Day of the Dead Strategy: Timing Spirit Effects

By Brian Durkin

In Evan Raisner's new game Day of the Dead, players should adopt Dr. Logan's philosophy and train their zombies (preferably for combat against other undead). Unfortunately you do not have a freezer of dead military personal for your army of Bubs to feast on like Popeye with spinach; however, in Evan’s game a team of undead are enhanced each round through three different spirit effects: Double, Power-Up, and Unearth. Power-Up boosts the value of each fighter by two for the purposes of winning fights only. Double activates the power of a fighter twice. Unearth lets the player choose one of his cards (including the spirit card), and unearth it; he looks at the top three cards in the respective deck and replaces the old card with one of them. During the course of the game, each player must play two copies of each of these effects. The effect a player chooses each round will make all the difference.

X + 2 = I Beat You

Don’t underestimate the importance of Power-Up. Yes it’s the most boring effect you can use. Using a card’s game text multiple times and looking at new cards always trumps basic math. But boosting your undead army’s value can result in winning more fights, and winning fights is pretty damn good. You don’t earn points for how many times you activate Spook’s unearth effect. You earn points by turning opposing undead down, and Power-Up does not mess around when it comes to helping out in this department. Opponents find a Power-Up spirit card incredibly infuriating when both players manage to play similar strategies, because the plus two from the Power-Up spirit card will squeak out victories or break ties.

Ascension: Storm of Souls - A Gamey Proposal

By Brian Durkin

Many guys will describe themselves as non-artistic or uncreative, but these men fail to realize that at least one important life moment presents an unparalleled opportunity for creativity and individuality. Boy takes girl to a scary movie to give her a great excuse to jump into his arms; however, the boy also enjoys seeing the reaction. Guys play tricks all the time on their mate because they want to see the shock and awe and spender of surprising him or her. Positive emotion always trumps negative emotion, and the best creative surprise that will guarantee an emotional reaction is proposing to your partner. Regardless of the style of the proposal, everyone can recognize a good one. It takes careful planning. It takes intimacy.

It takes help.

Alan reached out to Gary Games to make his creative personalized proposal possible, and they delivered in spectacular fashion by creating an original card for the occasion. Check out the video of the proposal.

I want to thank Justin Gary, Eric Sabre, Ryan O'Connor, Shari Lesser, and everyone at Gary Games for their contribution to this beautiful moment. Let's not forget to thank Alan and Crystol for sharing this moment with us as well. Best of luck to both of them, but I'm sure they won't need it. :-)

Additional Information

For more information about Storm of Souls, check the product page on BoardGameGeek.com.

If you live in the tri-state area, consider stopping by AU to pick up a copy and play with just about anyone. Many gamers know how to play this game and enjoy playing with anyone.

Alternate Universes - Storm of Souls

The Games Keep 

Comics and More

Resident Evil Deck Building Game: Best Character

By Brian Durkin

Free. A radical price according to Chris Anderson, but a price people must begin to accept in the future. The future is now. Free is the cost of ammunition for your future arsenal. Free is not the cost of your character.

How Can a Character Have a Cost?

Some characters are more powerful than others. Some people prefer to play as certain characters because of their preferences from the video games. Wagering for characters allows players to choose characters in a fair way, without preventing someone from playing as the character they truly want to play as.

What is Wagering?

A player chosen at random nominates a character and starts the bidding at some amount of declaration points. Players cannot make bids in smaller increments than a half of a point. Players take turns around the table bidding on the character, until every player passes in one round. Players may pass one round of bidding but make a bid later if the same character has not sold. Once a character sells, another player nominates a character to bid on. A player may never nominate a character that has already been sold or a character that has the same name as a character already sold. At the end of the game, players subtract from their score the amount of declaration points they paid to play the character.

Won’t the Board Affect My Choice in a Character?

Below you will find a scenario for the Resident Evil DBG. It lays out which cards compose the mansion deck and which cards players can gain from the center. Check out the details of the scenario below and think about what character you would like to play as during this scenario.

Ascension: Storm of Souls - Interview with Justin Gary

by Brian Durkin

Later this week Gary Games will release Storm of Souls, the third installment to the hit deck building game Ascension. Storm of Souls adds a new card type and new mechanics to the game. Visit the Ascension Official Website for more details about product information, and how you can receive a copy.

Justin Gary is the lead designer and creator of Ascension. I was lucky enough to ask him several questions about Storm or Souls, game design, organized play, and much more. Below is a copy of our conversation through e-mail.

Interview with Justin Gary

Resident Evil Deck Building Game: How Would You Play This Board? #1

By Brian Durkin

Leon, Sheva, Ada, Rebecca

Below is a suggested scenario to try with a group of friends. You don’t need four players, but it’s recommend. You need the Base Set and the Outbreak expansion in order to play. The details for the scenario are listed below.

Penny Arcade the Game - Gamers vs. Evil Strategy: Top Five Gamer Cards

By Brian Durkin

Going green requires an environmentally conscious mind. You need to know how to prioritize the best cards for taking down bosses. The following list breaks down the best tools for cleaning up all the points.

Honorable Mention: Sorcelator

Sorcelator

Although Sorcelator does not provide a lot of tokens or power, Penny Arcade provides players with little options for drawing cards; therefore, anything that draws cards should immediately grab your attention. A card that replaces itself theorethcially keeps your deck size down. This helps players see their best cards more often and sooner because a smaller deck lets players reshuffle faster. Sorcelator also enables players to build strategies that do not focus on just one resource type.

#5: Werewolf with a Top Hat

Werewolf in a Top Hat

Of course you should really only consider a strategy of building up both resource types if this bad boy, I mean wolf, is in play. Werewolf with a Top Hat gives players a huge boost in both resource categories simultaneously. Cards like World’s Biggest Grape seem unplayable when creatures with fancy head gear lurk on the table. Players should consider picking up Werewolves even in a deck dedicated to tokens. Three tokens from one cards still provides a big boost for taking down bosses, and the extra power will come in handy near the end game to pick up some extra points.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Deck Building Game Strategy - Tips and Tricks to Win in any Scenario

By Brian Durkin

Different starting flagships for different scenarios

Star Trek TNG (The Next Generation) adds several new features and variants to the DBG (Deck Building Game) genre. Except for Resident Evil, no other DBG can compete with Star Trek’s several different types of play: Exploration, Borg Invasion, and Klingon Civil War scenarios. Each of these different scenarios forces players to adjust their strategies, but some general rules still apply. Besides general DBG strategy, the Star Trek DBG demands that its players learn how to exploit certain parts of the game.

Diplomatic Immunity

No matter what cards make up the Space Deck, you need to add cards to your deck that provide Diplomacy. Upgrading your flagship gives you the best chance of victory. Think of swapping to a new ship as a way to bank the bonuses you accumulated in one turn, and then you use those bonuses every turn after that! The winner of the Exploration scenario usually comes down to one of the first people who won a diplomacy battle. In order to defeat stronger Borg Cubes, players will need stronger ships. Even though the Klingon Civil War scenario provides many different ways for players to boost their stats in combat, winning a diplomacy battle to change your flagship still pushes you ahead. Every player needs to prioritize cards that provide Diplomacy.

Examples of cards with Diplomacy