• Play your terrain card face up in front of you.
• Build 3 settlements (drawing from your supply of 40) on unoccupied map hexes matching the terrain type on your played terrain card.  Remember that you must build adjacent if possible.
• Take extra actions if possible/desired.  To do so, you need to have location tiles, which you obtain automatically if at any point you build a settlement next to a location on the map.
• Place your terrain card in the discard pile.
• Draw a new terrain card from the draw pile, keeping it hidden.

Image of a game in progress is below.

Game in progress; image from here

Play proceeds clockwise until one player has exhausted their personal supply (built 40 settlements).  Then the round is completed (giving everyone the same number of turns), and each player calculates the amount of gold they have earned.  To tally gold:

• Evaluate each of the 3 Kingdom Builder cards, recording how much gold each player has earned for each card.
• Record the gold each player earned by settlements built next to castle hexes (3 gold per castle) and add it to their total.

The player with the most gold is the winner!

Review
This game has polarized the community.  On the one hand, it won the 2012 Spiel des Jahres (German game of the year), which generally means it's quality.  Personally, I love the variety of both the map options (the semi-modular board is cool) and the differing victory conditions each game- making each game feel new.  It's also easy to learn but difficult to master- an admirable combination.  On the other hand, critics note how restrictive the game can be.  The "must build adjacent if possible" rule, combined with only one terrain option per turn, can really take over the game and leave you helpless (though the game's fans will point out that smart placement early on can minimize this problem).  I see both sides of this . . . I see the flaws, but something compels me to keep playing.  In the end, this is a good, if not great, selection.  Check out the BGG site here for more information (including review videos and rules).

Rating: B+

The Lego Batman Movie

Three years ago, The Lego Movie captivated children (and adults alike) with its wit, fun, graphics, action, characters, and uplifting message.  Now, we get The Lego Batman Movie, featuring the Dark Knight himself (who had a side role in the first movie).  How does it hold up?  Quite well, actually.  

Batman works alone.  He doesn't need (or want) anyone, and shuns any attempts at relationship (with friend or foe).  After a typical Joker take-down, Batman basks in self-love and retreats to his isolated life.  Things take an odd turn, though, when Mr. J- and his whole baddie crew- turn themselves in.  Suddenly, Batman has no purpose; Gotham has no need of him.  The new police commissioner, Barbara Gordon, thinks something's amiss, though, and asks Bats to help.  Will Batman lay down his pride and be part of something bigger?

This move is about the necessity and reality of relationships.  Surprisingly poignant in places, it shows Batman (and all of us) that we can't do it alone, but that doesn't mean it's easy.  There is pain and loss in this world, and getting close can mean getting hurt . . . but we cannot retreat from the need for each other.

Overall, the movie is excellent.  It has all the elements of the original, and though it doesn't quite reach the same heights (the first is a shade better), it's still well worth a look.

Rating: A

A Concise History of the United States of America (Susan-Mary Grant)

The title says it all.  Here, Newcastle University professor Susan-Mary Grant gives an overview of US history in just 380 pages, from earliest times to President Obama's administration.  I gave it a whirl, but put it down after reading 25%.

Grant packs her sentences with content and qualifiers that make themes difficult to grasp.  (At one point, I likened it to a Pauline epistle.  I'll study word by word in the Bible . . . not in a history book.)  As an overview, I hoped to get a general idea of what happened; elements of that exist here, but they're too difficult to extract.  My quest continues for an American history book similar in style to The Usborne History of Britain.

Rating: B

Lord of the Rings TCG

The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game is a collectible card game produced by Decipher from 2001-2007.

Overview
The object of the game is to advance your Ring-bearer and fellowship (a group of Free Peoples companions) through nine sites on an adventure path (which will be built as the game progresses). Along the way, your opponent will play Shadow minions and other cards to try to stop you (you’ll return the favor on his turn, when his fellowship moves). If you reach the final site first, you win, but if your ring-bearer dies, hope is lost. So plan carefully!

The characters in this game have strength, vitality (defense), and other attributes.  Example cards are shown below.

One unique feature of this game is that you'll play both the good and bad guys.  Your deck must be half Free Peoples cards and half Shadow cards; both sides have several cultures as shown below, giving you many deck building options.  Generally cards of the same culture work well together.

Simplified Gameplay
Players alternate being the Free Peoples player and Shadow player.  When you're up as the Free Peoples player, you do the following:

• Play Free Peoples cards to the table, paying their cost (upper left corner) by adding tokens to the twilight pool
• Move your fellowship to the next site
• The Shadow player then plays minions, paying their cost by removing tokens from the twilight pool
• You assign your characters to defend against any minions present
• For each character battle, you skirmish (compare strengths; higher wins) and the loser receives a wound, dying if their accumulated wounds equal their vitality
• You then choose to move to the next site or end the turn
• If you keep moving, the Shadow player gets another opportunity to draw cards, play minions, and fight skirmishes
• If you end the turn, all shadow minions are discarded and your opponent becomes the Free Peoples player

The first person to have their Ring-bearer (probably Frodo) survive after skirmishing at site 9 wins the game!

A typical game in progress looks like the below.

Review
This is a good game; you can tell Decipher used its years of experience in designing this.  They worked out a lot of the problems that plagued their earlier releases (like Star Wars CCG).  The skirmishes incorporated concepts similar to those found in Magic and Vs. System to good effect, and the 'press your luck' element (keep moving or rest?) is a nice twist.  Here are other things I liked:
- There's a good level of interaction.
- Card drawing is fast.
- Playing both sides is fun.
- The cards look great and are of high quality.
- The twilight pool concept- to a degree, the good guys get to control (by choosing which cards to play) how many resources the bad guys have available.  That's a neat twist.
- They capture the spirit of the movies well.  The bad guys go down easily but wound the good guys in so doing.  You feel the tension building as the game progresses- can they make it without dying?
- They balanced the advantage pretty well.  The first player may seem to have the advantage (because this is effectively a race), but that's countered by the second player playing most of the sites from their personal adventure deck.  That can be game-changing.

A few things could be better:
- The game is 'busy'- there's a lot to keep track of.
- It doesn't replicate the 'epic' battles and landscapes of the books/movies (though, to be fair, I've never found a LOTR game that does).
- It doesn't follow the complete story.  Before starting, you have to choose which block (one per movie) to play.  So each game follows one movie only, and the overall experience is only a third of the epic.

Overall, this is worth a look if you're a fan of the movies and the CCG genre in general.

Links
The wikipedia site gives a nice overview.  A mirror of Decipher's old site has some good information, but the best is the LOTR TCG wiki- it includes an excellent card database resource, rules reference, and starter deck lists.

Rating: B

The Killing Joke (Various)

The Joker is out to prove a point- one bad day is all that separates the sane from the mad.  He kidnaps Commissioner Gordon, hurts his family, and tortures him to teach him about the 'random injustice' of life and how the only rational response is . . . insanity.  Will Joker break him?  Are we all living in an illusion of order and morality?

This classic Batman tale is a good read.  I think it's the first time we see Joker's origin story- told here in a series of flashbacks to a time when he had a wife and home- and that gives him a human element he typically lacks.  (Another origin story, Lovers & Madmen, came much later, but is also good.)  You almost feel compassion for him at times.  The themes explored- life, its darkness, and our response to it- are a worthy discussion, and echoes of it are found in The Dark Knight.  Joker ultimately draws the wrong conclusion, and it leads him to insanity.  How do we respond?

Rating: A

The Christian View of Man (J. Gresham Machen)

In this 1937 work, scholar (and founder of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia) J. Gresham Machen discusses the Bible's view of man.  He begins with God and His works (creation, providence, miracles).  Machen also looks at man's freedom, predestination, God's creation of (and image in) man, the covenant of life, how man fell, the nature of sin, and its consequences.

I have mixed feelings about this book.  Theologically, I agree with Machen completely (or near enough).  And this looks at foundational concepts about God and man, so the subject couldn't be more important.  But much of the book is spent criticizing false views and bemoaning the trends of the current world, and I would have preferred more focus and elaboration on correct doctrine.  Additionally, it's common for Machen to make statements like "[x] is so pervasive in Scripture that we need not provide examples" or "just run through the Bible in your mind and you'll find [x] to be true."  That gave me the impression that the author was 'preaching to the choir'- after all, providing examples is necessary to skeptics, especially when you've just used examples in disproving other views.  I almost put this down . . . but some chapters are absolute gold (his discussion of the fall of man is excellent), and I learned a few things about Scripture I hadn't realized prior.  Overall, this is okay, but there are better treatments out there.

Rating: B+

Sheriff of Nottingham

Today's game review is of the 2014 release, Sheriff of Nottingham.  For 3-5 players, it plays in 60 minutes.

Overview
You are a merchant trying to get as many goods into Nottingham as possible.  Each turn, you get to stuff your sack with wares, then tell the sheriff what you have.  You could be truthful, or try to sneak a little contraband in on the side.  Both legitimate (bread, chickens, cheese, apples) and prohibited goods have a value (that you'll earn at the end of the game) if you can get them into your market.  Beware, though- if the sheriff chooses to inspect your sack, you get penalized for any unannounced good.  So put on your poker face and get all you can into Nottingham!


Simplified Gameplay
To start, each player draws 6 cards, giving them initial goods/contraband.  Each turn, one player is the sheriff while the others are merchants.  Perform the following phases:

1. Market- in clockwise order, each merchant discards up to 5 cards and draws that many from the discard and/or draw piles.
2. Load Merchant Bag- simultaneously, each merchant puts up to 5 cards from their hand into their sack and seals it when complete.
3. Declaration- in clockwise order, each merchant tells the sheriff what goods they have in their sack.  Of course, you can lie!  But there are three conditions:
• You can only declare legal goods
• You can only declare one type of good
• You must declare only the exact number of cards in your bag
4. Inspection- the sheriff decides which bag(s), if any to 'inspect' (open and examine).  
• You can bribe the sheriff if you get concerned (the sheriff doesn't have to take the bribe)
• The sheriff must choose to open a bag or let it pass
• If the sheriff lets it pass:
• Declare all of your legitimate goods and place them on the slots indicated on your merchant card (see image 1 below)
• Keep your contraband cards hidden under the appropriate slot on the merchant card
• If the sheriff opens it:
• If you were lying during the declaration phase about any portion of the contents, you get penalized the stated amount on the card(s) you lied about, they get confiscated, and you must pay the sheriff accordingly (but you get to keep any goods that were legitimately declared and place them in your market)
• If you were 100% telling the truth, the sheriff  must pay you the stated amount on the card(s) and you get to place your goods in the market
5. End of Round- pass the sheriff token to the next player and start phase 1 again. After each player has been the sheriff twice, the game ends, and victory points are totaled by adding all the values of your goods (legitimate and contraband), your gold, and other modifiers as indicated in the rules

Image 1, from here

Image 2, showing the sheriff and all market cards (from here)

Review
This is a fun party game based on bluffing.  The rules are easy to pick up and it's an enjoyable social experience.  I'm not a huge bluffer (I'm not good at it), so I don't see me playing this too often.  And the Robin Hood theme is completed pasted on (which disappointed me).  Still, it's highly rated for a reason, and worth checking out if you enjoy such mechanics.

Rules can be found here, and watch it played if you like.

Rating: B+

The Norse Myths (Kevin Crossley-Holland)

In The Norse Myths, Kevin Crossley-Holland retells 32 classic stories from Viking antiquity.  Similar to Greek mythology, the Norse gods are flawed and have a number of amusing adventures.  Here we learn about Odin, Thor, Loki, Freyja, and others as they interact with frost giants, dark elves, and light elves across the worlds of Asgard, Midgard, Alfheim, Jotunheim, and others.  We see both the beginning of the world and its end at the fateful Ragnarok.

the world tree, showing Norse worlds; image from here

This book is a good reference for those interested in Norse mythology, as it contains:
- an ample introduction (30 pages)
- a comprehensive notes section (70 pages) giving background on each myth
- a character glossary
- an extensive bibliography
The tales themselves vary in quality, clarity, and interest.  That's not Crossley-Holland's fault; he's simply retelling the originals (often over one thousand years old), some of which survive only in fragments.  I was actually surprised how boring (or confusing) some of the originals were.  In the end, this is good for those seeking to learn and understand the originals, but those who want more compelling versions must seek them elsewhere.  On a final note, it was cool to see where JRR Tolkien got some of his inspiration for Lord of the Rings- you see a few familiar names in here.

Rating: A-

Batman: Year One (Various)

Batman: Year One is a story of origins.  Written in 1987 by the renowned Frank Miller, the tale follows James Gordon as he joins Gotham's police force and discovers the corruption within; it also looks at Bruce Wayne as he returns to Gotham after a 12-year absence and begins prowling the streets as the Caped Crusader.  Harvey Dent features as an upright district attorney amidst the societal decay . . . can Dent, Gordon, and Batman right a city so plagued by wrong?

This is a good story, and it's clear that the excellent Batman Begins movie drew much inspiration from this work.  Miller's tale is dark and gritty; his heroes are noble but fallen themselves.  A short read at under 100 pages, I recommend this heartily.

Rating: A

David Copperfield (Charles Dickens)

David Copperfield is the story of the titled character's life; a fictional autobiography.  He starts from his birth and takes us through all the ups and downs of his remarkable existence: from childhood challenges, broken relationships, and grievous losses to the blessings of redemption, family, friends, prosperity, and justice.  I'd love to say more, but don't want to ruin it for you.

Being a huge fan of Charles Dickens and having several friends recommend this book as his best, I had great expectations* going in to this one.  And, in typical Dickens style, he delivers delightful eloquence with comedic flair (this may be the funniest Dickens book I've read, to the point that I was reminded of Dave Barry's style).  The characters are a strength; many have a host of delightful and hilarious idiosyncrasies, and several have honorable self-sacrificial attitudes.  It's a funny, edifying, and humbling read.  And it's easy to identify with the narrator as he recounts the terrors we experience as children, the hardships of profession, the delights of love and friendship, and the agonies of evil, brokenness, and injustice in the world.

While good, it's not all gold.  It's long and the pace is uneven: the first third is excellent, the next sixth slows down considerably, and the final portion is (mostly) good but sprinkled with slow parts.  Several 'coincidental' encounters in the novel seem highly improbable; though that gave the book a romantic element and helped tie loose ends, it tarnished it somewhat.  Finally, there weren't as many quotable lines as his other works.  Overall, though, this is a good one.

Rating: A

*couldn't resist

Europe

map generated from this website

10 years ago, we departed for Europe, and spent 7 years living overseas (4 in Germany, 3 in England).  This posts links to all travel posts I've done recounting our time in that marvelous land.

1. Germany
2. United Kingdom
3. France
4. Netherlands
5. Belgium
6. Luxembourg
7. Switzerland
8. Italy
9. Liechtenstein
10. Austria
11. Czech Republic
12. Poland
13. Croatia (coming soon)
14. Greece

An experience that forever changed us, we miss it much- but we're glad to be home.