Kingdom of Solomon

Kingdom of Solomon
Designed by Philip duBarry
Produced by Minion Games

Kingdom of Solomon is a very fun game for 2-4 players and it takes about an hour to play. I have recorded a video review of the game that I will hopefully get up soon as well (after I figure out the best way to do that). I really liked this game a lot and from what I have heard of The Manhattan Project, Tahiti, and of the upcoming Hegemonic (currently on Kickstarter) combined with my love of Nile deLuxor - Minion Games is creating a real name for itself right up there with Rio Grande Games.  A big SHOUT OUT to Minion Games for making this review possible and for making such great entertainment.

The game is basically about worker placement, resource management, and strategic building. I like the theme, and as such it may become a Sunday usual around my place. The components are good, but I love the game play. It really has a great mash up of different gaming elements that remind me of a lot of other games I like:

Agricola - The fact that you take turns placing pawns out on the board and each space is limited to one pawn is very reminiscent of the farming favorite.

Settlers of Catan -You obtain resources (by pawn placement instead of dice rolling in this case - I like this difference between Catan and Solomon) and you use them to build roads and to build "cities."

Power Grid - The Market phase and the fact that you have limited resources reminded me a lot of the green wonder's energy game. Sell them high, buy them low. Make sure you have the resources you need.

Roll Through the Ages - The fact that you can build different things that give you a special ability or advantage along with victory points reminded me of the great dice rolling favorite, RTTA. The temple building also reminded me of checking off little boxes, but here we are placing little cubes to represent the temple being built. It can trigger the end of the game like finishing monuments in RTTA, and it is another way to obtain victory points.

What do you get when you combine all of these great elements? You get Kingdom of Solomon. I think that the game is very well done and I know that my wife and I really enjoyed it. I give the game 3 fingers up (or an equivalent 8 stars out of 10) rating.  I can't wait to try out another Minion Game, seems like they are all fantastic. Check out their newest game Hegemonic on their Kickstarter page and check out what games are in your local store or check out Minion Games' website. This is a link to be able to buy the upgrade kit which includes a really cool promo card. Stay tuned for the video review or at least an update with some pictures.

Buy a board game instead of a video game - and that is How Lou Sees It!

A Game A Day In Review

A Game A Day

70 straight days of playing a different board game each night and writing a review. From Day 1 I wasn't really sure how many days that this project would last; I was hoping that I could make it past 40 days. Thanks to the support of friends and family letting me borrow some of their games, the support of Rio Grande Games, Minion Games, and MindWare for their game donations, and especially the amazing support from The Wife who put up with me blogging every night and playing a game when the day didn't even have time for it. A big SHOUT OUT and THANK YOU!

I am still amazed that I made it this long. And yet, there are many more games out there to be played. I will definitely continue to review the games that I own and have played for you all. You will be able to find a list of all of my game reviews which I will organize alphabetically. I love board games. Sometimes I will just find myself reading reviews and rules to board games just for fun. This has really been a really fun project and I have enjoyed it immensely and I hope that you have as well.

If you didn't notice, most of my reviews were 3 fingers up (equivalent to an 8 out of 10 or better. This is because most of the games I played are games that I actually own...and why would I buy a game that I don't love? So, there are a lot of 4 fingers up (or 9/10) which are all amazing games, but the top games that all received a thumbs up (10/10) are listed below (Chess and Scrabble are not included in this list just because they are so well known already, but they also received the full 10/10 thumbs up):

Top 10 (listed alphabetically)

Agricola

Carcassonne

Citadels

Dominion

Forbidden Island

Hive

Nile DeLuxor

Power Grid

Slide 5

Zooloretto

Now on to the Scoreboard results. The Wife and I were pretty much neck and neck throughout the project although The Wife had a winning streak of like 13 games in a row I believe. In the end, I came out on top (even with my losing record, I had the most victories):

                            W-L-T

Lou                      32-35-3

The Wife              28-39-3

Nicole                  3-2-0

Nathan                 2-4-0

T.B.I.L.                1-0-0

Sauron                 1-0-0

F. I.                      1-0-0

Jackie                   0-1-0

Spencer                0-1-0

Bryan                   0-2-0

I did not get to play all of the games that I would have liked to, but that is one of the great joys of board games. There are so many fun games out there that all offer something a little bit different. Some of the games that I did not get a chance to play or review include (consider it my watch/wish list in no particular order; I have played a lot of these games, but I do not own or have easy access to them):

Tsuro, The Resistance, Black Friday, Friday, Crows, Flash Point Fire Rescue, Ricochet Robots, Fearsome Floors, 7 Wonders, 221 B Baker Street, Nuns on the Run, Pandemic, Ticket to Ride Europe, Alhambra, Le Havre, Blokus, and the list goes on and on.

Thank you again for supporting this project by checking out my blog. I may be taking a break from the Game Reviews for a while, but don't fret everyone. I have a new project on the horizon. Everyone prepare for (drum roll please) .... A Yoga Pose A Day. Now, it may be a little while before I start this project. I have to start some research and find a killer Yoga outfit, but I plan on at least attempting a different Yoga Pose every day and posting a picture to prove it! If only they had a Yoga themed board game. Get excited folks and that is How Lou Sees It! 

Play Like an Egyptian

Day 47 - Nile DeLuxor
Designed by Daniel Callister and James Mathe

Now that you have the Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian" stuck in your head, you can now read this blog post. If you don't already have it stuck in your head from the simple title of tonight's post, then here are some of the lyrics to help out:

All the old paintings on the tomb

They do the sand dance, don'cha know?

If they move too quick (Oh-Way-Oh)

They're falling down like a domino

And the bazaar man by the Nile

He got the money on a bet

GOLD crocodiles (Oh-Way-Oh)

They snap their teeth on a cigarette

Foreign types with their hookah pipes sing:

Way-oh-way-oh-way-ooo-aaa-ooo...

Walk like an Egyptian.

OK...onto the game review! Nile DeLuxor is seriously one of the best new card games that I have played in a long time. I guess the game isn't really that new, but tonight was the first time that I played the game. Nile DeLuxor is actually a newly expanded and updated version of Nile which originally came out in 2009. This new version allows the game to be played with up to 6 people and it also provides an expansion that can be played with that is really a lot of fun.

For those who enjoy the game Bohnanza, I would say that you would also really enjoy Nile DeLuxor (and if you are one that doesn't enjoy some of the elements in Bohnanza, I think you would actually like Nile DeLuxor). Nile DeLuxor is a 30 minute card game for 2 to 6 players. The game is very easy to learn and isn't really complex but it provides a lot of strategy and luck that is a perfect combination. Players are trying to plant and harvest each resource. Scoring is similar to the game Ingenious, where the winner is determined by having the highest lowest score. This drives a lot of the strategy for game play because each player is trying to harvest each resource as evenly as possible. In other words, you are only as strong as your weakest link. On each active player's turn a card is flipped to determine what crop or crops are harvested for that turn (all players) and what crop or crops can't be planted that turn. The game is brilliantly designed and well balanced. The expansion portion of the game adds another "crop" which is stone. The stone can be used to build monuments which can help the player a lot throughout the game but have no impact on the actual scoring at the end of the game. The game ends when the resource deck has been exhausted a number of times equal to the number of players. The Wife and I played twice this evening, once without the expansion and once with the expansion. She won the first game and I won the second game (I gave myself the win for tonight though since Nile DeLuxor includes the expansion).

I am actually very surprised that I had not heard of this game prior to a few weeks ago. Nile DeLuxor is awesome and is quickly becoming one of my favorite card games. A big SHOUT OUT to Minion Games for making tonight's game possible! After my introduction to Minion Games through Nile DeLuxor, I am very excited to try out their other games (especially Tahiti and The Manhattan Project - I helped make a documentary on the Manhattan Project with some classmates in high school and have a great interest in nuclear power). Thanks Minion Games and keep up the good work! Everyone else, Nile DeLuxor is definitely a game worth checking out and I'm certain you will enjoy it and that is How Lou Sees It.