Bidmeadman's Besties: March

This month is Alien Frontiers (Game Salute/Clever Mojo Games).

Alien Frontiers is a game of "resource management and planetary development" for 2-4 players. You start the game with three dice that represent the spaceships in your fleet. The game board consists of an uncolonised alien planet surrounded by several orbital facilities.

On a turn you roll these "ships" and assign them to the orbital facilities in order to earn resources, expand your fleet, and colonise the planet. As you use the orbital facilities you are working towards landing your colonies on the planet and gaining control of territories. You are in control of a territory when you have more colonies there than any other player. Each territory carries a particular benefit, which you are able to use if you control that territory. This is also how you gain points in Alien Frontiers and ultimately win the game. There are also alien technologies that are used to influence dice rolls among other things.

I remember when I first played Alien Frontiers. It was introduced to me by my friend Alex, who over the years has introduced many games to me (his influence is certainly one of the major factors in igniting my passion for board games). The thing about Alex is that he's good at board games. Better than me. He always beats me. Always! I have come to accept this. When he brought over Alien Frontiers I was prepared to be schooled, and no surprises, he destroyed me. But I loved the game, and felt that with enough forward planning I could beat him. So I rolled my sleeves up and challenged him to another game. And sure enough, with plenty of consideration and strategy I won!

That second game secured my love for Alien Frontiers, not just because I beat Alex, but because it felt like a game with impeccable design. It's a dice game where the level of strategy outweighs the luck of the dice. With a combination of resources, alien tech cards, and the right orbital facilities you can turn almost any dice roll into a successful move towards victory. The dice you place stay in the orbital facilities until the start of your next go when you're ready to roll them again. This means part of a strategy can be to block spaces from other players. There are also field generators that can be placed in territories to tip the balance in your favour. These can stop colonies being placed and prevent territory bonuses being used. The random nature of dice rolling means you have to be prepared to evolve your strategies with each turn,

The scoring system is great: you gain a point by placing a colony on a territory and a point if you are in control of the territory. If another player places a colony in the same territory causing you to lose control, you also lose the point previously gained. This means points increase and decrease throughout the game and it's rare that any one player's score will race ahead. Each game feels very close, with players battling to create a lead of only a few points. I find that sometimes when I'm playing a game that tracks the score as you play it can be a bit disheartening to see another player shoot ahead with no hope of catching up. Alien Frontiers' scoring system doesn't allow that, making every game feel like a close one.

It's so much fun rolling those dice and looking to see how to best use your options to get your next colony down on the planet. Placing dice to get resources, using those resources along with alien tech cards to alter your dice slightly or reuse dice or use an opponents dice (or all three), all to place one more colony and move one point closer to victory is very satisfying. I love dice games, especially when they are used in such a solid way as the main component of a good-sized board game. Alien Frontiers is a game that rewards considered play, manipulating the random dice rolls, and using all the available resources and abilities to your advantage, and with the minimal point system every game is for the taking.

Also, it's got a nice old-school aesthetic, and the territories are named after science fiction writers, which is a nice touch.

Finally, although it's not very glamorous, I am a fan of the storage for Alien Frontiers. They provide boxes for all the components. These split up resources, cards and player pieces, and look a bit neater than a bunch of baggies.

Have you played Alien Frontiers or similar games? Message me here or tweet me and lets talk about games!

Dead of Winter

I have managed to get quite a few games of Dead of Winter (Plaid Hat Games) in over the past few weeks, everyone seemed to want to play it. Which meant I managed to play every combination of players in this 2-5 player game.

First off: Two-player co-op with my wife. Getting to grips with the game.

The objective was set, the zombies were out. We were ready to venture out and risk life and limb for the sake of the colony.

This was the first "heavy" game my wife and I had played for quite a while. It was a bit of a shock to the system. Don't misunderstand; we own and have played heavier games than this. But recently our gaming evenings have consisted of games of Star Realms, Splendor and Dominion, so our brains had to quickly adjust to having lots of decisions to make and lots to manage.

Co-op is different to the standard game: There is no secret objectives and no betrayal. A two-player game has to be played with the co-op rules.

Fully co-op makes it easier because you can trust the other player(s), you can focus on working together knowing all the players are working towards the same goal. So it makes sense that you are meant to play it in Hardcore mode. Each main objective has a "Hardcore" alternative, making the game that bit harder. It usually means more zombies being placed during set-up, needing more items to complete the objective, less morale at the start, etc.

We won, playing the objective that is recommended for the first play. Less players meant less to manage. It felt like a good introduction game, it didn't feel overwhelming or tense. Fun though.

Next: Three players.

This was a close one!

We were making it through by the skin of our teeth. We were down to one morale. Lives were lost. Zombies were everywhere. Things were not looking good.

And then we did it! The main objective was complete.

But the sense of accomplishment was immediately taken away from me as I realised I hadn't completed my hidden objective. After all that I didn't win. It was harsh, but I didn't feel like I was cheated.

This was my secret objective:

It was stressful having to hoard cards, keep supplies from the group knowing we really needed them. There came a moment towards the end where I needed to make a decision. I needed to make sure I had more cards than my fellow players, but we desperately needed food. If we didn't feed the colony morale would be gone - we would lose the game. So I had to use me food cards, I didn't see any other option. I sacrificed my chance of winning the game so the colony could survive. I've never felt so satisfied to lose a game before - an honourable defeat.

Five player: This is a long game with five players.

The pacing was great with both three and five player games. There was a lot going on from the word go, but we were on top of it. The pressure, however, slowly builds round after round, with more zombies and more mouths to feed. The time ticks away and the dread starts to sink in. Some of us didn't want to start exploring multiple locations and risk getting wounded, or worse, bitten. So the survivors would mostly stay put at the first location they moved to, searching and searching, and slowly depleting that search deck; ignoring food shortages and allowing zombies to close in all around.

As well as the main objective, each round has a crisis to avert. At the beginning of a round, before anyone has taken their turn, a Crisis card is revealed detailing a particular type of item needed. The amount of items needed for each crisis is equal to the amount of players. During a turn a player can contribute any number of cards to the crisis, but they are placed on the game board face-down. After the last player takes their turn these cards are shuffled and revealed. The reason behind all this secrecy is because any card added to the pile which does not match the particular item needed counts against the total of useful items in the pile. This means a betrayer can sabotage the efforts of the group unseen. The crisis objective adds another thick layer of tension to the game, causing players to ration their resources carefully and force them to make sacrifices.

We lost our five player game. There was not enough synergy within the group, too many selfish decisions were being made (to be fair, for most players this was their first game). There was still a glimmer of hope towards the end as we all desperately tried to manage all our responsibilities and needs. It just wasn't enough.

Finally: Four players.

We lost again.

This game was the first game where everyone playing knew what they were doing from the start, and the first time we had a traitor in our midsts. Even though morale dropped to zero and we lost the game the traitor still didn't win. I assumed as the game was so hard to win the betrayer would have a pretty easy game, as long as they can keep themselves hidden. With this playthrough I realised that, as the betrayer, it's not as simple as losing the game. The betrayer has just as much to accomplish as the rest. They need to keep the game going long enough to complete their other objectives before sabotaging the game and getting morale to drop.

I imagine quite a few more games will be played before we start considering the option to exile players. If you suspect another player might be the betrayer you can exile them from the colony, causing them to wander the locations outside the colony walls for the remainder of the game. On their turn a player can initiate a Vote to Exile. They nominate a player for exile and then the group vote on whether to kick them out or not. An exiled player is still a part of the game, but they are tasked with a different secret objective and cannot contribute to the main objective. It's a really clever mechanic. Not only does it mean the Betrayal system can work in the game without favouring the betrayer, it also allows paranoia and suspicion to burrow their way in to the game-play, and it builds upon the strong theme of the game.

Dead of Winter seems to be very well balanced, steadily getting harder as you play. It's a game that will get better the more the same group play it. Unfortunately I game inconsistently with various small groups of the same 15 people so it can take a while before everyone has enough experience with one particular game to get the most out of it. Dead of Winter has proven pretty popular with everyone though, so I can see it getting to the table a lot.

I can't finish without talking about the Crossroads system: The Crossroads cards fit nicely into the rhythm of the game. They allow players to get involved in other players turns. They encourage a bit of role-playing, helping you get in to the characters and scenario. They can add a new layer of tension to an already tense game, making players sometimes choose between themselves and the good of the colony. They also help to break up the prominent searching and fighting. In other words they're great!

Noticeable effort has gone into every aspect of Dead of Winter, including the variety of survivors. The designers have understood that in a zombie apocalypse the people are more important and interesting than the zombies. Each survivor's look and abilities are unique, each has a different profession that, for the most part, links to their abilities in some way. Some Crossroads cards aim to add a bit of personality and history to specific survivors. It all goes towards envisioning the world of the game - past and present, and giving character to the cardboard cut-outs.

Anyway, writing all this has made me want to go play Dead of Winter again. So I might go and try to make that happen.

Music and Board Games

I'm always listening to music.

Cooking, cleaning, driving, walking, shaving, sleeping, entertaining - every job or situation is enhanced with music. I'm listening to music while I type this (Dorian Concept is my current writing soundtrack in case you're interested).

We had a couple of friends over for dinner a while ago and they seemed dumbfounded at the fact that I always had music playing - at the time I had Spotify playing on my phone in my pocket. Music was just an essential part of my day, why would it be seen as strange to have it accompany almost everything!? This was the first time I considered that my habit might get on people's nerves from time to time.

With having such passion for music and board games, it makes sense that I would combine the two.

I like to have music playing in the background whenever I have company over to play games for a bit of ambiance, and sometimes it doesn't have to be anything specific. However, with most games having prominent themes it makes sense to me to theme the background music. There's only one thing better than listening to music, and that's making playlists!

I have several playlists that I use when playing some of my board games:

• I have a playlist for when we play Betrayal at House on the Hill and other horror-themed games. It consists mainly of tracks by Fabio Frizzi (and from a few other Lucio Fulci films). His music perfectly fits the low-budget horror vibe I get when playing Betrayal. It's atmospheric without being too dark.

• I have a playlist for my Sci-Fi themed games. That's a (mostly) minimal, Bladerunner-y collection of tracks including Michael McCann, Hans Zimmer, Philip Glass, and, of course Vangelis.

• I like to listen to Ennio Morricone while playing Doomtown, and anything else with even a slightly Western theme.

• A Blues playlist is always on the menu while playing Ticket to Ride (I am aware these aren't really linked thematically, but it just works for me).

• I'm currently putting together a collection of music from Akira Kurosawa films and the Okami soundtrack for playing Samurai Spirit.

• I need a playlist for fantasy-themed games.

As a side note, I have been known to turn music off when learning rules or when a game is getting particularly complex and requires everyone's full concentration. Sometimes.

I'm interested to hear if you use music to enhance your gaming experiences. Do you find it helps create atmosphere, or does it distract from the game? Any suggestions for a fantasy-themed playlist? Feel free to leave a comment or tweet me.

P.S. I read a great post about board game soundtracks on JK's Game Shelf at the start of the year. It was great to know I wasn't the only one soundtracking their games.

Coming Soon... Dead of Winter

New game time!

I'm very excited about this game!

I've heard nothing but good things about Dead of Winter, and now I finally get to play it. It's been a highly anticipated game for me and my fellow gamers, so I thought I would share my first experiences of it with you in detail.

So this is sort of just an intro post to explain that coming soon will be a longer post chronicling our attempts to survive the Dead of Winter.

And an excuse to post loads of photos.

If you don't know the game allow me to give you a brief overview:

Dead of Winter is a zombie apocalypse game for 2-5 players. You each play a group of survivors tasked with keeping the colony alive by fighting zombies and searching for useful items like food, fuel and weapons. There is a specific objective for the players to complete, however each player also has a secret objective that they need to achieve in order to personally win the game. There is also a chance one player will be a traitor tasked with sabotaging the main objective. Players can chose to vote players out of the colony, however, so the traitor had better keep their head down and blend in if they want to stand a chance at winning.

One of Dead of Winter's great features is the Crossroads system.

There is a deck of Crossroads cards that are drawn from at the beginning of a player's turn by the player their right. The card details a specific situation that could occur during a turn. If the right criteria are met the player holding the card interrupts the game and reads out the scenario detailed on it. Each card features a difficult decision to be made either by the active player or the by the group. These cards create surprise moments of tension within the group.

Anyway, I have overstayed my welcome. Join me soon for more Dead of Winter fun.