Heroes of Darkwell, Game Review

Monsters are threatening the town of Darkwell. They are moving closer and it is up to someone from Darkwell to protect the people from the creatures that are attacking. There are no adventuring heroes, so it is up to some of the town folk to take up arms and battle the monsters before the town is overrun. And, if you succeed you will be known as the Heroes of Darkwell

Heroes of Darkwellis a fantasy themes cooperative board game. Two to four players must work together, battling the advancing monsters before the town is overrun, or the boss monster makes it into town.

Each player takes on the role of a character. The characters are all peasants of the town of Darkwell who accept the challenge of defenders. Battling the monsters earns the character experience and gold. Experience allows the player to advance their character into a hero (a choice between two options) and to improve their skills by buying cards to build a deck. Gold can be used by the individual, or more appropriately, used by the group to buy the equipment that best suits the each character.

There are several decks used to advance the game.

Individual player decks are built by defeating monsters, which earns treasure and experience. There are also side effects that can occur which make situations harder. Each player builds a deck of from the skills they buy, by spending the experience they earn, and side effects they are enduring.

Equipment, which is purchased with the gold collected as treasure, goes into play. Equipment and gold can be passed around (in our game it was mentioned that some groups combine their gold and we did that, which made it a lot easier to track) so it is on the right player, or, for ready use to remove those problems, like poison or fear. Since each player is building their own deck, consideration needs to be given on which player should be purchasing the skills to get the card into the right deck. Also, strategy needs to be developed to allow the person to be able to defeat monsters so everyone is earning experience to buy the skill and advance to hero. In our game we had to set a monster up so our cleric would be able to defeat it and earn the experience to become a hero.

Our game in progress

A monster deck times the game. The monster deck is built so as the game progresses the monsters become stronger. Somewhere near the end of the deck is the monster boss. The monsters win if three lower level monsters or the boss inhabit the town. The players win if the boss is defeated. The boss requires cooperation between the players to be able to defeat it.

The strategy through the game is to build the characters in a manner where they all are equivalent to each other. The more heroes fighting the boss gives you a better chance of defeating it. It is about preparing for that last major encounter.

I can see where there could be some added variation to the game by mixing up the monster deck or making it shorter, giving some harder challenges at different times which would require the players to change up their strategy.

We were able to play Heroes of Darkwell at the Salt Lake Gaming Convention this year (2017). We had three players and the game took about an hour and forty-five minutes. Heroes of Darkwell was easy to learn and the only questions we had after the first turn was some minor clarifications on some of the cards.

Me on the left and Rob "the photographer" on the right

The time frame is 60-120 minutes, roughly a half an hour for each player in the game. Our first game was close to this scale.

The designer wanted to create a board game with the flavor of early role-playing games. The artwork reflects that desire and is fun.

Heroes of Darkwellis designed for ages 12+ and I think that younger players would be able to be involved because of the cooperative nature of the game.

Heroes of Darkwellis from Exalder Games (Facebook Link) and is schedule for a Kickstarter for mid to late October 2017.

The monsters have been defeated and the citizens of Darkwell are cheering their new heroes.

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Flash Point: Fire Rescue, Game Review

Alarm! A home is on fire and there are people trapped inside. Your team is at the scene and now it is up to you to fight the fire and rescue those inside. There is no time to lose, the fire is going strong. You have to hurry. Be careful, because the fire is not in control and explosions could happen at any moment.

Flash Point: Fire Rescue, designed by Kevin Lanzing and marketed by Indie Boards & Cards, is a cooperative game for 2–6 player (you can also so solo play) where you are the fire crew. There are eight specialists to choose from and the group can also decide to have more characters help, but only up to six active characters at any time.

When the game starts the fire has already broken out. You know where the first three victims might be located—these points of interest might also be false alarms. There are also places in the house where hazardous materials have been stored that will explode if the fire gets to them. You have to decide if you leave them or get rid of them.

Players decide where their characters start outside the building and in what order they are going to go. It is a race against time to get the survivors out before too many of them are killed by the fire or the building collapses.

Flash Point requires teamwork. Cooperative games always require teamwork, but some of them allow for players to take their own actions without concern of others. This is true for this one also, however, unless the group talks it out and works together as a firefighting team, your chances of winning are slim. You have to combine fighting the fire back and getting the victims out. Too much emphasis on one without working on the other doesn't work well.  The cooperation goes right back to the beginning after setting up the board.

The fire is the timer for the length of the game. I don't think you are capable of putting the fire completely, it keeps flaring up. We played multiple games and were never able to save the building from destruction. There isn't a win situation for putting the fire out either. You have to keep the fire in a controlled state and rescue the victims.

There are four levels of play. The introductory, or family, level works well for learning the basics of the game and for those who want a better chance of winning. With younger players (maybe even below the listing of 10+) these rules provide a lot of fun. There are also three levels of advanced play.

Advance play use the same rules. The difference between recruit, veteran, and heroic is how advanced the fire is when the game starts and additional places to spawn flare ups and additional hazards. These additional levels allow the game to remain challenging as you get better.

The fire is raging and we have to get back in there.

If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

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Originally published with Utah Geek Magazine.

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Burgle Bros., Game Review

Careful, now, as you enter the building, you don't want to attract the attention of the guards. We all need to get in here, find the safes, get the loot, and get out. We're not leaving anyone, or anything behind. Like the three musketeers, it's all-for-one and one-for-all.

Burgle Bros. is a cooperative heist game for 1–4 players. The game starts with the first player entering the building. Then, you have to find the safes, crack them, gain the loot, and escape to the roof. The premise is simple enough, which makes the game entertaining to play.

A friend and I sat down with Burgle Bros. and jumped right into the basic game. We decided to skip over the introduction scenario. The rules were easy to understand and we were able to set the game up quickly.

The basic scenario is 16, randomly placed, room tiles making up each of the 3 floors. Each floor has a safe and stairs. Other rooms contain obstacles and hazards you have to overcome, but you don't know what the room is until you peek into it, or move into it. Once you find the safe you have to crack the combination. The combination for each safe are the numbers located on the cards in the same row and column of the safe. This means you have to explore the floor to uncover the combination before you can crack the safe and gain the loot. And, in the base scenario there are three floors you need to cover, then find the stairs to the roof and escape. Besides the obstacles in the rooms, you also need to watch out for the guards.

Some of the rooms

Each floor also has a guard on patrol. After each player takes their action the guard on the floor they finish on moves. This led to some strategy (suggested in the rules) to dividing up a little so one guard wasn't moving too fast in making their rounds. But running into a guard doesn't mean the end of the game.

Every player has three stealth tokens allowing them to hide and not get caught. But if a player gets caught, the entire crew gets caught. This isn't one of the games that has an element of sacrificing someone for your own win. You win or lose as a team.

The team is drawn from nine character cards, determined randomly. Each player can chose one of the two skills the character has for the game. It's good to know who else is on your team for the job and what skill they have. When you chose your actions for your turn other people's skills can be as important as your own.

Some of the characters

On your turn you have several actions to choose from. I've already mentioned Peek and Move, You can also Hack (an alarm system), Crack (a safe), make it easier to crack a safe, or, save a couple of actions to draw an event card.

Hacking an alarm allows you to move through the building easier by not setting off a particular type of alarm. There are five different types, each requiring you to do something different to not set it off.

Safe cracking allows you to gain the loot and a tool. The loot you have to get out of the building, and a tool is just that, something that will help you get the job done.

Event cards are unforeseen events that change the play of the game, either at that moment or later. Some of the events are beneficial, while others may cause some serious reworking of your plans.

As you progress through the game, going up in levels of the building and cracking open the safes, the game becomes harder, making teamwork even more important.

Some of the events, and patrol card

Our game lasted about an hour. Adding a couple of more players probably wouldn't have extended the game much longer. The play was well balanced and turns moved quickly.

Replay-ability for Burgle Bros. is high. The unknown layout of the rooms, the characters in play, the location of the guards and their patrol routes, are all determined randomly. It would be hard to come across a game layout that duplicated an earlier one you play. The loot, tools, and events add another level of the unknown. There are also suggested advanced rules and other scenarios.

The components of the game should stand up to the challenge of being played multiple times.

We both enjoyed the game and want to play it again with a team of four. My friend even talked over the game we played with his daughter who came up with a house rule she thought would be fun. The rules use the concept of action taking place like in a movie, when the camera is on you. Her suggestion is when you are taking your turn you have to narrate the action, like it was a movie.

Loot and tool cards

Burgle Bros. is designed by Tim Fowers (and self-published) with art by Ryan Goldsberry. The game is for 1–4 players and should last 45–90 minutes. There isn't a suggested age listed, but based on the cooperative nature and unexpected turns I would suggest 12+.

Thanks to Tim Fowers for a review copy of the game.

If you have any comments, questions, or critiques please leave a comment here, or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

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