Nightfall: The Coldest War - Staking New Territory

I've been playing Nightfall since it first came out, and have been impressed with the low-downtime cutthroat fun delivered through it's unique chaning mechanic. In my review of the last expansion in the series, Blood Country, I had expressed some concern that the Tru-blood style settings and themes in the various Nightfall entries were becoming somewhat similar. Almost as if AEG has read my mind, I find the newest expansion The Coldest War half a world away from the humid nights of the American South, revealing instead how Nightfall has affected the cradle of vampire myth: the fridgid tundra of mother Russia.

Nightfall: The Coldest War not only opens up a refreshingly new thematic setting, it also introduces the widest variety of changes to core gameplay so far in the series. With new starting minions, moon phase cards that change the overall playfield, a couple of new mechanics that turn the game on it's head, and a set of fully illustrated wound cards, there is a ton of new content packed in the box.

Like Nightfall: Martial Law, The Coldest War can be played as a standalone game. However, where Martial Law duplicated some cards from the base set, The Coldest War presents an entirely new cast of starting characters, as well as gives all of the wound cards a graphical facelift. If one word can describe The Coldest War, it is "change".

Has this new Nightfall toppled a Berlin Wall-like barrier holding back it's thematic potential, or has it dropped like an Iron Curtain separating the new play experience from it's core audience? Let's take a look at the new changes in a bit more detail, and I'll give you my impressions.

Setting:

The biggest change to the game is the new setting. In what seems like a complete reversal of the Tru-Blood style Americana slasher, Nightfall: The Coldest War opens up an entirely new continent with plenty of supernatural lore to explore. As children, practically every one I have known has played make-believe as the stereotypical movie vampire while laying on a thick slavic accent. The minions in The Coldest War may be foreign, but their horror heritage will allow any players to comfortably assimilate the thematic flavor that theiy bring to the game. That's not to say that Nightfall has done a 180, and is delivering 1800's dracula; Not at all, it's still the same mix of urban decay Nightfall does so well - but the minions and artwork in this expansion have a bit more foreign charm than the previous settings.

I really like this detour in setting. I was getting a bit bored with the sameness of the theme in the previous expansions, and I was pleasantly surprised at how refreshing a simple change of locale made to he gameplay experience. I hope that AEG continues along this line and explores all of the shadowy nooks and crannies of the newly decaying world.

Mechanics:

Moon Phase - One of the biggest changes introduced by The Coldest War is the inclusion of Moon Phase cards. An optional addition, moon phases are represented by a small deck of cards, each card depicting a certain phase of the moon. Each moon phase adds a global effect to the game, usually helping or hindering a particular type of minion (Lycanthrope, Vampire, Ghoul, etc..). Players can choose to manipulate these cards on their turn by blindly drawing the next one from the deck or shuffling the deck. 

This gives an interesting flavor to the game, and although there is a bit of allowance for strategy when deciding when to draw vs. shuffle, it is still pretty random. It definitely spices up the game, though, and actually gives some purpose to the different minion types. Players may be divided about whether or not they like this particular mechanism, but it's optional status means that it can easily be left out if it is not your cup of tea.

Combat Effects - While the moon phase cards may seem like a big change to the game, the biggest change is actually much more subtle. Many cards in The Coldest War contain combat effects: actions that can be taken during combat by playing the card directly from the player's hand without chaining. This will probably be the most controversial aspect of this expansion. The chaining mechanic is really the core of Nightfall, but these new combat effects essentially bypass it. These effects may be likened most to "instants" in Magic the Gathering, allowing players a chance to save themselves or damage others out of turn. We have seen this mechanic before in some of the wound cards introduced in previous sets, but The Coldest War really brings the concept into the spotlight.

Personally, I like the addition. One of the apparent shortcomings of Nightfall after many plays is that it can be prone to "Kingmaking", where all of the players beat up on another - virtually forcing him out of the game. The ability to more nimbly counter these attacks takes some strides to level the playing field. Players may feel that these cards are a bit more powerful than the standard cards due to the fact that they have potent effects without having to consider their colors, but I felt that they brought an interesting, refreshing twist to the formula.

New Wound Cards - The Coldest War not only introduces new wound cards with a flexible effect that acts as a wildcard to chain any two colors together, it also includes cards from the previous games with slick new art that is much nicer than the simple bullethole graphic found in the original. Since each of the older expansions have unique wound effects, this is actually like getting bonus cards in the coldest war expansion. (Even if you are like me and snag each new expansion as it comes out, the new art is worthwhile in and of itself.)

New Starting Decks - While every full expansion up until The Coldest War has included a set of starting characters, they have been the same familiar faces in each set. With the setting change in The Coldest War comes a new cast of starting characters as well, which is a breath of fresh air. I'm not sure that these new characters were built with beginners in mind though, as their effects and powers are a bit more nuanced than the basic set, with one or two that may seem downright weaker at first glance. As a set though, these new starting characters are balanced and play differently enough to be worth exploration. I am already starting to notice changes in my strategies while utilizing these new starting cards.

Conclusion:

The Coldest War definitely has a new feel to it, and plays much differently than the previous games. The combat effects really change things up and create a faster, more aggressive, and immediate game. I can't help but feel that Coldest War brings a bit more "Magic the Gathering" flavor to Nightfall, by adding more complicated interactions that require a new type of thinking about how, and where cards can be utilized.

While this new mechanism seems to address kingmaking a bit, it also makes the game much more cutthroat, and changes its nature significantly. If you want more of a CCG feel in your Nightfall, then this will be an excellent addition, but those who feel that Nightfall is already too chaotic may want to steer clear. I enjoy the new mechanics, and feel that they help revive a game that was starting to falter with expansions that were beginning to feel too similar.

Some players may feel that the optional Moon Phase cards add a bit too much randomness to the game as well, but I really enjoy that the moon phases give more purpose to the different creature types found in the decks, delivering an added dimension of strategy to the card draft process. I may not use Moon Phases in every game I play, but the ability to add them on a whim is a welcome inclusion.

I think that Nightfall was really due for a refreshing change, and The Coldest War really delivers. There is enough newness here to last for quite a while. That being said, The Coldest War may not work very well as an introduction to Nighfall - the new mechanics all bend the basic core of the gameplay, and while exciting for the veteran player, this may seem aimless and without focus to the beginner. If you are looking to dip your toes into the Nightfall universe for the first time, the base game is still the best entrypoint.

All in all, Nightfall: The Coldest War is a solid entry for the veteran Nightfall player and should scratch the itch for those who are looking for something to spice up their gameplay - just be aware that this changes the nature of Nightfall quite a bit, and may require a paradigm shift in strategies that are used to succeed.

Nightfall: Blood Country - A Board Game Review

Nightfall: Blood Country is an expansion to the supernatural themed deck building game Nightfall. Designed by David Gregg, and published by Alderac Entertainment Group, Nightfall is a deck building game that encourages direct confrontation between players, and rewards the building of card combos through the use of its unique “chaining” mechanism which uses color matching to bring new cards into play. I really enjoyed Nightfall, and its stand-alone expansion Nightfall: Martial Law, and I was very excited to give Nightfall: Blood Country some table time.

While the previous expansion, Nightfall: Martial Law had all of the components to play as a stand-alone game, Nightfall: Blood Country is an expansion in the strictest sense, and requires one of the previous Nightfall incarnations to play. Since I have previously reviewed both Nightfall and Nightfall: Martial Law, I am not going to write an in-depth description of gameplay. If you aren’t familiar with Nightfall, my review of the base game gives an introduction to gameplay.

Components:

The biggest difference between the components in Nightfall: Blood Country and the other Nightfall games is the box. The colorfully illustrated box has a small footprint, at around 6” x 4” x 3”, much smaller than the full-sized boxes of its predecessors. The previous games in the series are already built to hold expansions in them, so Nightfall: Blood Country's small footprint is very economical. Some people may be tempted to put the cards from this new expansion into the original Nightfall box, and simply discard the expansion box, but there is a compelling reason to keep the smaller box around. Even with its diminutive dimensions, the expansion box still has plenty of room for more cards, and it comes with the same foam spacers and divider cards as the original game. In fact, Nightfall: Blood Country even comes with dividers for wound cards, and the starting player decks, making it an excellent portable solution for when you want to take Nightfall with you without the hassle of lugging around a big box.  I haven’t yet checked to see if all of the original Nightfall cards and Nightfall: Blood Country cards will fit into the expansion box together, but there is definitely enough room in there to pack a wide variety of cards, making it perfect for travel.

The expansion also forgoes a full-fledged rulebook, opting instead for a single folded sheet that describes new rules, presents a small FAQ, and adds some new game fiction. The majority of the text is devoted to game fiction; a fiction that moves the action to Canute, Oklahoma.

The Game:

Nightfall: Blood Country doesn’t really add much to the core game mechanics; there has been a change to the original drafting rules that call for the random public archives to be selected and revealed before drafting starts. This small change is actually very effective in making the drafting process much more strategic, due to the fact that players now have a frame of reference when drafting cards. In the older drafting rules, the random cards were just that: random. Now, the random cards can better mesh with the rest of the selections.

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The Devil Went Down to Georgia - A Review of Nightfall: Martial Law

Hot on the heels of the debut release of Nightfall, game designer David Gregg and publisher Alderac Entertainment Group are unleashing the shadowy creatures of Nightfall: Martial Law into the sticky summer nights of Atlanta, Georgia.  With a new setting, and a new cast of characters, Nightfall: Martial Law serves as both an expansion to the original Nightfall game and a standalone introduction to the series. Martial Law also ups the ante a bit by introducing a new game mechanic called “feeding” to the game, as well as a new wound card Ability.

In the Nightfall universe, the world has mysteriously fallen into perpetual darkness, with humankind and the supernatural locked in a deadly battle, vying for the future of Earth. You are secretly controlling these Ghouls, Vampires, Werewolves, and Humans to the benefit of your own nefarious agenda, and unleashing their rage upon your opponents. Players bring cards representing creatures and actions onto the table through an innovative process called “chaining”, where cards can be played off of one another by matching colored icons. Since I have already discussed the rules and theme of Nightfall in my review of the original game, this review will focus on the changes that Nightfall: Martial Law brings to the series.

The Game:

The first thing that is apparent when looking at Nightfall: Martial Law is that its box is the same size, and shares the same build quality and card organization system as the original Nightfall box. With so much space in the original box meant for expansions, it may seem confusing that Nightfall: Martial Law doesn’t come in a smaller box. But, Martial Law is more than just an expansion for the original; it is also a standalone game that contains the starter decks and wound cards included with the previous release. With a limited production pipeline, AEG had anticipated that the first printing of Nightfall could sell out before Martial Law was released, potentially alienating new customers who would be unable to find the original game.  By including all of the components in Martial Law, AEG is ensuring that players can jump straight into the world of Nightfall, even if they cannot find the base game on their retailer's shelf.

Like Nightfall, the cards in Martial Law are beautifully illustrated, and capture the vivid, gritty art style found in many high quality graphic novels. I really enjoy the dark, urban style feel of the artwork, and find that it is very effective at communicating the theme of the game. I do, however, have one minor gripe with the cards in Martial Law. The order and draft cards don’t have any icons on them to differentiate them from those in the original Nightfall set. This made cleanup slightly more difficult after playing a game that mixed cards from both sets. However, the card dividers indicate the set that they are from, so I found that it was easiest to look for the empty spaces in the box, and then grab the correct pile from the table. Odds are, if you are mixing cards from the two sets, that you will be keeping all of the cards in the same box anyway, so the issue becomes moot.

A second issue I ran across with the draft cards in Martial Law was a printing error in the kicker text. The spacing between lines was incorrect on some of the cards, causing portions of text to overlap, contain misaligned letters, or exhibit strange blob-like artifacts.  I do not know if it is a widespread issue, or is isolated to my copy, but the cards were still readable, and the issue only manifested on the draft cards.

When looking through the cards, I was pleasantly surprised at the variety and relative number of the various types of minions. While the card selection in Nightfall was mostly dominated by vampires, Martial Law mixes things up a bit by increasing the number of humans and werewolves.  Even though there is more of a variety in the creature cards, the vampires still have the advantage of numbers - although this advantage is mitigated a bit by some new action cards that specifically target the bloodsuckers. ("Silver Stake - Chain: Destroy target Vampire. Destroy Target Lycanthrope." and "Shining Cross - Chain: Inflict damage on each player equal to the number of vampires they have in play.")

 Martial Law ships with a revised version of the Nightfall manual which adds some new rules, as well as some new fiction surrounding the characters found in the game. The biggest addition is a new mechanic called “Feeding”. Feeding allows a player to repeat certain effects multiple times by discarding cards from his hand. Each card that is discarded causes the effect to repeat once, and a player with a handfull of cards could produce potentially devastating results.  Feed effects can be found in both chain and kicker portions of the cards, opening up the possibility for some extremely brutal combinations.

Along with the wound cards found in Nightfall, Martial Law contains a deck of cards with a new wound effect that allows players to increase the strength of their minions. These new wound cards also take advantage of the feed effect, allowing players to discard multiple wounds to buff up their creatures. The inclusion of multiple wound effects adds a new layer of decision making. While the original wound effect fills the player’s hand with cards, and gives him an advantage when purchasing cards or creating combos, the new wound cards allow him to convert his wounds into raw power for his minions – if they can survive until his next turn.

Although the cards in Martial Law work great together, and form a solid gameplay experience on their own, I love throwing the cards from both sets together and drafting from a huge pool of options. With the larger number of cards to pick from, Martial Law includes some new drafting rules for mixing the game sets. Instead of the usual four card packets, five card packets are used. These cards are drafted normally, with the  exception of the last remaining card, which is discarded. The addition of that single card to each packet makes a big difference in the perceived selection available when drafting, and makes the drafting portion of the game much more enjoyable.

Conclusion:

Martial Law easily stands on its own. Even with the different selection of cards, it gives a satisfying experience on par with Nightfall, and the variety of cards and the story driven connections between the cards may even make it more compelling from a thematic standpoint. The cards in Martial Law are also more varied and interesting in their effects, but often much more brutal than vanilla Nightfall. The brutality can turn even more vicious when pumping pain into opponents through the unyielding feed mechanic. I can imagine that this would make Martial Law a bit more daunting for the new player, and Nightfall may serve as a better introductory experience.

For the experienced player, however, Martial Law invigorates the game by speeding up the pace, adding more complex card effects, and increasing the "take that" factor. Cards like "Hysteria - Chain: Target minion inflicts damage on itself and its controller equal to its strength. Kicker: Inflict 2 damage on target player" can be devastating to a player who isn't prepared. But the higher stakes of the new cards really force players to think critically about the cards they draft and play, and that really increases the fun factor.

If you didn't like the conflict in Nightfall, then Martial Law is not going to make a convert out of you. But, if you can't get enough of the brutal head-to-head confrontation of the original, then you are in for a definate treat. I look forward to many enjoyable hours of exploring the different stategies and card interactions within Martial Law and Nightfall, and can't wait to bring it back to the table.

Nerdbloggers.com was supplied with a copy of this game by its publisher for the purpose of writing this review. The content of this review was not influenced by advertisers or an affiliate partnership, nor was it written for the sole purpose of promoting a product.

Nightfall - A Review.

In the not too distant future, the earth has been plunged into darkness. Supernatural creatures are rising to power in the eternal moonlight, and the human race is being hunted like game. Vampires, Werewolves, and Ghouls are locked in a mortal battle with the Human “Hunters” who dare to defend mankind. They all fight to claim the inky darkness of this changed world as their own... or so they think. Unknown to all, there are unseen hands pulling the strings from behind the curtain of darkness, making and breaking hidden alliances between both friend and enemy clans. In this land of Nightfall, you are the puppet master, and these creatures your unknowing minions.

Nightfall is a competitive Deck Building game created by first time game designer David Gregg, and published by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG)...

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The Adventurers - A Review

My youngest son is enamored with the press your luck style card game Incan Gold, a game that carries the theme of exploring an ancient temple full of traps and treasures. He revels in collecting treasure, and relishes when others are caught inside the temple and have to forfeit all of their loot.

I have slowly been trying to introduce him to the board game hobby; So, when he recently asked me if there were any other games that had a treasure hunting theme, I was excited to search for a game with a bit more complexity, but a similar feel to Incan Gold.  The game I chose to bring home was The Adventurers, designed by Guillaume Blossier and Frederic Henry, and published by Alderac Entertainment Group.

Alderac Entertainment Group, or AEG, has been an active publisher of Collectible Card Games and Roleplaying Games for over 15 years with the successful Legend of the Five Rings line of products. When it comes to board games, however, AEG is a relative newcomer. AEG announced their entry into board games only two short years ago, in 2009, but did so with a bang. The 2009 line-up consisted of no fewer than 10 titles, including some of the year's most well received games. Since then, AEG has been steadily making a name for itself as one of today's premier designer board and card game publishers.

The Adventurers was one of the titles released in AEG's original 2009 line-up, and while I may be a little late to the party picking it up, it fits the bill perfectly for my current requirement: A family friendly press your luck treasure hunting adventure in an ancient temple, with plenty of perilous traps.

The Game:

The first thing you will notice when you open The Adventurers is the production value. This game is beautiful, with colorful artwork, and wonderfully detailed components. If any game will tempt you to paint your components, this is definitely one of them.

The Adventurers comes with a beautifully illustrated game board that depicts the interior of "The Temple of Chac", a trap laden ruin devoted to the ancient Mayan rain god. The temple is made up of several areas in which the players must search for treasure and avoid traps - but this is usually much easier said than done.

Each player chooses two of the twelve adventurers to explore the temple. The adventurers are represented by a detailed plastic miniature, along with a card that depicts his caricature and displays his special ability. On the back of the character card is a table that the player will use to determine his adventurer's weight and movement. Only one character is ever active at one time, so the back of the inactive character is placed face down, and is used as a player aid.

Upon entering the temple, the entrance is sealed, and the adventurers must make their way to the only exit at the opposite side of the board. Unfortunately, as soon as the adventurers enter, a giant boulder, a la Indiana Jones, begins it's inevitable march towards the exit, slowly gaining speed until it reaches top velocity. If the boulder gets to the exit before the players, the temple is sealed closed, and the adventurers will be trapped inside the temple forever, destined to become part of the decor.

The boulder that moves across the board serves as both timer and trap, and is one of the setpiece components of the game. A large molded plastic piece that dominates the board, it is a constant reminder to the players that the time in the temple is limited. The boulder is one of the many parts of the game that come together to really solidify the theme of the game, and helps to draw players in. A cardboard token moving along a track on the board could have served the same purpose, but wouldn't be nearly as immersive, or fun.

The boulder isn't the only trap that the adventurers need to worry about. The first room that they encounter is one of discovery and danger. Called the "Wall Room", players can search for treasures and learn about traps that they will encounter later in the game. But, if they spend too long there, they will learn the hard way why it is called the "Wall Room". At the end of each round, three cards are drawn that determine how the large plastic walls will move. If an adventurer is still in the room when the walls come together, he will meet his untimely fate as a human pancake.

If the adventurers make it out of the wall room, they will turn the corner to reveal a giant pool of lava. Floating upon the lava are 14 stepping stones, each with a unique glyph depicted on it. These stepping stones are represented by thick, double sided cardboard tokens. The glyphs on the tokens are fairly complex, and many are similar in appearance, but none exactly the same. This is important to note, because four of these stepping stones are booby trapped. If an adventurer steps onto a trapped stone, he will end up taking a deadly swim in the sea of lava. But, the adventurers aren't completely in the dark when it comes to choosing a path across the lava. Back in the wall room, the adventurers were given the option to learn about the traps by using actions to take a peek at the glyphs that appear on the trapped tiles.  If they can remember these glyphs, without confusing them with others, they can make it across the lava safely, and pick up some treasures along the way.

But what challenges are in store for our intrepid adventurers next? What obstacles will they have to overcome to prevail, and exit the temple with the most treasure? Will the adventurers live to see another day? Find out the answer to these exciting questions, and more, after this short discussion about actions!

At some point in the game,  the adventurers will have probably picked up a good share of treasure. This can be both a blessing and a curse, because the more treasure a player has, the greater the load he carries. Many actions in The Adventurers are dependent on this idea of "load".  While having a lot of treasure when you escape the temple is good, having too much treasure may mean that you will never make it to the end at all.

Like most press your luck style games, there is a random element to The Adventurers. This randomness is achieved through the use of five, six sided dice. These dice are rolled and compared to the character's load to determine the number of actions a character can take per turn, as well as how successful he is avoiding certain traps in the game.

At the beginning of a turn, the current start player rolls 5 dice. All players then compare their load to the number on each die. For each die that is showing a number equal to, or greater than the character's load, he gets an action. This means each adventurer will get somewhere between 0 and 5 actions.

This is where the tables on the back of the character cards come into play. The character card is placed over the player aid, and is slid to mark the load, and number of actions available to the adventurer. As the player takes actions, he slides the card to reflect the reduced number of actions available.

With the giant boulder barreling towards him, an adventurer might want to drop some treasures to reduce his load. Discarding treasure cards is a free action that players can take each round before the dice are rolled. Deciding when to drop some treasure can make the difference between life and death in the Temple of Chac.

Dice are also used at certain spots on the game board where a player can try to acquire a high valued artifact. These "alcoves" require the player to roll 5 dice, and get certain combinations of numbers in order to successfully take the treasure. If the correct numbers don't come up the first time, the player can use another action to re-roll any of the dice. He may continue doing this until he is out of actions.  If he runs out of actions, however, he will have to start all over at the beginning of his next turn with all 5 dice, if he wishes to grab the treasure.

It's also worth mentioning that each character has one of 6 special abilities that he may use once during the game. Most of these abilities will help him overcome a particular type of obstacle, and can help the player decide how he should traverse the temple.

If a player happens to die, he can bring his second character into the game. This seems more of a way to avoid player elimination than a balanced mechanic. Once the second character is brought into the game, he is at a severe disadvantage, and doesn't have much opportunity to collect treasure.

The Saga Continues!

Now, back to our daring adventurers! Having escaped the lava, they will have some tough decisions to make: They can enter the underground river, to search for more treasures, but risk getting swept into the deadly waterfall at the end; They can choose to cross the rotten bridge, which may collapse if they are carrying too much weight; Even still, they can chose to go the long way, stopping to try for the high valued treasure in the hidden alcove, at the risk of being crushed by the unstoppable boulder.

Whichever way they chose, there are risks to be had. If a player is too greedy, he may find himself at the bottom of a ravine, drown in an underground lake, crushed by a boulder, or trapped for the rest of his short life in the temple. If he ignores the treasure, and takes the safest path, he may exit the temple alive, but find that he has gained only the ridicule of his fellow adventurers who have become unspeakably wealthy from their priceless finds in the temple.

The Verdict:

The Adventurers is a great press your luck game that really succeeds in fully immersing the players in it's well crafted theme. It is easy to put yourself in the shoes of a movie archaeologist turned adventurer, and live out some of your childhood fantasies for 45 minutes. The tension and near-miss encounters keep you at the edge of your seat, and the highs and lows of making or missing that critical die roll make it exciting till the very end.

Although the instructions state that the game is for 2-6 players, I'm not sure that I would play it with less than 4 people. With a lot of people playing, there is a lot of tension and excitement, with less players, that feeling tends to dwindle away.  Players tend to take more risks with a higher player count as there is more competition for the treasures. The few times that I've played The Adventurers with only 3 players, it really seemed to fall flat, and I can only imagine that a 2 player game would be even less compelling.

The Adventurers is not a heavy game by any stretch of the imagination, but it offers a bit more complexity, and interesting choices over a simpler game such as Incan Gold. The fact that it isn't a brain burning experience makes it a great family game, or light game to play as filler or with non-gaming friends.  I don't think I'll find myself pulling out The Adventurers when I want a meaty "gamer's game" experience, but it is a lot of fun, and I see myself playing it many more times in the future.

As long as The Adventurers is played casually, I see it having staying power. Played too seriously however, it begins to show some weaknesses. First of all, due to the way that the traps on the lava field are selected, someone who has memorized all of the glyphs would have an unfair advantage during the first half of the game. Second, there are only a handful of obstacles that the players encounter. After a while, these could start to feel a bit stale. Finally, The Adventurers has a great deal of randomness built into the gameplay, which can be a turn-off for some players who prefer their games to be based entirely on skill.

As a light family game, however, The Adventurers shines. It is full of theme, has a wonderful tension that keeps you on the edge of your seat, and only gets better the more people who play.  The randomness of the game works as an equalizer, and can allow people of different skill levels to all have a great time, which can be an advantage when playing with younger children. If you enjoy the adventure theme, and have a group of people with the same mindset who like to have fun, I don't think you could go wrong with giving The Adventurers a try.