Pillbug Rolls into Action

Welcome to Awesome Level 9000

Smash Up: Awesome Level 9000
Designed by Paul Peterson

Introduction
Let me just go ahead and say that this expansion is a MUST for Smash Up lovers out there. If you enjoyed the base game, you will enjoy these great new faction additions and the very much needed point tokens.

You can see my original review and first impressions of the base game here. Honestly, one of my greatest criticisms of the base game was the fact that you needed a pen/pencil and paper to keep track of score. A HUGE thank you and SHOUT OUT to AEG for making this review possible and for providing us all with these simple and yet very useful point tokens! The gamers spoke, and you listened. I appreciate that greatly.

Ok, so besides the awesome point tokens to keep track of score, what else is new? Ghosts, Killer Plants, Steampunks, and Bears! Also, some of the minion cards now have a "Talent" which enables them to perform that specific talent every turn.

What Comes In The Box
4 new factions, each with 20 cards built up of minions and action cards. There are 8 new base cards (2 base cards specifically designed to help each faction) and they have included re-prints of the base cards from the base game (I really couldn't tell a big difference, but it is nice to have back up cards handy and the font size is slightly larger). Since the original base game included a tray that holds all of these cards and has room to spare, it is nice to be able to just transfer all the new stuff into the original game box. Oh, and there is of course a new rule book too.

Game Play
One of the great things about Smash Up is the simplicity of the game. You can easily teach an entire new group and get playing within just a few minutes. Choosing which two factions to play with isn't always that easy because you have so many great options. The "Talent" aspect on some of the minion cards create a really nice new element to the game. The talents allow a player to perform that talent on their turn (basically, allowing the player to perform a nice additional "action." (For example: the Venus Man Trap when played on the board allows that player to search their deck for a minion of power 2 or less and play it to the board, and then they shuffle their deck.)

For those maybe not familiar with the general idea of game play, it is really simple. Play 1 minion and 1 action in either order. You can play less if you want to (and some cards will allow extra). Follow all instructions on card abilities as you play them. Check to see whether any bases can be scored (and score them). Draw 2 cards. Discard down to a hand of 10 if necessary.

Bases are how you get points and where you play all of your minions and sometimes actions etc. Bases get scored when the sum of all of the minion power equals or exceeds the amount on that base. Players then score points according to the base for 1st place, 2nd place, and 3rd place. You play until someone has or exceeds 15 victory points.

New Factions
Bear Cavalry - The bear cavalry has arrived, and you should be scared if you aren't already. General Ivan pulling out a power of 6 and the ongoing ability that your minions cannot be destroyed. Pretty awesome. The bears also scare other minions away from bases or inhibit their power or destroy minions moving to their base. The one base I enjoy from the bear calvary is the base that does not allow lower powered minions to be played there. Make sure to tie up your food when you try and go camping in their neck of the woods.

Killer Plants - Anyone ever watch the show "Little Shop of Horrors"? If you haven't, check it out. It is a morbid kind of fun. The Venus Man Trap reminds me of that show. I even had a venus fly trap for a time (pretty awesome plants). Anyway, the killer plants can grow pretty fearsome if they are left unchecked just like any bad weed. They did a nice job with this deck and playing with that idea of plants duplicating and growing stronger over time etc. Well done. Also, check out the "Overgrowth" Action card - scoring a base early like this could be pretty significant.

Ghosts - OK. Seriously, now can you imagine combining Ghosts and Zombies? What a great themed deck all the way there. Not a fan of horror movies myself, but this deck is really intriguing. The Ghosts become more useful or powerful if you have fewer cards in your hand. I mean, just check out these two cards! The "king" of this deck you can actually pull out of your discard pile if you have 2 or fewer cards, and the action card "Shady Deal" allows you to gain 1 VP. That could be the difference between victory and just second place. I could definitely see some great possibilities with these cards, but they may be a bit challenging to play with. I'm always up for a great challenge.

Steampunks - I haven't had too much familiarity with the "steampunk" genre of things, but pretty cool stuff. These cards are action driven and with the "Captain Ahab" strutting his Talent of moving around, you would think he was a type of pirate or something. When we played, one player had steampunks and wizards. A pretty nice combo if you ask me with all of the actions being played. The action cards can make the bases with their "upgrades" pretty deadly for those willing to face the steampunks. If you get the "Steam Queen" out and have your action cards protected - watch out Smash Up world.

Conclusion
In conclusion, this expansion is indeed awesome. The new factions are great, the new and improved (or back up) base cards, and the simple victory tokens are well worth purchasing this expansion. Not to mention the great replay value as our possible combinations increase as well as the fun factor. 3 Fingers up, or 8 out of 10 stars for this expansion and that is How Lou Sees It!

Thurn and Taxis: All Roads Lead to Rome

Thurn and Taxis: All Roads Lead to Rome
Designed by Andreas and Karen Seyfarth

This is another great expansion for the game Thurn and Taxis and this review will complete my 3 part review of Thurn and Taxis and its expansions. If you haven't heard of Thurn and Taxis, check out my review on the base game first - and yes, you will definitely want an opportunity to play or own this game.

This expansion offers a couple of different things you can play with the original base game. You can play them together or you can choose to play with one or the other. The first one is actually where the title for this expansion comes from, "All Roads Lead to Rome." This expansion includes a board that is placed off to the side and consists of different pathways that lead to Rome. Each player secretly at the beginning of the game chooses to place certain religious characters with different valued points attached to each face down in each carriage. The carriages (5 total) are moved when a player decides not to place a post office in a town of that same color. If you get to Rome too soon, another players character of the same type would keep you from scoring those points, but if you don't arrive at all, no luck either. It is an interesting idea and is pretty interesting, but not my favorite addition.

The other expansion provided is basically some tokens which are taken when you choose a specific action. You are rewarded by diversifying your action choices and you get to turn these in for bonuses (get an additional card, victory points, or place a post office in a city of your choice). I really like this aspect of the game and it really can help you snag some of those bonus tiles a little bit easier.

Overall, the expansion is a good one, but if you were to choose, I would say go with the Power and Glory expansion. Again, a big SHOUT OUT to Rio Grande Games for making this review possible, and for making such great games and that is How Lou Sees It!

Thurn and Taxis: Power and Glory

Thurn and Taxis: Power and Glory
Designed by Andreas and Karen Seyfarth

Power and Glory is the first expansion to Thurn and Taxis and it does not disappoint. For those familiar with Thurn and Taxis read on, and for those who are not as familiar with the original or base game I suggest reading about it here first.

Now, Power and Glory is not an expansion in the sense that it adds components to the original board, but it provides a different map and a different way to play with the houses used from the base game. And I have to say, I'm not sure which one I like the best (I think The Wife actually enjoys the Power and Glory board and variation better than the original) which is definitely saying something for this expansion.

I'll break my review up into the two main differences between this expansion and the base game starting with the new board. The new board has color coated regions just as the first but they are arranged a bit differently. The largest color region is actually split into to areas of the board (which I like) and there are a few "free cities." The free cities are independent cities (not belonging to any region) and even though they are all represented by a gold color, they are not considered to be a region or color category for means of placing houses (you can only build in one of these cities when scoring a route). The first player to place a house in the free city obtains 1 point. The free cities do not contribute in any way to the diversity bonus (in which a player has a house in each region). I like the new map, and it helps provide more replay to the game as a whole (I even wish they would have provided a double sided board like Power Grid, but it would have been a bit more difficult with additional cards needed). The good news is you can also play with all the same original rules and just play with the new board as well, but the variation provided in this game might actually be preferred to the original. Let's take a look.

In the Power and Glory variation, there are no carriage cards obtained for building routes 4, 5, 6, and 7 long.  The game therefore doesn't end until someone's houses are all gone (they still obtain a bonus point and tie-breaker tile for ending the game). Players will still want to build longer routes, because this game has bonus tiles for length once again (on up to 8 long). You can obtain these tiles at a first played, first gained basis. Basically, this opens the game up a bit and gets rid of the time component of the carriages - not allowing players to speed or slow the game by the carriage cards (they can still do this by choosing how they play their houses). The main change to go along with this change is the horses. Each of the cities has 3 cards just like the original, but the back of the cards have either 1, 2, or 3 horses on the back. Each player starts with a carriage card with 2 horses (each card on the front also has a representation of the horses by horseshoes 1, 2, or, 3) and while playing a card down into their playing area, a player may choose to play a card as horses to his carriage instead of adding to the route. The player must have at least as many horses as the player does cities before the player can close and score his route.

I really enjoy the variation in play. I believe it actually makes it easier in some ways, especially in regards to having to discard a route. If a player doesn't have the city he needs to continue his route, he can play horses to his carriage instead (max of 6 cards to the carriage) and wait and see if the city comes up next time. I have not concluded which I prefer more yet (the original or the P&G horses variation), but I believe the horses to be a great variation. Definitely worth getting this expansion for Thurn and Taxis and that is How Lou Sees It.