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New Releases - 22nd June 2009 [Jun. 20th, 2009|02:47 pm]
New Releases - 22nd June 2009 )
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New Releases - 15th June 2009 [Jun. 14th, 2009|11:34 am]
Arriving instore this week....


New Releases - 15th June 2009 )
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A Review of Field Commander: Alexander [May. 8th, 2009|06:22 pm]

With a recently released game on my shelves and a bank holiday in which to play it, I thought I would follow up on Kara's example and have a bash at writing a review for it. Ss here is Field Commander: Alexander, a solitaire historical wargame by Dan Verssen Games.





To begin with, a caveat: this was my first venture into counter wargames, and I’m in no way a history buff. However, this second game in the Field Commander line made a very convincing argument to be good addition to my (admittedly rather small) collection of solitaire games, and to me it didn’t disappoint.

First Impressions:

The price increase over the first game, Field Commander: Rommel, is significant but matched by a big increase in production values, which are always a selling point for me. The counters are nice and sturdy, the boards are mounted instead of being paper and the artwork overall is above what I understand as par for a game of this type. The boards do have a tendency to warp a little if left out, but are nicely finished and easily re-flattened when stored, which is definitely preferable to the slowly wearing fold lines and ridges you get on paper boards.

The game itself is a lot simpler and easier to learn than I had first expected, dispelling my impression that counter wargames are impenetrable and alien things, and it plays very fluidly. I got a very nice feeling of narrative as I led Alexander's army across Greece and Persia. The decisions you make seem limited at first, but both they and the small amount of randomisation in the game seemed very important every time they came up. There was a pleasant sense of overall importance and weight to the actions I chose and the choices I made, be it regarding the fulfillment of ancient prophesies (which essentially ‘level up’ your Alexander token) or my selection of battle plans (simply bonuses and die/damage modifiers in a given battle, but which shape the battles immensely). Also, having played the second scenario several times now the randomisation in each campaign also allows for more replayability than I first assumed, and again it is those small changes that seem to make a pleasant impact on the game.

Turn Summary:

Each turn of the game begins with a preparations round. Firstly the turn counter advances to the next month, season or year, slowly reducing the victory points you will receive for emerging victorious and eventually dooming you to (unlikely) failure. Secondly you get to spend gold to refit your troops and bring them back to full strength. Then lastly the enemy gets to work on their own operations against you (reserve troops and penalties that build up until a Go! token is drawn), and their strongholds get a chance to react and fortify themselves, based on a die roll and the position of Alexander’s army in relation to them. A city under imminent threat is more likely to fortify itself, while one at a safe distance will boost its commerce and prestige which you can later benefit from.

The second round is the conquest round, when Alexander’s army can act. First they must scout out the region they are moving into and either pay gold if their army is too large to support with foraging, or suffer damage if it is too small to fend off enemy ambushes (determined by a simple die roll compared to your troop strength). Then you must face any opponents there, battling them or possibly intimidating them into opposition if they are held up in a stronghold. Intimidation is again a simple die roll modified by Alexander’s army size, accumulated glory, and past decisions after conquering an area, while battle is played out on a separate sheet, pitting each troop of a given speed against each other simultaneously with a die roll, and moving down the speed lines in order. Each side gains battle plans, (those bonuses mentioned earlier) based on Alexander’s level and the enemy’s overall troop strength, and battle repeats until one side is victorious or Alexander flees. After that you can choose what to do with the region you’ve won, either razing it to the ground for instant gold or governing it for future income. Then once all of that is done you then get the chance to scout gain and repeat the round, assuming you an pay the cost in gold or troop damage to press on again.

If you don’t move round three begins, which is the re-supply. You gain gold for the troops you’ve defeated that turn and the conquered regions you govern, and can buy new troops and spend ‘glory’ (awarded for winning battles, having Alexander defeat enemy leaders and taking strongholds) to gain new advisors for Alexander (permanent bonuses to the campaign) or insights (powerful benefits for specific situations). Then the turn ends and you start the process again with your newly acquired income and troops.

The other major aspect to the game is the prophesies. These are acquired when you first enter specific regions, and can be taken or ignored as you choose. However, once you accept the prophesy it gives you a task to complete within a given number of turns. Most of these are simple enough, but often require spending resources you may not have or altering your plans for the later game to accommodate it. The benefit for succeeding is big though. Alexander will receive a ‘glorification’ replacing his counter with the next most powerful one, increasing his combat ability, speed and possibly the number of battle plans you can choose for each battle. They also add a lot more of the overt narrative to the game, tying the battles together with an extra level of story/history that I really liked.

My Verdict:

Ultimately this system plays simply and quickly, and I found very little referencing the rulebook was required after the first game. The only exception to this is the random prophesies which are detailed in the book, and a few battle plans that have more complicated effects. Surprisingly for me though I would have liked a bit *more* meat to the game. The campaign level of the planning lacked some of the personal drama of other solo capable games I own, but then I have come from the likes of Arkham Horror, Ghost Stories and Last Frontier: The Vesuvius Incident, which all pile on the grief at a personal level for each character or trooper, rather than at a management level as we get here. There was plenty to keep me entertained though, and it both plays in a reasonable time (between one and two hours), has little setup time and does not take up much table space, making it an easier game to just sit down and play than many other solitaire games I know.

Overall it was a risk buying into a genre that I've never explored before, but this has lived up to my hopes very capably, and the replayability seems high so far. It is also blessed with what are well above average components for a counter wargame, so bonus points there for DVG. If only more wargame companies did this. Overall a very entertaining and easily accessible solo game, whether you consider yourself a wargamer or not

David


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New Releases due to arrive with us on Wednesday 29th April [Apr. 27th, 2009|01:52 pm]

 

New Releases due to arrive with us on Wednesday 29th April (unless otherwise stated): )

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Review: Small World [Apr. 8th, 2009|02:44 pm]

Hello, let me first introduce myself as Kara the new girl. You may have already have spoken to me in shop or on the phone, the boys have been doing a fantastic job of inducting me in to Angus’s boots but they are enormous and its will take us all a lot of time to adjust to his departure. My background is card and boardgames, my current top 10 includes: Agricola, Arkham Horror, Battlestar Galactica, Command & Colours Ancients, Galaxy Trucker, Nexus Ops, Power Grid, Thebes, Through the Ages, Ticket to Ride. So I like to think I am fairly broad in my tastes. After much persuasion from the boys I have also recently tried tabletop role playing, and as future reviews will attest CCGs. Anyway enough about me on to the review.

Small World (Vinci development):
Days of Wonder
2-5 Players

There has been a lot of hype about this game on the geek so I was eager to have a go when this game came into the shop last week. The box is good quality and the art work on the front is up to DoW’s usual high standards. Opening the box the first thing to note is the inspired removable piece organiser and slot secured lid. After recent disappointments of FFG games with there standard inserts its really nice to see a large game company taking the time to make innovations game components and tailoring them to the game. Unfortunately the snugness of the compartments make the pieces ALMOST impossible to get out with out turning the whole box upside down still 10 out of 10 for effort. Anyway onto the game itself:

 Summary
The game allows 2-5 players to control one or a succession of variably powered races each of which has a randomly assigned extra power, in a bid to control a land which is simply too small for peaceful co-existence. Points are scored for each area a players race(s) controls at the end of their turn, additional points maybe scored depending on race or assigned power for completing specific tasks. The player at the end of the specified number of turns wins!

In depth
The game includes two double sided maps which are player number specific balancing the game out for 2,3,4 and 5 players, and giving a different number of rounds to keep the playing time similar across the spectrum too. On there first turn players choose a race from the 6 turned up races each of which has a randomly allocated power. They then get a number of peoples and expand the race from the edge of the board needing two people for each area plus extras I there are other people or difficult terrain in the area. If the have not enough to complete there last expansion they can roll a dice which may allow grant temporary bonus people/s to in the invasion. After invasion they may spread peoples amongst the areas they control. And score points for controlling/conquering or any other race/power specific bonus. A player aid is provided for quick reference although in our first game it was quickly noted not all the rules are included causing some problems. Play then continues round to the next person. At the beginning of a player’s subsequent turns he may choose to expand the race as before or put this race into decline. Putting a race into decline involves him turning his race and power cards over in revealing any additional powers and most cases removing all but one piece from each area. At the end of his turn he still scores one point for each area he controls, but does not gain any of the bonuses on the front of the cards. After a player has put a race into decline on his next turn he chooses a race as on his first turn, usually a player can only support one in decline race, this continues and at the end players reveal there victory points.

So far I have had the privilege of playing the game with 3 and 5 players and felt that less players made in more competitive, whilst with more players it was more interesting as there was more going on and you had to be aware of the bonuses of other races powers. The game mechanics are pretty simple lending itself families with teens and gamers alike. The skill comes with balancing the benefits of keeping a profitable race alive with the benefits of getting a new races on the board and scoring for multiple races. But it isn’t purely a strategists game the 280 different combinations of races and powers means there is certainly scope for replay ability and for multiple successful strategies with the dice also adding a little bit of luck to the mix.

Overall I think this is a good light game which will do DoW well. Good artwork, low entry point and capacity for expansion (new boards and races/powers) and thematic variations means it is on a par with games like Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan.

Kara
 

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New Releases Due To Us On Wednesday 1st April [Mar. 30th, 2009|03:30 pm]

New Releases Due To Us On Wednesday 1st April )</div>
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New Releases - 23rd March 2009 [Mar. 24th, 2009|11:24 am]

Hi all,

 

Below you'll find our latest New Releases list for the coming week.

 

I also wanted to drop a little note to you to let you know that I will be leaving Leisure Games at the end of this week after 23 years either part- or full-time here.

 

I've had a great time here over the years and wanted to thank all of you for supporting the shop. We exist because of you and that's something that none of us here ever take for granted.

 

It's with a lot of sadness that I'm leaving the shop but Mike, Sean, David and Kara (our new staff member) will keep the flags flying and will be at the end of the phone or email to ably assist you.

 

I'm leaving the company to go fulltime with my publishing company - Cubicle 7 Entertainment. Some of you will already have been aware that I've been involved in publishing for a while. Cubicle 7 has now got to a point where we need to dedicate more time to our commitments there and we have managed to acquire the financial support and investment we needed in order to make it a fulltime venture.

 

So many thanks again for all your support and I hope you carry on enjoying this fantastic hobby for many years to come.

 

Best wishes,

 

Angus Abranson

LeisureGames.com Ltd

www.leisuregames.com     shop@leisuregames.com

100 Ballards Lane, London, N3 2DN     Tel: 020 8346 2327

Registered in England - Registration No: 1413732

.



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New Releases - 9th March 2009 [Mar. 16th, 2009|01:52 pm]
Sorry, I just realised that I hadn't updated LJ with last weeks releases. A bit of a hectic week for me as I had just moved so things were up in the air a bit (especailly as I'm also leaving Leisure Games at the end of next week after 23 years! Eek! - But mroe on that for anotehr post..).

Here are the new releases which came out *last* week...

New Releases - 9th March 2009 )

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New Releases - 16th March 2009 [Mar. 16th, 2009|01:49 pm]

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New Releases - 2nd March 2009 [Mar. 2nd, 2009|07:45 pm]

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New Releases - 23rd February 2009 [Feb. 23rd, 2009|08:07 pm]
New Releases - 23rd February 2009 )
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New Releases - 16th February 2009 [Feb. 20th, 2009|07:49 am]

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Battlefront Miniatures buy Wargames Illustrated [Feb. 14th, 2009|02:06 pm]
Battlefront Miniatures - who produce the excellent Flames of War WW2 miniatures game have brought Wargames Illustrated - a long running and market leading British historical miniature wargames magazine.

I've known Duncan (Macfarlane) who founded and editted the magazine for probably the best part of 22 years (he used to work on Miniature Wargames magazine before going his own way and setting up Wargames Illustrated). I was surprised to hear of the announcement, and will miss Duncan's monthly visits to the store as he usually hand delivered our consignments as an excuse to have a look round the shop and pick up a game or two, but I am certainly eager to see what Battlefront bring to the magazine. They will be included some Flames of War content (which apparently will be included in some of the additional pages they will be adding to the mag) but will be carrying on supporting the entrie historical miniatures hobby and all era's therein.

I know some of you are big fans of Flames of War and/or historical minature gaming so thought I'd post the news and the press release for you.

THE PRESS RELEASE )
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New Releases - 9th February 2009 [Feb. 10th, 2009|10:07 pm]

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New Releases - 2nd February 2009 [Feb. 2nd, 2009|07:43 pm]

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(no subject) [Jan. 31st, 2009|03:46 pm]
Here we (David & I) are on the south coast, near Christchurch, Dorset, for Conception 2009. This is the first time Leisure Games has attended Conception, and I must say we have been missing out on a lot of fun.

The venue is ideal, being a holiday village there is a lot of on-site accomodation (although sadly not enough as we booked in too late and we are having to stay in a hotel about 5 minutes drive away), and all the necessary facilities are on hand. The main function room is large enough to accomodate us traders as well as numerous large gaming tables which are constantly hosting a wide variety of games of all types.

From what we have seen the most popular games here so far are: '3:16 Carnage Among the Stars', 'Monsters & Other Childish Things', 'Hellas', 'Wings of War', 'Talisman', 'Monty Python Fluxx' and 'Killer Bunnies'.

I experienced my first game of 'Wings of War', a game which I have been wanting to play for a long time now, and I was not dissappointed. Sadly I could not join in on the 12 player game that the convention's organising club 'Shadow Warriors' put on.

All in all there's a really good atmosphere and everyone I have spoken to is having a great time.

Mike Berry
Leisure Games
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2008's RPG Releases... [Jan. 27th, 2009|11:05 pm]
At the tail end of last year I decided to go through the 2008 releases and see how many new RPG Core books were released.

So below the cut are all the core rules that we received in Leisure Games over the course of 2008...



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New Releases - 26th January 2009 [Jan. 27th, 2009|08:37 pm]


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Leisure Games Website Issues [Jan. 22nd, 2009|04:30 pm]
As some of you may already be aware we are having some major website issues at present.

You can still look at all our stock but the 'Search' mechanic is out of action as is the crucial ability to actualy place orders on line.

We have been trying to fix this since last night but things are not currently looking all that good as it seems our original software has a conflict within it's commands due to a technical fault. This is stopping it's various parts from talking to each other or from allowing us to upload any fixes or refreshes on the site at present.

It is affecting the ability to place any type of order over our site. It is not a security issue and all of our data is secure and not affected by this problem.

As mentioned above we are working on it but it may be out of action for a few more days. In the meantime you can still email us your orders on shop@leisuregames.com or phone them through to us on +44 (0) 20 8346 2327.

Please accept our apologies for this inconvenience. We hope to have this problem resolved as soon as possible.

Angus Abranson
Leisure Games
London, UK
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New Releases - 19th January 2009 [Jan. 19th, 2009|09:20 pm]

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