Help Kick Start "Oh My God!" There's An Axe in My Head

Chris and David, designers of Oh My God! There's An Axe in My Head, have recently started a Kickstarter campaign to raise money or the first printing of the game.  Here is a quick description of the game from its entry on Boardgamegeek:

Geneva, 1920: The League of Nations convenes for the first time. Proud to be the host for this august world body, Switzerland invites its champion axe-juggling troupe, Les Bella Lieben Jolie De Von Giorno, to entertain the assembled delegates. Unfortunately, halfway through the demonstration, the Troupe goes insane and begins hurling axes into the audience, splitting head after head. The Secretary General calls for calm, but before he can order a recess, his cranium is split as well.

The remaining Great Powers use the confusion to pass the gavel between themselves, conduct international business amidst the chaos, and generally try to shift the balance of world power while escaping a bunch of armed psychopaths.

The "setting" for the game sounds great and the barebones description calls to mind one of my favorite games of all time, Sid Sackson's I'm the Boss.  If the game has that kind of controlled chaos, I'm in.

I'm intrigued by the game and, as such, it will earn my first Kickstarter contribution.  Just thought I would bring it to our readers attention since, if it caught my eye, it might be something you guys would be interested in jumping in on the ground floor of.  

Here are the pertinant links:

The game's BGG page

The game's Kickstarter page

Review--A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin

A Dance with Dragons

George R.R. Martin

Bantam, 2011

(For those that haven’t read the book, an attempt has been made to make this review as spoiler-free as possible.  Still, read at your own risk).

Where Have all the Heroes Gone?

After what had become for A Song of Ice and Fire fans a seemingly interminable delay, George R.R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons was finally released on July 12, five years and eight months after the release of the previous book in the series, A Feast for Crows.  In that nearly six-year absence, the series took on fans like a submarine made out of wiffle balls takes on water.

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Forlorn: Hope Review

Review

Forlorn:  Hope

Victory Point Games

Designed by Chris Taylor

The Spin:  Low –complexity, quick-playing “game of tactical combat between a squad of human Space Marines and a nearly unlimited horde of hostile alien Xenos aboard the claustrophobic space station, Hope.”—Forlorn: Hope “box” cover

Not sure why, but I really love this cover art.

If you are a older gamer, it will be hard to read the above description without thinking about Games Workshop’s Space Hulk or possibly Steve Jackson’s Awful Green Things from Outer Space or maybe even Task Force Games’ Intruder.  The good news is that while Forlorn: Hope shares elements with all of the above games, it still manages to maintain its own identity.  Better yet, it turns out to be one of the better examples of the Bug Hunt sub-genre, better even in some ways than the aforementioned classics.

Forlorn: Hope’s basic “plot” is nearly identical to Space Hulk’s.  Various missions give two players the opportunity to run a group of high-tech marines against a swarm of low-tech but vicious aliens in the narrow corridors of a space station.  Also like Space Hulk, Forlorn: Hope has marine movement and attacks tied up in an action point system—though there is an important difference.

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SDJ (Germany’s Game of the Year) Winners Announced!

The 2011 SDJ Winner!

Susan McKinley Ross has become the first woman to win Germany’s prestigious and influential Spiel Des Jahres for a solo design with Qwirkle.  Qwirkle also becomes the first pure abstract game to win the award in thirty years (since Sid Sackson, another American, won for Focus).  I didn’t put the effort in to playing the nominees that I do most years and Qwirkle isn’t one that I got to the table, but after some reading I’m definitely adding it to my next board game order.  It seems like it will be a great game to play with the wife and kids, which is usually all I expect from the SDJ.

Additionally, the SDJ committee began this year to present a second award, the Kennerspiel, for connoisseurs of board games (which, I suppose, just means people who are familiar with a wide variety of games).  This new award was desi gned to recognize great games that might be too complex or hard to learn for the average German family.  The first game to win the award is 7 Wonders, a game we at Nerdbloggers really enjoy and one that I reviewed here back in February. 

Since it is one of the daughter’s favorite games, I was cheering for Forbidden Island (read William's review here) to win the SDJ, but I’m still happy to see the award go to Ross, who comes across as a extremely likable and a great representative for American game designers.  So, congratulations Susan.  Here’s hoping Qwirkle sales get the traditional SDJ boost and then some.

Review: Super 8 (Abrams, 2011)

When I returned home from seeing Super 8, I had to fight the urge to look through my VHS movie collection to make sure I didn’t already have it on tape.  It is that much of a throwback to the works of Spielberg and his halo of directors in the 70’s and 80’s.  Add some additional hints of Stephen King, and the overall effect is one of almost overpowering nostalgia.  If that was all the film had going for it, it would be ultimately unsatisfying, but Super 8’s real strength is its characters and their stories, which in the end are far more compelling than the sci-fi horror fiction that serves as their backdrop.

Click here to read the rest of my review at The Blackest Eyes (opens in a new window).