A quick look at the games I played at Airecon 2016

Brotherhood of Steam

“I tell you all the time, you will never be able to replace me with a brass and steam contraption.”

~ Maeve Alpin, As Timeless As Stone

A merchant’s job doesn’t consist of simply sitting around and earning money. Sometimes they need to sell their shirt to call for help from others. Sometimes they need to banter and fight for prices. And sometimes they have to swallow their tears and abandon all they have built. If you can overcome these hurdles, earn the trust of people and build up a fortune, then you will be a true master merchant.

That blurb is for the original version ‘Master Merchant’… This is all about assassination and stuff now after it’s re-theme.

Everyone starts the game with the same 2 cards… There are 10 piles of cards laid out on the table.

On your turn you play 2 cards either face down to gain a coin or face up for its ability. One of the two cards you start with gives you the ability to buy a card from the market which goes into your discard pile.

When your hand is empty, you pick up your discard pile into your hand and play 2 cards again…

This continues until a player has either 8 coins or 8 different cards.

It’s not too bad for a game with around 30 cards… It’s deck builder-ish but it’s not a deck builder and the abilities are interesting enough that the game stays exciting.

But there aren’t many and you have your favourites and game to game you may try the same thing.

From the creator of Love Letter, as interesting as that but maybe not as long-lasting.

Four Elements

“Move swift as the Wind and closely-formed as the Wood. Attack like the Fire and be still as the Mountain.”

~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Four Elements is a quick turn based game, packed with action.
There are no dice, no cards and no rule-book. How you take down your opponent is up to you. Will you build a mighty fortress? Will you use strategy to gain an advantage? Can you master the Elements?

This is a very simple game…

You pick an element and you have a load of pieces… Each element is designed and built slightly different, including having a different weight.

You have the main piece called a ‘Lord’ and you flick your pieces around the table trying to knock your opponents Lord off the play area before they knock yours off.

You can try and tactically place your pieces or just group them together and try to make it hard for your opponent to move your pieces out the way.

It’s not all about strength as it appears, you can flick hard but if you’re not accurate or you’re not planning a follow-up move with another piece you’ll probably lose.

The game swings back and forth between needing to defend and needing to attack and a bad shot can suddenly turn the game and put you on the back foot.

It’s a good fun dexterity game.

Jesta ThaRogue