Tag Archives: card-driven
GrogHeads Reviews Munchkin Marvel
Superheroes come to the beloved Munchkin series. Is it Super fun? ~
Avery Abernethy, 11 August 2016
Munchkin Marvel is the 23rd core game in the Munchkin line sold by Steve Jackson Games. For those unfamiliar with Munchkin, it is a table top card game. You have an avatar. You can equip your avatar with armor, helmet, hand items, boots, and other items. You can obtain allies. However well or poorly equipped your character is you kick down the door. A trap may explode in your face. You may get free treasure. Or you may have a monster attack you. If you beat the monster you get its treasure. If you lose, you can try to run away. If you don’t run away successfully upon your loss, bad things happen. If you beat a monster you go up a level. Other things can help you go up levels. If you reach level 10 then you win. It is a pretty simple game.
What makes Munchkin such a fun game is the give and take between the players. Munchkin encourages both cooperation and back-stabbing. Many cards can be played to help your character, or can be played to strengthen a monster to defeat another player. There is a lot of wheeling, dealing, begging and whining within a munchkin game. You can split treasures, bribe, make promises, all in hopes of getting your lowly level one munchkin to level ten and victory.
Classic Reviews: Red Dragon Inn
The only thing that’s more fun than drinking, gambling, and rough-housing in a medieval tavern in a laughter-inducing game about drinking, gambling, and rough-housing in a medieval tavern. ~
Brant Guillory, 11 May 2016
Originally published ~ July 2007
So you and your friends either slayed an evil beast, or conquered the local warlord? Both? Well done, you! Time to celebrate, quaffing pints and regaling your friends with tall tales of your exploits over at the Red Dragon Inn. 
You goal is to be the last one standing among the carousing adventurers at the inn, which is not an easy feat when you’re subsisting on a diet of Dragon Breath Ale.
Each player has a playmat that organizers the cards in play, and tracks both the character’s alcohol level, and fortitude. The goal is to keep the alcohol content low, and the fortitude high; should they meet, the character falls unconscious and the rest of the party splits the loot. Speaking of loot – should you run out of loot, the inn tosses you out on your heels. In either case, you’re out of the game. The last conscious player standing, with cash, is the winner.
GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #92
We venture beyond hex-and-counter wargaming for much of this week’s GARPA ~
GrogHeads Staff, 22 April 2016
The Dark Sands (GMT Games)
p500 $38, MSRP $55 – made the cut
Ted Racier strikes again! He’s taking his East front campaign system from The Dark Valley and dropping it into North Africa. You get to refight the dramatic 2 years of back-and-forth warfare between Cairo and Tunis at the operational level, with a focus on combat and planning. Notably, the GMT copy on their promotional material pokes fun at a certain well-known North Africa game with a heavy logistical focus. Meanwhile, you’ve got a highly solo-friendly game that spans a grand campaign from a designer we all love and a company that churns ass-kicking products. Got get your order in before you can’t get the p500 price anymore.
GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #90
What’s up for preorder in March? Space wars, dice, castles, and WAR! ~
GrogHeads Staff, 25 March 2016
Hull Breach!: In Defiance of Dictators Card Game (Not-So-Broken Games)
$10k of $33k, ends 17 April 2016
We’ve been tracking the Hull Breach gang for a while, going back to 2013 (http://grogheads.com/?p=3199), so now that their new release is hitting Kickstarter, of course we’re going to throw them some love! It’s a deck-builder type of game, with tactical gameplay that depends on how well you can structure and deploy your assets. Your home base (“station”) needs your protection, and you attack with all variety of ships, marines, and special weapons. Mixing and matching with other boxes lets you customize your deck; fret not, though, as it’s not a collectible game, just a customizable one. The new box includes enhanced rules for team play, new victory conditions, and a streamlined rulebook, to go with a truckload of new cards. Launch for their Kickstarter page and fire off your pledge.
GrogHeads Reviews ONUS!
Ancients battling across your tabletop, with minimal prep! ~
Jim Owczarski, 12 March 2016
There are two types of miniatures wargamers. The first is into the assembling, painting, and basing of miniatures for the mad fun of it all. Actually subjecting their lead, or more recently, plastic, hordes to mere rules in a game can seem secondary; just about everyone who has ever “played” Warhammer 40k leaps to mind.
The other is the sort that loves the aesthetic of so many little men, but, even if he finds the process enjoyable enough, knows that he’ll likely never have the time, space, and resources to play in one of those really big games that show up in rulebooks and convention floors.
Enter Onus! (I will hereafter forgo the exclamation point) by Spanish publisher Draco Ideas. Originally published in 2014 in a Spanish-language edition, Onus recently emerged from a successful Kickstarter that will, among other things, produce an English-language edition. What follows is a review of the original version.
The concept behind Onus is simple enough. Most wargames involving miniatures require players to stick their figures onto squares or rectangles to facilitate movement. Onus skips the bit about miniatures and gives us the bases, made of playing card stock decorated with pictures of the soldiers and bids us have at. This allows the game to come in a very small package.
Mighty armies, itty-bitty living space
