First Impressions : Supernova

Like London buses circa 1977 it’s very rare to see two great games closely following each other, especially so when the two games in question are Euro/Ameritrash hybrids. Perhaps this heralds a new trend in game design? If so I’m all for it. The first of these games was Age of Conan : The strategy board game , of which I have already written, the second is Supernova – Valley Games sci-fi themed combat game.



Three to five players are alien races escaping a dying sun before it goes Supernova. The board is a set of modular boards that connect to the pre-partum Supernova. Players, starting from the Supernova, take it in turns placing their tiles on hexes out into space. Each player’s tiles represent their control of areas of space. Tiles have to be connected to a previous tile or the Supernova. Out in space are Planets that give you victory points and special powers, Moons that give you VPs and income and encounters that give you random stuff (mainly good, some bad).The more hexes covered at the end of the game the more VPs. You can fortify one of your tiles by placing another tile on top of it. If you are next to an opponent’s tile you can place a tile over it and then you have a battle. The comparative stack height of attacker and defender are compared to give the higher a combat modifier equal to the difference between the two stacks.

Battles are resolved quickly and elegantly by a neat little card playing sequence Attacker plays a card face down, defender does same, repeat to a max of 4 cards each. The Battle cards are in four suits numbered 2 to 5 and for a hand to be valid it must be all of one suit or all different suits there are some power cards in each suit which can mess things around. Highest value of cards (plus modifiers) wins, draws go to the defender. Managing your hand of battle cards is a key skill in the game and because you can attack the same hex or player as many times as you have tiles then there is a considerable amount of bluff and counter bluff in these contests. Plus if you blow too much good stuff in attack then what goes around may come around. If you are the attacker and you win you get a resource unit, which you can spend later of keep as a VP and you put your tile on top of your opponents to signal ownership. So it pays to attack.

Battles tend to be focused around moons and planets as these are the money and VP generators in the game, as the moons move in orbit once each turn it adds to the fluidity of the game and planning required to wrest control of a crucial spot.

Battles are modified by your tech levels, as are the numbers of tiles you get each turn and how many battle cards you can refresh your hand with. The modifiers are simple pluses or minuses and the cost of each new tech is progressively higher. Techs can be bought one a turn (better defence, better attack, more tiles (you get a base of four to lay each turn), more battle cards when you refresh you hand at the beginning of your turn. You can also spend your hard won resource units on more battle cards, Research cards (when played they give you a one off bonus or mess with the Universe).

However, don’t spend all of your ill gotten gains too quickly because you are going to bid for control for two mandatory solar flares and finally the Supernova it self. The Solar flares occurs at the end of the fourth and seventh turn and the Supernova finishes the game on the ninth turn. On the intermediate turns you flip a coin to see if a flare occurs. Flares from the Supernova are nasty he who wins the resource unit blind bid can wipe out enter stacks (2 in the first epoch, then three and finally a whopping five). Now thematically this bit does bother me as if these advanced Alien types can control the flares why are the running away in the first place? Any how, disbelief suspended it is a really tense part of the game as you can see your space empire dismembered in a flash. The other benefit of controlling the flare is that you decide who starts the next turn - a very powerful way of getting in a double turn.

Supernova combines a lot of take that, timing and planning, you can’t turtle and ignore the violent bits but if you are too focused on violence you won’t have the ability to spread your control over the uncontested parts of the board. Like my favourite games (Agricola. Le Havre to name but two) you can’t do everything you want to and how you, and your opponents, prioritise expenditure on techs and cards dictates your strategy.

Supernova could be a relatively quick game (my first four player took three hours) I’d say two hours when up to speed. There is downtime between turns (unless you are getting attacked) but it’s not a major problem. Like Conan, also released very recently, Supernova feels like a Euro/Ameritrash hybrid and as someone who comes from the Euro camp I can say I thoroughly enjoy both of these games.

First Impressions : Age of Conan

I am finding it very difficult to write any thing more than Conan rocks!

Well guessing that does not help prospective buyers much I’ll attempt to pen a few thoughts. I am writing this review after several plays and because a few gamers have requested more info.

It’s a strategy game for 2 - 4 players set in Hyboria - a post Atlantis world imagined by Robert E. Howard. Players are one of the four Kingdom’s whose principal aim is to conquer Hyborian provinces by military or diplomatic means. Military gets you Victory points and ‘intrigue’ or diplomatic conquests gets you income necessary to recruit armies, purchase cards from your Kingdom deck , pay those mercenary heroes to help you out in battle.

The game is split into three ages at the end of an age you get income and VPs for achieving various goals set by a random card draw at the beginning of an age. you also get , new units and can spend money on units, upgrading forts or cards.

Each age lasts as long as it takes Conan to complete four adventures. The adventures length is marked by a row of adventure tokens in three categories. Players bid for control of Conan at the beginning of each of the four adventures(using a set of identical bidding tokens and a strategy card) and on the Conan players turn he can move Conan if he moves him closer to his objective (a province on the map) then he takes an adventure token from the row, if he does not move Conan closer to his destination the adventure token is discarded. Why would he not want to take the token? Because Conan is a bad ass barbarian who can influence the course of battles or cast raid tokens into provinces which cause opponents to lose victory points. Thematically this feels correct, Conan is an anarchic figure who changes the course of history but in game terms timing control of him is crucial. If an adventure comes up which sets Conan beserking at the heart of your empire it can be a terrifying prospect there is , however, a method of speeding his adventure up which can negate his mal influence.

Which gets me on to action selection actions are selected from a pool of seven ‘fate’ dice that players in turn select, take their action then remove the dice from the pool. The dice are re rolled when all seven have been used. The actions are Conan + Court (the Conan player can move conan and put a raid token in province however if a non Conan player selects this they can take an adventure token from the track thus hastening the end of the current adventure. The other actions available are military move armies, do o some fighting or recruit a couple armies, Intrigue lets you move, recruit emissaries who gain you territory and income by diplomatic means. The choice of fate dice can difficult you desperately want to conquer a province t if you leave the last intrigue to the next player he may move make cause one of your hard earned alliances to crumble. The court action allows you to draw cards from an individual Kingdom deck (Heroes, events, things that help) or the common strategy deck which you can play to give a bonus in combats or intrigues.

For combat you roll a dice for every unit you have in a province, you can play a strategy card which might increase the chance of a hit, you add an additional dice if Conan is in the province and you control him and you may use heroes to help you (Kingdom cards that you pay for). Defender does the same, if it's a neutral province it only gets a bonus if Conan is helping the defenders. If you have any sorcery tokens (mainly gained by sacking adventure tokens) you can reroll your dice. To conquer a province you have to win a battle in a series of different terrains with one battle per turn unless you go on a forced march and sack one your units thus making you weaker for the next round of battles. Intrigues are dice rolls but the number of dice is affected by adjacent friendly provinces and emissaries.

How do you win? You get points for military conquest, there are also objectives set at the beginning of each age which is achieved give VPS, and at the end of the game there is a bonus for majority in each adventure token category (which you have probably been sacking to get you gold or sorcery), a bonus for the most money, most killed tokens and cities. You can also try and Crown Conan king of your Kingdom (by claiming a majority in one type of adventure token) which grants you a monopoly on scoring majorities in adventure chits. Oh if you try and Crown him and fail you lose. Instantly.

I have mentioned Kingdom cards they are very slightly different for each kingdom and they come in three types. The first is ‘on-the-table’ these are heroes or armies that you can spend gold onto place on the table and use to help combats, once used they can be refreshed by paying their cost in gold. They are automatically refreshed at the end of an age and by the end of the game you will have amassed a rather potent mix of combat bonuses. The others are ‘instants’ think magic. And the elast are events which you can only play when taking a court action. The Kingdom cards are crucial to speeding up yours campaigns in the middle / end game. There are also artefact cards which give you a strong bonus for an age at the beginning they are dealt randomly , between ages they are bid for by players revealing adventure tokens associated with the artefact (and there by showing other players the strength for the end game bonus). There is a catch up method in that the last player gets a small advantage when bidding for Conan in the following age

My own personal view of this vis a vis War of the Ring is that Conan wins on speed of game (3 hours approx with little down time) and clarity of rules. It might lack in the thematic richness and fidelity of WOTR but I can forgive it for being such an excellent, tight and playable game.

Why do I like it so much? Constant tension as you watch Conan wreak havoc when you don’t control him and trying and take control of him at just the right time. The action selection is great as well - as you really have to balance furthering your own goals versus frustrating other players. It looks a million dollars. There never seems enough time to do what you want to, there are some very difficult choices between going for victory points or infrastructure or using adventure tokens instantly to get you much needed resources rather than saving them for the end game. I also like the fact that player combat builds slowly and becomes crucial for deciding the marginal VPs at the end game.

Our Favourites: Co-Operative Games Special

We're big fans of innovation here at BoardGameGuru, and one area of games that is seeing lots of growth in popularity at the moment is Co-Operative games, and their evil twin, Semi Co-Operative Games.

The clue is of course, in the name, as far as co-operative games go. In games such as Arkham Horror and Pandemic, the games rules dictate a way in which the forces of evil or diseases spread across the land, and the whole set of players work together to overcome this problem.

Taking Arkham Horror as an example, each turn you draw a card which shows how evil will progress this turn; where gates to other dimensions will open which spill out evil monsters , where any monsters will move and many special effects too. These cards, in their presentation of challenges and development of the on-board situation are the heart of the game since they take the place of a human "gamesmaster" (such as those needed for roleplaying games) and allow all players to share the same goals.

In Arkham Horror, the players will socialise, agonise and organise together in a bid to defeat the forces of darkness and prevent the games major enemy, or "Great Old One" from awakening. If they do so, the players will usually have to defeat them in combat, but the odds are so often stacked against them in this final battle most groups try to avoid this if at all possible.

It's an intense and exciting game experience as you and your friends or family will fight monsters, explore dangerous and eccentric locales and ultimately try to win the game. The game is extremely tough, however and don't expect to win first time out.

Co-Operative games like Arkham Horror are excellent for groups who want to avoid the usual confrontational aspects of gaming. Since you are all working together there are myriad opportunities for creative problem solving as a group - meaning that valuable social interaction, one of the major advantages of the board gaming hobby over many other pastimes, is maximised.

In terms of complexity of rules Arkham Horror is far more complicated than Pandemic, but whichever you choose it will provide exciting challenges for your friends and family and they come highly recommended.

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If you are intrigued by what was meant by "evil twin" when I mentioned Semi Co-Operative games, read on.

These games are a relatively recent wrinkle in the gaming world, and are a great example of how modern board games are constantly innovating and improving on themes and mechanics to provide satisfying new opportunities for fun and learning.

The most famous example, some would say originator, of this sub-genre, Shadows Over Camelot, was published as recently as 2005. In this incredible game, you and your friends play the part of the brave knights of the round table, and by using the cards in your hand you stave off the forces of evil and try and complete such quests as the search for the Holy Grail, combat with the Black Knight or rescuing Excalibur from the water.

The difference between this and, for example, Pandemic, is that unlike that game not all the players are necessarily on your side - one of the Knights may be a traitor, secretly hindering your attempts to defeat evil while outwardly working for good.

I stress the word "may" in that last sentence, because it is always possible in any game that there is no traitor at all - and false accusations can be as costly as correct ones can be rewarding.

It's a wonderfully nasty twist to the co-operative game concept and makes for some memorable and frequently hilarious game nights.

For example, this weekend I was involved in a game and because I was certain a traitor was somewhere because various very helpful cards had gone missing, discarded no doubt by the nefarious ne'er-do-well that was hiding in the shadows.

I examined my fellow players' actions closely. In time, I became convinced that one of the other players, Sir Bors, was a traitor. He hadn't done anything obviously wrong, but his demeanour and reactions to the evil events seemed a bit off. I made the accusation that he was a traitor, as is my right - only to find he had been loyal all along! This false accusation meant that I had caused two white swords (the loyal knights' "score") to become black swords (and score for evil instead).

So my false accusation eventually led to the fall of Camelot, as the real traitor was elsewhere in the form of Sir Owain.

The great thing about Shadows Over Camelot is that despite the loss to the evil traitor we all agreed to try again immediately, since each game takes only about an hour and a half at most.

A similar idea has been developed into the tie in game for the new Battlestar Galactica series. In this game the humans are trying to protect themselves from the forces of the Cylons, a race of robots who have managed to create exact replicas of human beings as sleeper agents, who infiltrate the fleet and wreak havoc.

The game depicts this struggle by handing out the loyalty cards at the beginning and the middle of the game so someone who has spent the whole game thinking they were human suddenly changes sides. Of course, this is all secret information, so they are able to choose the right moment to reveal themselves and join their robot pals.

An excellent tie-in for fans of the show, since it captures the feeling of suspicion and desperation that pervades the series' best moments, it is also a fantastic game in its own right, presenting a severe challenge for the human players but with excellent game play for the Cylon agents too.

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If you are interested in these or any other games you read about on this blog, our shop at BoardGameGuru is available for you to purchase them. Feel free to send any queries or requests for tailored game packages to paul@boardgameguru.co.uk

....keep playing!

The BoardGameGuru Team

Added to range : Junta

I last played this game in 1982 and have fond memories of long afternoons playing Junta. I have a copy gathering dust on my games shelf and have only been mildly tempted to get it to the table. However, having heard a table of gamers erupting in laughter every five minutes whilst playing Junta at London on Board i thought it needed to be added to my range (both in the shop and games played). First published in 1978 Junta has been rediscovered by gamers, helped by West End Games giving it a re-vamp in their 3rd edition. What is Junta? it's a long and light hearted political satire of Latin American politics - players take on different roles in the governing Junta of a fictional republic and try to steal as much money from the country as possible. Back stabbings, double crosses and naked greed are the tools required for success. It's a long game , is 'old Skool' but the mixture of humour, diplomacy and tactics has made this classic stand the test of time....and i'm hopeing to get it to the table soon

Our Favourites : Agricola

The theme of Agricola - the need to feed our families and grow the homestead is compelling. In my first few games I found the attraction of developing my farm and feeding my family so strong I did not take much notice of the victory points awarded at the end of the game.

So how does it work? Each player starts with a board on which sits a two wooden rooms and thirteen additional empty plots. Each room of the hut contain contains a member of your family who you will use to take actions on the main boards and turn your small holding into a functioning farm. The main play boards are divided between fixed actions available from the start and spaces for additional actions cards that are turned over as the game progresses. The actions allow you to collect resources, use the resources to improve your farm or home, play occupations and improvements, change turn order and grow your family. Your aim is to gather, build and grow as efficiently as possible so that by the end of the game you have (hopefully) filled the empty plots with fields, pastures, stables, extra rooms for your expanded family and a store of grain, vegetables and live stock.

The game is divided into 14 rounds with 6 harvests (harvest grain, feed family, and breed animals), the first coming after round four and coming progressively faster as the game moves towards its finish. Victory points are awarded at the end of the game. However, feeding your family at each of the six harvests is essential to avoid heavy penalties. A starvation strategy does not work in Agricola – there are almost no actions which will compensate for the minus three points awarded to anyone who has to beg for food. And that is one of the beauties of the game. The victory point conditions steers you towards doing a little of everything. You want to be a pig farmer? Fine but you gain no victory points after your 7th porker. Vegetables your thing? No points after the fourth. Hate vegetables? Minus one point for none. Specialising in one type of food production helps feed your growing family and an efficient farm is a prerequisite to winning but of itself will not win you the game.

The hundreds of Occupation and Minor Improvements cards give the game its breadth and depth. Divided into four decks of varying complexity each deck can be played on its own or mixed with others. The cards really scratch a CCG itch, the combinations available in the fourteen hand cards are, for all practical purposes, limitless. The very thorough play testing is obvious. None of the cards seem broken, powerful cards are difficult to get into play before the end game , and rigid adherence to an opening hand based strategy will require tactical changes as the game progresses.



In my opinion the game scales perfectly from one to five. The solo game is a great way of learning the interactions and intricacies of the cards and reminds me of solving chess problems. I wonder how long it will be before we see a daily Agricola puzzle (“What is the highest possible score you can achieve with an opening hand of….?”). With two or three players it is possible to follow a strategic approach, with four or five Agricola becomes much more tactical.

Upon opening the box for the first time the number of components, cards and the set up of the board can appear overwhelming. Geek users have voted Agricola a Heavy-Medium game, which is true for the game play but not for the rules which are well written. The text on the cards is crystal clear – I have heard very few “how does this work?” questions when playing which is a credit to the designer, and Melissa’s translation. Most of the actions in the game are intuitive and because of the theme are quickly understood by new players. The ‘family’ game (played without Occupations or Minor improvements) is a great introduction to new players and enjoyable in its own right (My wife likes the family game but finds the cards daunting)

The box says half an hour per player and in my experience that has been the case – even with a table of new players who quickly grasp the concept of harvesting fields, feeding the family, building fences and breeding animals The game is less prone to analysis paralysis than most other games of this complexity despite the agonising choices and scarcity of resources available.
As you play more you become aware of other players strategies and play becomes a fine balance between progressing your farmyard, thwarting other players and opportunistic resource grabbing.

Given the random opening card draw the game is well balanced, and this again is a credit to the lengthy play testing process. Some cards are a little stronger than others, some become stronger or weaker depending on the state of the game and some combinations of cards can be very powerful. The luck of the draw tends to even out with very few games solely decided by the strength of the opening hand.


In conclusion I believe Agricola is a masterpiece. It is not perfectly balanced and none of the mechanics are revolutionary, however they just seem to come together to create a perfect gaming experience. I hope that I have managed to convey my passion for the game and that if you are yet to play it you will enjoy it as much as I have

EDIT: I have just soldout of this game - it is being re-printed and is expected back in the shop in April 2009. If you wouldlike to reserve a copy please e-mail me at paul@boardgameguru.co.uk

Our Favourites: BattleLore

BattleLore offers gamers the chance to play anything from a small historical battle between the French and English during the Hundred Years War to a huge, sweeping fantasy battle with magic spells being thrown, deadly creatures like the Giant Spider, and Dwarf or Goblin allies.

It is this ability to customise your favourite battles that make BattleLore so appealing to wargame enthusiasts and fantasy fans alike.

In the box you get two whole armies' worth of plastic miniatures, a big pile of tokens and cards making this a great value package. You also will get a gorgeous map to play on, adaptable to any one of the scenarios included with the game using the landscape pieces, so that your battles can take place in anything from an open plain to dense forest - and all the rules you need to take this scenery into account in your battles are included.

Everyone would rather learn a game by playing it, instead of having to memorise a massive book before they can get it on the table. The mass appeal of BattleLore is assured by its approach to teaching you the game. Your first game will be a battle between two human armies, and as you move through the scenarios provided you will learn all the extra rules for each in turn, making the learning of the rules both fun and easy.

In summary, your turn consists of playing a card to order units, moving those units and then attacking with them. Different units have different skills, strengths and weaknesses and one of the most fun parts of the game is learning to get the most out of your army.

It takes minimal time to set up a battle, and each one will take somewhere between a half hour and an hour, meaning several games can be played in an evening.

Take a look at a game set up and ready to play, below.
From this picture you can see a full game set up (that is to say, one using all the rules). One glance is enough to get you wanting to sit down and play a game or two immediately.

This picture shows two full armies facing off and ready to charge, as well as the order cards, magic spell cards and war councils. It should give a great idea of what to expect when you get started on the BattleLore journey.

All of the forest, river and hill pieces are removable, meaning a landscape can be set up in countless different ways, either by following the setup instructions in the scenario booklet, or by inventing your own epic confrontations.

For further ways to customise your own battles, the makers of BattleLore have released many expansion sets to give you even more allies, enemies and battlefields.


On the back of the board provided with the game is half of a giant board - the other half can come from a friend's copy of BattleLore - but you can always choose to make this Epic experience available to you by instead using a specially released extra board, available here. With the Epic Board setup, you can involve more players in your games, either with three a side using the Field Marshal and Generals variant, or two a side using the "Reluctant Allies" variant. Both of these options introduce a fantastic new team aspect to what is already a fabulous experience. It also includes many new scenarios for use with the larger format.


One of the hardest parts in designing your own battles is picking opposing forces that are different, yet balanced in strength enough to be fair - you can make this a matter of moments with the Call To Arms expansion - in a single box you are given the ability to create literally millions of army configurations, and this means no two battles need ever be the same again! It also contains many suggested battlefields to build for your custom armies to fight over.


Of course, if you find yourself growing tired of the same old units the option is provided to expand your game to include special packs, such as The Scottish Wars, The Hundred Years War, Goblin Marauders and many more - each provides new minatures representing exciting new participants in your epic battles. They also include the cards necessary to make them compatible with your other expansions, like Call To Arms, meaning great units like the Dwarven Cattle Riders can now take part in your own designs as well! These expansions each include new scenarios to play with the new figures, as well as those units in your original copy.

The BattleLore range offers a superb level of choice, customisability and fun for anyone even slightly interested in wargaming, and it is easy to teach, fast to play and has a real "just one more game" factor.

It is one of the true giants of modern gaming, we are proud to stock BattleLore and many of its expansions at great, great prices.

To purchase BattleLore follow this link. Any questions, as always, can be directed to Paul using this link.

...keep playing!

The BoardGameGuru team

N.B. At time of writing, the BattleLore range has recently changed hands, from the original publishers, Days Of Wonder, to Fantasy Flight - the publishers of Arkham Horror, Conan et al., . The means that over the coming months some of the expansions may not be available regularly, but rest assured that embarking on the BattleLore experience will continue to be as rewarding to its legions of fans as it has ever been. Fantasy Flight have a great reputation for the quality of their productions and their support for existing games - these expansions will return soon!

If you loved Ticket to Ride....

Then Jet Set would be a perfect game for you.


What would be your criteria for a perfect board game?

Nice production values? Seamlessly scales between 2 and 6 players? Play time about an hour? Can be used as a ‘gateway’ but isn’t going to have Geek friends turning their noses up? It’s about transportation? Its retail recommended price is 30% lower than comparable games competitors?

Does such a game exist? Well Wattsalpoag’s Essen 2008 offering is very close to fitting the bill. However, only 43 Geeks own it (28/12/08) and it seems to have slipped under the radar as the Jumbo’s and A380’s of other publishers have garnered all the recent attention (if not acclaim) - which is a shame because Jet Set deserves a wider audience.

Wattsalpoag? Who they? Jet Set is the 5th game from this small publisher and designer Kris Gould. Previous efforts such as 'Fruit Fair' and 'Nomads of Arabia' have received praise in British board game quarterly ‘Counter’ but have largely passed by the collective Geek consciousness

The game has been compared to Ticket to Ride Europe ("TTRE") and has some superficial similarities: - the board is a map of Europe with lots of short connections between major cities and the aim of the game is to accumulate the victory points by fulfilling the links specified by destination tickets - they can be short one link hops, or longer routes requiring multiple links. However, unlike TTRE tickets, when claimed, provide income and you can’t claim routes without spending cash. Money in the game is tight- there never seems enough to do build the network you want to and using your cash wisely is the key to winning this game.

How does it play?




Each player starts with 30 Euros, a large number of plastic airplanes in their colour, lots of small plastic markers (they look like tidily winks) and two ‘Final destination tickets’ These are similar to the long routes in Ticket to Ride Europe but with three legs which have to be achieved in the a prescribed order without reusing the same link - Frankfurt to Lisbon via Athens for example.

A number of 1 length destination tickets are laid out on the board in one row, a number of longer length tickets are laid out in another. Next to each row is a draw pile of new cards. Two ‘vacation’ cards are put into each draw pile after a set number of cards (think Pandemic or Alhambra). Each destination ticket has a victory point value which corresponds to the length and difficulty of the route and they range in value between 1 and 7. The Final destination tickets have a value of 10 points. At the end of the game your total accumulated points from destination tickets determines the winner.

Each players turn is pretty simple - first replenish tickets if the number left in the row fall bellows the number of players (with an option to fill the row for a price of 1 Euro) then perform one action. The actions are:-

1)Claim one link between two cities for the cost printed on the link - add a marker in your link to record ownership and add planes for 5 Euros a plane.

2)Secondly, you can claim one of the face up destination tickets that matches a route you have a plane on by returning your plane (or planes in tickets that have multiple links) to your personal supply.

3)Take income (when you claim a destination ticket you put it in front of you and put three markers on it) by taking one marker off of each route you own for 5 Euros (you get two Euros for destination tickets depleted of counters).

4)Put more airplanes on your links-this costs 5 Euros per plane and a progressively more expensive licence fee (2 for one plane 10 for two..). This is the only action that allows putting your planes on multiple links.

5)Place planes on another players link by paying them 5 Euros per plane euros and 5 Euros per plane to the bank

The actions are quite straightforward and play tends to move very quickly after players have worked out how they can best progress towards their Final destination tickets using the available short tickets up for grabs. Play proceeds until two ‘vacation’ cards appear and then end game begins. No more cards can be drawn and players can now play one of their Final destination tickets. The game ends when either all players have played one Final destination cards or five rounds have passed since the first final destination ticket was played. Once you have played your final destination ticket you are out of the game, however every time your turn would have come around you add a plane to your final ticket giving you two points per plane.

Strategy

The early rounds are all about building up income from short links that you hope to use in one of you final destination tickets. As the early links are refreshed then three point tickets become available and whilst they are worth more endgame VP they give you exactly the same income as shorter routes. But because you have to buy more links and place more planes to claim longer routes you slow down your income generation. And income is very important because of the need to be able to populate the links needed for your Final destination. The timing of the vacation cards appearing can be manipulated by refilling the empty spaces in the rows - and it can be disastrous to be caught out by the second vacation card appearing if you are no where near being able to claim your Final destination.

Conclusion

Jet Set fills a comfortable middle ground between gateway and richer geek fare. It’s fun to play, easy on the eye and requires careful planning to win. I hope this is the game that gives Chris Gould and Wattsalpoag the lift off they deserve and look forward to the launch of future games from this exciting publisher.

It's available from the shop for £18.99

This week's new games (18th Feb 2009)

This week sees the release of two eagerly anticipated games;



Firstly, you can now experience the majestic, sweeping tale told by Age Of Conan: The Strategy Boardgame in which you embody the spirit of the legendary warrior, and fight for glory in the time of myths. Its publishers, Fantasy Flight, are famous for the attention to detail shown in their productions, as well as the sheer amount of "bits" you get. Conan is no exception to the rule, bursting at the seams with 168 miniatures, including towers, forts and armies as well as a vast pile of tokens, cards and playing pieces. Some or all of the players may even get to boast the heroic Conan himself as part of your own forces and he is depicted by his own unique, sculpted figure.

Conan is sure to be in high demand, as this release blends the flavour and excitement of the classic stories with the latest in board gaming innovation. It is be available to order now and is expected in stock at BoardGameGuru on Friday 20th February 2008.




Our second new release this week is the beautiful and epic Supernova, coming in a dramatic, gorgeously illustrated package. It features innovative and unique combat as well as technological development and empire expansion in one beautiful package.

With great new innovations and outstanding presentation, this is sure to be a hit. Get your hands on a copy of the new release, Supernova now, by ordering from our website.

With new releases arriving all the time, and the standards of games being raised higher and higher, this is without doubt an incredibly exciting time to be playing board games.

...keep playing!
The BoardGameGuru team.

Gamers Glossary: Eurogames

Eurogame:
Term for a type of game, originating traditionally in Germany or Europe, characterised by simpler, easy to learn rules with shorter game play times and no player elimination. The theme is frequently less dominant in the design than in Ameritrash games and games rely more on strategy and skill than in dice rolling or random factors.
(Classic examples of the Eurogame style are the Ticket To Ride games and Carcassonne)

Gamers Glossary: Theme

Theme:
What a game is about - be it creating the mightiest space empire in Supernova, trading goods in Puerto Rico or waging armed conflict in Conan's home of Hyborea. Without a theme, all games would be abstract, with no stories or events depicted by the mechanics.

Gamers Glossary: Ameritrash

Ameritrash:
A broad, occasionally controversial term for a style of games, traditionally originating in America, that are characterised by detailed rules, a large number of pieces and a dominant theme. The aim of all the rules and pieces is to depict the theme to its best ability offering a deep and often complicated experience.
(examples of Ameritrash games are Arkham Horror and Android)

Gamer's Glossary: Wargames

Wargame:
Any game in which the sole object is to depict a military battle or battles. They can represent scales from single squad battles to whole armies or fleets. Their focus is on combat and fighting, with all other mechanics (such as supply line rules or reinforcements) supporting this aim.
(examples of wargames are BattleLore and Conflict Of Heroes)

Gamers Glossary: "Mechanic" or "Mechanics"

Mechanic:
A particular game process, such as for example card drawing or tile laying, used as part of a larger set of rules. Often these same mechanics are found in many different games.
used as in;
"Supernova boasts an innovative tile laying mechanic"

Gamers Glossary: CCG

CCG:
Abbreviation of Collectible Card Game. A card game in which new cards are frequently released and that you buy packs or trade cards in order to collect as many as possible of the best ones. They also involve several unique mechanics like deck building or dependant powers that only work in combination with other cards. A fairly expensive commitment, there has been a downturn in popularity leading in part to the introduction of Fantasy Flight's LCG series which takes away the random spread of cards in sets and instead provides an almost subscription like approach.

Gamers Glossary: Chrome

Chrome:

1. Originally a term for particularly high quality components, in which the actual production value far exceeds what is necessary for the game to work. Presumably originates from the Automobile Industry in which chrome is often used as additional non-functional decoration.
(example: the "Raptor" pieces in Battlestar Galactica are not involved except to spend as currency, yet they have full individual 3d models included in the game)

2. Recently the term become used for any description of a highly produced games with plenty of high quality pieces with which to play.
(Examples of games with plenty of "Chrome" in this sense are BattleLore, Conan and the king of them all, Twilight Imperium 3)

Gamers Glossary: "Gateway Games"

Gateway Game:
1. An ideal first game for those new to gaming as a hobby.
2. Any game used by gamers to introduce others to the hobby, usually characterised by simplicity of teaching but with many attributes common to other games.
(some examples: Ticket To Ride, Settlers Of Catan, Carcassonne)

Gamers Glossary: Semi Co-Operative Games

Semi Cooperative Game:
A usually brutal variant on co-operative games in which, while most players are acting co-operatively, one or more players are secretly working against the others, as "traitors" or other nefarious folks. These nasty folk win the game by making the others lose. Assigned randomly at the start of the game (usually by a card drawing mechanic), they are hidden - gaining bonuses if they stay anonymous despite their misdeeds, whereas the "loyal" players will gain a bonus if they uncover the traitor.
(examples of these games are Shadows Over Camelot and Battlestar Galactica)

Gamers Glossary: Co-Operative Games

Co-Operative Game:
A game in which all players are working together towards a common goal. In these games, the opposition is the rules of the game itself, usually presenting challenges which must be overcome, or tests the players must face. Winning is, therefore, a team victory.
(examples of excellent co-operative games are Arkham Horror and Pandemic)

Gamers Glossary :"Filler"

Filler:

A game played between, before or after a longer game to fill in time. It will be short to play (typically no more than 30 minutes), not too taxing on the brain with easy to understand rules. Think of them as a sorbet eaten between Lobster Thermidor and Beef Wellington.

They are also characterised by being at the cheaper and lighter end of the gaming price spectrum and being easily portable.

Fillers we like include ‘For Sale’, ‘Money’, ‘Cash ‘n’ Guns’, ‘Incan Gold’ , ‘It’s Alive!’ ‘R-eco' and ‘High Society’.

Gamers Glossary: Hex

Hex, Hexes:

Breaking from the traditional square playing spaces, many games are instead played on fields made up of regular hexagons instead, this approach has extended from the wargames in which it started, into all types of games. They are known as hexes for short.
The advantages of hexes over the traditional squares approach is that there are more moves possible, since there are six sides, and the corners are also used to good effect in the Settlers of Catan series.