Category Archives: Unboxing
Iwo: Bloodbath in the Bonins – First Look!
Unbagging DG’s solitaire Fire & Movement folio ~
Michael Eckenfels, 2 May 2018
Released in 2013, this game is one of many Folio-style games that Decision Games (that’s a lot of ‘games’ in one sentence) has done. I’ve never owned one and figured it was time to check one out. While there are several at cheaper prices than this one, I picked it up for about $20 on Amazon.
It comes in a folder, within a large, clear, plastic bag.
Black Orchestra – First Look!
What’s inside Black Orchestra (2nd Edition, Starling Games, 2017) ~
Michael Eckenfels, 18 April 2018
“Is it twue what they say about boawd games wif ‘bwack’ in the title? (opens box)…Oh…it’s twue! It’s twue!”
– Lily Von Shtupp, upon receiving her copy of Black Orchestra, 2ndEdition…or so I imagine, anyway
Raiders of the Deep – First Look!
Michael… ahem, “dives” into the Compass Games sub warfare box ~
Michael Eckenfels, 7 April 2018
It seems that the solitaire wargame market for submarines is picking up steam (a harr a harr) in the last few years. Silent Victory, Silent War, Target Bearing 023 Degrees, Operation Drumbeat, The Hunters…there’s plenty of options, including this title, Raiders Of The Deep from Compass Games.
Based on the same system that The Hunters and Silent Victory use, Raiders Of The Deep puts you into the role of a German submarine commander in World War I. This is a very intriguing prospect to me, being based in World War I, when submarine warfare really came into its own. Some of the German submarines at the outbreak of war were tiny things that could hold maybe 15 sailors and two torpedoes, but they evolved quickly over the following years of The Great War.
Sword & Sorcery: Immortal Souls – First Look!
Another new box-full-o’-minis in an oversize tabletop dungeon crawl ~
Michael Eckenfels, 21 March 2017
There’s about sixteen billion board games now dealing with dungeon crawls and sporting cool minis, or enough to choke a bag of holding – whichever reference you get first.
I’ve since realized I was expecting an RPG experience
I hadn’t heard of Sword & Sorcery before (go figure). According to BGG’s page, this game “is an epic -fantasy cooperative board game in which 1-5 players fight together against the forces of evil, which are controlled by the game itself.”
This last bit was enough to intrigue me. I’d had a momentary flirtation with the D&D games; specifically with Castle Ravenloft, which I played, and Temple of Elemental Evil, which I have yet to play. These D&D games struck me as too simplistic, but I’ve since realized I was expecting an RPG experience, and was disappointed because of it. I need to revisit those games with a different outlook on what to expect.
This one, though, seemed pretty cool for a variety of reasons. Not only the “1-5 player” aspect of it, which is admittedly a huge selling point for me (I like running multiple players in cooperative games), but also because this game has a lot of Galaxy Defenders (another game) in it. And it should, because Gremlin Productions created both of these games.
There’s also the 8.3 rating on BGG, which is impressive in and of itself, as well as the 95 (!) videos covering it, as well as over twelve hundred threads in the BGG page for it. Not bad for a game that was just released in 2017.
For a final reason, the minis are cool as hell, as you will see momentarily.
Hell Frozen Over – First Look!
Unboxing… er, “unbagging” LNLP’s expansion for Heroes of the Pacific~
Vance Strickland, 20 February 2018
Hell Frozen Over covers the Battle of Attu Island at the tactical level, with the LNLT system. Other games have covered this out-of-the-way fight in the Pacific Theater, including the recent War In the Wind, but this is one of the first to feature the fighting at this echelon.
Brand new Hell Frozen Over expansion for Heroes of the Pacific and the X-Map(s) too!
