Spotlight on Games
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1001 Nights of Military Gaming
- L -
- Legend of Robin Hood
Avalon Hill game has
players each representing one of Robin Hood's famous cronies competing to
raise the most money for the poor. Play is card-driven and highly
random, certainly not deserving of serious play.
- Legend of the Lost Dutchman
Very atmospheric game simulating expeditions to find a legendary
pot of gold in the old Southwest. An interesting desktop-published
game worth replaying, with excellent background notes. Chaos factor
in luck of the draw and rolling to find treasure
is fairly high however. Strategically, ledges seem to be not worth
the effort while caves are more likely to produce.
[Simulations Workshop]
- Liberte
Martin Wallace invention on the French Revolution is further
removed from a military game than some of Warfrog's previous
outings. Here the primary activity is cardplay to place some
from what is an orgy of wooden tiles onto corresponding map
territories. When one of the three colors is exhausted, each area
is consulted to see which side has triumphed. Then, similar to a
stock market game, the players who have been first and second in
this color receive points, as does the top player in the color
which did second best. The neat twist, with German game flavor,
is that each winning stack is weakened by one (the maximum is
three) so that victory will be less likely in the next game turn.
Also available for "investment" are battles, completely abstract,
intended as a "catch-up" strategy for whoever is in last place;
it sometimes seems to help that way. But in general it's much
better to have an ally and for this reason it seems best to
have at least five playing. Perhaps those who re-named Attila "the Stockbroker"
should now be talking about Robespierre the Stockbroker (but
I haven't heard it yet). It remains rather unclear also just
who the players really represent. The theme does come through,
however, in some ways: the historical leader names (unfortunately
sans any background information); the strong red, white and blue
coloration; the names, "Terror", "Guillotine", "Emigration", etc.
on the "take that" cards; the importance of Paris; the dominance
of the Radicals there and the power of the Royalists on the
frontiers. In fact the board serves only a thematic purpose, but
the payoff is so small and the ease-of-play consequence so large
that another way, e.g large tiles sortable by dominant side,
perhaps should have been employed instead. As it is, tallying
up everything is quite difficult and if players do so mid-turn,
matters become quite lengthy. The other novelty is perhaps the
best feature of all: as in life itself, the victory conditions
are uncertain. If one player dominates the Moderates and appears
to be winning, his opponents can try to achieve the equivalent of
a coup and cause a completely different set of victory conditions
to apply. Actually, this idea has been used before, but it's been
a while: in Russian Civil War
(SPI, 1976). This rule, by the way, ends the game prematurely,
leading to a wide variance in length, perhaps from ninety to
one hundred and fifty minutes. An important downside here is
that only by the fifth playing will the complicated deck be
well enough known to do it justice. Minor complaints: There
is perhaps too much luck of the draw as the drafting mechanism
does not go far enough. There are different ways of resolving
all the different ties that can arise – couldn't this
have been standardized in an elegant way? Just as with Empires of the Ancient
World, there are errors and omissions on both the
cards and the board – these games are better than the
graphics treatment they are receiving. Compared to other
Warfrog efforts, it only partly avoids the too-flexible
bashing of Way Out
West, and while reducing length, does not quite achieve
the theme and fun of Empires of the Ancient World.
On the other hand, if one wants something on this topic, it
is more fun to play than La
Révolution Française. As the player
information comprises two sides of a A4 sheet of paper, is
probably best for those who want games as least as complex as
El Grande
with expansions. Strategy notes: it is ridiculously easy for
the Royalists to achieve their victory conditions on turn three
unless those opposing it are extremely vigilant. Also, if going
for the battle option, be sure to save the general until the last
round as he is otherwise easy to pick off with a special card.
[background]
Martin Wallace
- Light Speed
Fast action multi-player card game of spaceships firing lasers
at one another, reminiscent of Deep
Space Navigator. Cards are played to the table
turnlessly. Once one player has finished, this phase ends and
combat begins. Starting with the slowest ships, each uses a
straightedge to extend the laser paths on their cards until a
target is hit, upon which damage
markers are placed. The object is only to cause the most
destruction. There is not much strategy here as the likely
winner is simply the one who can get cards down fastest. This
assumes that the game ever ends, a detail which the instructions
never bother to quantify. Does each ship fire only once or do
they continue until all matters resolve? This omission is very
surprising after hearing publisher James Ernest's complaints at
the Kublacon 2003 game design contest. Apparently one submission
forgot to mention that its frogs are moved according to a die
roll while another neglected to include that combat is won by
the higher total. How is this worse? Nor is this all as the
rules covering ship shields are particuarly vague as well.
Now it would be downright silly to mention that in spherical
geometry a line which extends forever eventually loops around
the world and comes back to its origin and there is no rule to
cover this, so I won't. But a serious omission is that as players
rush to place their cards, there will be accidents, collisions,
overlappings... the instructions say this is illegal, but provide
no remedy for what to do when it inevitably occurs. This is
more distinctive experience than strategy, but may be useful
for breaking down tensions in groups where a party game is not
acceptable. Caveat: quite a few bits in five colors must be
supplied to make this work.
- Lords of the Renaissance
Very atmospheric war game realization of the era.
[more]
[summary]
[errata]
[variant]
[analysis]
Philip Eklund;
Sierra Madre Games
Games of the Italian Renaissance]
- Lords of the Sierra Madre
The lawless Old Southwest in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Tons of flavor and very historical. For 4-8 players and as many hours.
The game really needs time to fully develop opportunities for all players.
Those who have problems deciphering the rules might want to consult my
rewrite.
[sequence]
[action summary]
[smelter summary]
[analysis]
[background]
[errata]
[variant]
[playback]
[cards list]
Philip Eklund;
Sierra Madre Games
- Lords of the Spanish Main
-
Phil Eklund game for up to eight set in the Caribbean of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Yes, every publisher
needs a pirates game and now Sierra Madre has one, the only puzzle
being why it took so long. Players can represent anyone from
Spanish viceroys to Cardinal Richelieu to Sir Walter Raleigh or Sir
Francis Drake. It is assymmetric in that one player controls
the treasure fleet (who it is can change) which sails every ten
turns while the others can be pirates if they wish. But
it's the fact of two ways to make money that is the point of
the game, the other being to sail as a merchant to willing
colonies, an activity that earns both the fleet and the colony
owner gold. The basic turn structure takes the same form
as other Sierra Madre games: a drawn card is auctioned
– colonies, fleets, special powers – and players pay for
them turn by turn under the installment plan. They then
take their individual turns raiding and trading. Nearly
everything is negotiable and when there are at least four
players, this should help prevent a runaway leader, as the
trailing can collude. But it seems quite possible for
there to be "fallaway losers", i.e. players who drop out
of contention without a chance of coming back. For example,
several colonies are classified as "pearl beds", a type which the
map legend helpfully points out, disappear as a result of 5% of
the events. Of course players can temper their spending for
such colonies, but they are rare enough that even if not much was
paid for it, losing them can be pretty devastating to a player's
hopes and options. One possible fix (thanks, Mike Siggins)
may be that the instructions specify an improved starting position
for late-arriving players: let a player choose a new
character if desired once per game. There is a fair amount
of negotiation and price-setting here, though some of it can be
automatic. Most matters are fairly straightforward, so it does
not have to be a heavy negotiations scene unless players want it
to be. The same goes for role-playing aspects, which though
fun, take a lot of extra time. This feature is nice to have,
but not required for fun to ensue. The optimal number of
players is likely 4-6 and such a group can probably finish in
3-4 hours if not role-playing. Combat is cleverly handled
without dice. Instead each player chooses secretly from
one of four options and cross-references the result on a table,
the important factors being fleet strength, seamanship quality
and the weather vane, in effect working their way though a state
table. Physically, the production is more
or less typical for this self-publishing company with a thin, but
full color map and less color on the cards and mats. There
are 120 cards to cut out which paradoxically means that this
game tends to be worth more punched than unpunched. There
is considerable use of red text on blue backgrounds which I find
jarring as it makes the eye jump. In addition the player
markers look too similar – Siggins suggests borrowing cubes from
another game, which would leave the markers available for use
in recording payment plans. Players also need to provide
a quantity of coins to play. The player mats do carry a lot of
useful information. Some of the cards on the other hand
probably have too much information – the very small print
does not help – and it's not unusual for a player to forget
that he has a certain power, even should he need it. My
preference would be to allow players a larger hand size, but let
each card have just one very clear function. I think this
might help straighten things out in players' minds. Because
the systems have probably been designed asking the question "how
would this work in real life?" rather than having an internal
architecture from the start, there are some ambiguities in the
instructions, which at the time of this writing are being ironed
out in new errata. Another obstacle to easy understanding is
that some features are somewhat unusual, e.g. collecting
income by rotating a card or sailing the sea without having
any piece to put on the board, so players cannot rely much
on their experience with other games. And there is the
obstacle that there is a large number of exceptions and special
cases. Gabe Alvaro has counted 116 uses of the word "if" and
this doesn't include possible uses on the cards. Exceptions
tend to hamper crisp and correct play, but on the other hand,
omitting them would have a cost in flavor. In the end it
remains a taste issue, but all these factors mean this is not
really suitable for a novice group, though I've little doubt
any novice can learn it if taught. Thematically then, it's
quite strong, though the nature of colonies, being auctioned off
rather than founded is a bit jarring. The chaos level is
somewhat high as well. Although the unbalanced deck relies
on the auction mechanism for proper costing, if things appear at
a time when funds are not available, this can be skewed. On
the other hand, as only a third or fewer of the cards are used,
a waited-for card may never arrive. Actually, it might be
a good variant to double the number of new cards arriving every
turn to provide more variety from turn to turn. Certainly the
surprise of new things, and the way they force re-considerations,
is one of the game's chief delights. Finally, for those of
you keeping score at home, just as in other Sierra Madre games,
not only does this one include a comet, but the designer
has managed to even put himself in the game, in a way. For
history geeks, there's plenty more as well.
[background]
[summary]
[quick setup]
[errata]
Strategy: Medium; Theme: High; Tactics: High; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 7
Philip Eklund;
Sierra Madre Games
2006; 3-8
- Lost Worlds
The popular book game format of Ace of Aces transported to the world
of fantasy medieval combat. Although not bad, mostly of interest to fantasy
fans, particularly as games seem to develop into well-worn patterns.
Now being published by
Greysea LLC.
- Luftwaffe
Very early war game designed by Lou Zocchi, for years a
distributor in the Southeast. May be the first to ever
simulate air combat. This one concentrates on strategic
air bombing in Europe during World War II. The Allied player
plans bombing raids on a private map while the Axis player
deploys fighter aircraft in an attempt to shoot them down.
Although there is a surprisingly-wide variety of different
aircraft with differing characteristics available, combat
is handled very abstractly and even worse, if an aircraft
type decides to drop extra fuel tanks to gain maneuverability,
all aircraft of this type across this board must also drop
tanks.
- Lunatix Loop
Auto racing game with the possibility of causing damage
via ramming or substances dropped on the track such as oil, glue or tacks.
Elegant system features each player choosing one function card a turn, providing
a real-life, simultaneous feel without the
annoyance of having to actually write out orders.
Damage is measured in terms of maximum speed on a facsimile speedometer.
Strategically, the best idea usually seems to be to avoid the lead
and consequent damage in the early going, but to keep close, and then to
try to be the fastest car on the last couple of turns. Difficult
strategic choices raise interest considerably above the typical auto racing game.
But too many racers seem afraid to take large risks. The fact is, you can
survive going several tens of miles per hour over the limit in a curve provided
you go to the inside lane and have at least one luck chip.
An interesting tidbit: in this game about East German cars
the German rules use the term "Wende-Karten". "Wende"
generally means turnabout or changing direction by 180°, i.e. U-turn.
But since 1989 it has also often been associated with East Germany in
a political way, with many referring to the events of 1989 as before
"Wende" and after "Wende". And an East German person who would prefer
to return the communist times is called "Wendehals", i.e. wryneck.
[Locust Games]
- Lunch Money
Multi-player card game based on the model presented in
Nuclear War,
with a few alterations, in particular, many more defenses and virtually
no setup requirements in card play. Constructed around the ugly
theme of beating up children for their lunch money, encourages players
to get even uglier by announcing exactly what form their attacks are
taking.
Rather than being cartoonish,
card art is dark in both coloration and spirit, although nicely
realized by Carta Mundi.
Unfortunately these cards do not contain enough text to explain how
they work.
Also, it is another of those like
Rette Sich Wer Kann,
in which players must choose to pick on some other player for no
particular reason at all (at least in
Nuclear War there was some advantage in choosing the player to
your immediate right). Here's a suggestion: maybe you should
just go ahead and choose whoever brought and suggested this game for play.
[Take That! Card Games]
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