Aeon’s End: War Eternal

There is a lack of shuffling in the game, meaning the card draw order can be dictate by the player themselves, adding a strategic depth to a mechanic that is normally more luck based.

The Game Scout

My partner has had this game on his list for quite some time. We finally made the purchase and I was pleasantly surprised with the whole experience. It’s a compelling mix. There’s the deckbuilding of Dominion andthe co-operative team-up to fight the Big Bad of Marvel Champions with an apocalypse fantasy setting.

The game has a good pace. I was expecting the deep, dark fantasy theme to mean there would be a variety of moderately complex mechanics and difficult choices that slowed the pace of gameplay right down. Instead it felt much more like a marketplace deckbuilder, where the test of your deck’s strength was by how effectively the monster was slain, rather than how effectively your deck worked against the other players. All the makings of a challenging game are there with multiple choices to be made each turn that inevitably are a compromise on other possibilities. There is a lack of shuffling in the game, meaning the card draw order can be dictated by the player themselves, adding a strategic depth to a mechanic that is normally more luck based.

I really enjoyed my first play-through and have been wanting to play again. (Always a good sign) I liked that it scratched the itch of diving into a fantasy world for an hour without having to commit to a longer game like Arkham Horror. The first game that is recommended was seriously easy, so the next time we play, we will be ramping up the difficulty to keep the game challenging. It’s unusual for us to find this type of co-operative gameplay easy, so the balance of the first game may be too much towards ‘tutorial’ mode.  Regardless, I’m looking forward to trying again and I feel certain this is a game that will come down off the shelf often.

The Game Scout

Sherlock Homes: Consulting Detective

Spend an evening and feel deeply satisfied at your skills of deduction and the quality time spent with the other players.

The Game Scout

For the past few Saturday evenings, I’ve been delving into Sherlock’s London with Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective. In fact, I now have plans for the next 8 Saturdays to set up some mood music, put on some candles, lay out the map of London and start writing notes and scouring the newspaper archives for our latest mystery as we try to pin down the murderer and motive. This has honestly become my favourite game.

I adore its simplicity, the game sits back and lets the players do all the work. There is no auto pilot and it makes solving the mystery a deeply satisfying process. This is a game that requires full commitment. I’m not sure I would enjoy playing it with more than three people, there’s always one player not as interested as the rest, one player who has decided they know the answer already and one player who tries to steamroller the others. But with my current two player partnership it is a real delight that’s a surprising bonding experience as we share and challenge our ideas. It’s the game we can’t stop talking about and dissecting even after it’s over. It’s this social aspect that means I wouldn’t play the game solo. Who would stop me from going in completely the wrong direction?

I can see the game might not be for everyone, there is a lot of reading. In order to sound like a Sherlock book the vocabulary is more complex than it strictly needs to be, probably putting some potential players off. There really is a need to take notes, and that’s not for everyone. Myself, I take great pride in the colour coding of different clues and leads and a special Sherlock notebook was purchased after our first week of playing for a dedicated note space.  

There’s really nothing more to this game to unpick. Spend an evening and feel deeply satisfied at your skills of deduction and the quality time spent with the other players. That’s what I’ll be doing for my foreseeable Saturdays.

The Game Scout

Marvel Champions

Somehow each time my partner and I have played through, we have satisfyingly managed to just make it.

The Game Scout

My first play-through of Marvel Champions was a thrilling experience (if you discount the time spent scouring the Rules Reference to settle small debates about the rules) It feels like a comic, it feels like a boss battle and it feels like a genuinely co-operative game once your are comfortable playing simultaneously.

If this would be your first Fantasy Flight game, then this is an accessible place to start. If you’ve played their games before, there are borrowed mechanics that will make the game easier to get into. The cards make total sense for each character. They bring to life what it might feel like to be Spiderman and Captain Marvel battling Rhino as he blasts his way into S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters. Each play-through feels different to the next depending on the hero you play as. Immediately after playing, I went straight online to find the Captain America Hero Pack (disappointingly sold out) because I couldn’t wait to experience the feeling of playing as Captain America.

Somehow each time my partner and I have played through, we have satisfyingly managed to just make it. The game is balanced in a way that you never feel quite on top of attacking the villain, thwarting his evil schemes, defending against his attacks and recovering yourself in your heroes alter-ego. When it feels like failure is imminent, a final push from the heroes saves the day. It couldn’t be more classic comic if it tried.

I’ll be playing again soon to exhaust the possible combos of heroes and villains. I imagine this time next year, the cleverly designed box (primed and ready to accept a large number of expansions) will be full of even more possibilities.

The Game Scout

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