The Re-Review: The Re-Review: Two Kinds of War, a Job Application, and Crawling

1775: Rebellion

• 1 play with 4 players this week
• Played before

This is a game that just doesn’t get played nearly enough for my preferences. It’s one of the few team games I own and it’s about the only way I can play a war game. If you haven’t played it before, it’s a very light area control board game where you have four players that represent the colonial militia, the Continental Army, the loyalist militia, and the British regulars. Each faction has a certain birthdays. Those guys have a number of hit symbols, flee symbols, and blanks. The British regulars are the strongest and they have the most hit symbols and no flee symbols. On the other hand, the militias are pretty weak with there two hit symbols and to flee symbols. However, to make up for the weakness of the militias they get three dice whereas the armies get two dice. In addition, you get to replace those fled armies later.

This game really works for one reason: the game gets out of your way and lets the two teams duke it out. You look at the map and think about the strategy of gaining colonies and forcing the other team to lose control of theirs. It doesn’t matter so much if you win or lose an individual battle, it matters if you can take control of the colonies.

I’m a little sad that I don’t get the play this game more often. It really is the best team game I own and the best team game I’ve ever played. It’ll stay in my collection and I look forward to playing again.

Funemployed!

• 1 play with 4 players this week
• New to me

I bought Funemplyed hoping it would be a good replacement for Cards Against Humanity. I enjoy Cards Against Humanity, but you’re pretty limited in the groups you can play with and there are times where I’m just tired of its humor.

Funemployed it’s pretty similar to cards against Matt: you’re giving a hand up for cards that represent different traits, one person represents the employer and they draw a job card and pick the person that offers the best resume. The difference between Funemployed and for the Cards Against Humanity is that you must use all of your cards and there are 10 additional cards in the middle of the table that you can swap out the cards from your hand. Once everyone is happy with the four cards in their hand, they apply to the job one person at a time. This requires a lot more creativity than Cards Against Humanity: you have to take your four traits and convince the employer that you’re the best qualified.

However what makes this game unique also makes it difficult. Taking those for traits and concocting a resume on your feet is pretty difficult. That’s not to say it isn’t fun, it’s just harder and requires more brainpower than other games of it’s type. I’m interested to play it again, but I’m a little lukewarm on it right now.

Chaos in the Old World

• 1 play with 5 players this week
• Played before
• Part of my 10x10 Challenge

Chaos in the old World is one of my absolute favorite games, in fact it’s probably number two on my top 10 list. I love almost everything about it: asymmetric player powers, dudes on a map, multiple paths to victory, upgrades, and a solid theme. It plays well from 3 to 5 players, no matter what anyone else might say. Better yet, the expansion that adds the fifth player adds a whole new wrinkle to the game, playing very differently from the other four factions.

In this particular game I played as the Skaven, the ratmen who play best by sneaking in near the end and being there as a particular area is ruined. I did much better than I thought I would, almost winning the game, but one of my friends managed a victory by another condition that is recognized first.

I’m happy this game is on my 10x10 list, since it’ll push me to get it played more this year, it deserves it.

Welcome to the Dungeon

• 1 play with 4 players this week
• New to me

I have a weird relationship with filler games: I want to love them and I’m typically indifferent towards them. This game falls in the indifferent boat for the moment, but I could see it going up once I better understand how to play.

The basic premise is someone is going into the dungeon and attempting to come out alive after defeating all of the monsters. It’s a bit abstract because the players all represent that same person, but only one person is going into the dungeon. Each round a hero is selected and then the players, one at a time, look at a card from the monster deck and either put it in the dungeon deck (meaning the hero will encounter it) or it is set aside along with one of the hero’s six magic items (where the hero cannot use the item, but won’t encounter the monster either). So if you know you don’t want to go on this particular trip, you might draw a weak card, set it aside, and bring a very strong item with it. However, if everyone else passes, you’re stuck going to the dungeon. You’re playing a low stakes game of chicken, essentially.

In that regard, the game is very good. That tension is definitely there and the game is over way before it’s worn out it’s welcome. It has player elimination, but I never have a problem with player elimination with fillers. I’m happy I purchased this game, but I’ll need a few more plays before I actually understand the strategy.