How I Spent International Tabletop Day!

I can't remember what I did for the very first International Tabletop Day last year so this year I was bound and determined to remedy this.

Wait, what's that you say? You don't know what International Tabletop Day is? Seriously? Um, okay, well, here's event co-creators Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day to explain:

"International TableTop Day is a celebration for all the fans of tabletop gaming. A single day where the whole world is brought together in a common purpose of spending time together and having fun. We hope you find the resources you need — to connect new fans to experienced group organizers, retailers with their community, and publishers with the international community — all in one place."

So this year instead of playing games I spent the entire day at Halifax's new ground zero for tabletop gaming, The Board Room Game Cafe, teaching other people how to play games they'd never played before!

Upon arrival, visitors to the cafe quickly noted all the options in the retail section up front.

In honor of International Tabletop Day, the cafe was offering a 10% discount on any retail purchase. In addition, customers were invited to roll a ten-sided die to try and score up to another 10% off! Not too shabby!

  
The cafe also had a slew of awesome promotional freebies on hand for games such as Munchkin, Gloom, Castle Panic, 7 Wonders, Coup and Killer Bunnies, which were given away to anyone who bought a matching game. As one might expect, many of the images depicted on these l'il tchotchkes bore a hauntingly-Wheatonian vibe.  

It didn't take long before the cafe was a-hoppin' with happy and enthusiastic gamers! Keen to facilitate some revelatory experiences, I quickly hurled myself into the fray.

The first game I taught was Toc Toc Woodman, recently re-branded with the considerably- less-Engrish sounding name Click Clack Lumberjack. Before the game came to our shores here in North America it sold a whopping ten-thousand copies in its native Korea.

So how does it work? Well, players construct a plastic tree made up of a base and several stacked "rings" composed of four interlocking brown "bark" pieces surrounding the white "core". As environmentally-conscious lumberjacks, players take turns taking two whacks apiece at said tree with a bitchin' plastic axe, trying to knock the "bark" off without dislodging the "core".

And, yes, I know that stripping the bark off of a tree is tantamount to criminal deforestation, just suspend your disbelief for a second and work with me here, a'ight?

As soon as the tree has been stripped bare, players tally up their score, netting +1 point for every bark piece and a -5 penalty for every core piece. The player with the most points wins, d'uh!

Although this one tends to evoke shades of Jenga, Toc Toc Woodman / Click Clack Lumberjack has one distinct advantage over its venerable rival. In Jenga, when the tower falls over, everyone goes "AWWWWW!!!!" in a communal expression of abject surprise and / or sadness and then they proceed to berate the loser who's fuck up ended all the GOOD TIMES.

But since you keep playing Click Clack Lumberjack until all the bark has been sheared off the tree, all the players are in it to win it up until the bitter end. Now you can pontificate all you want about how titles like this are more activity then board game, but, hey, who cares? Technically it is a game, since there's clearly a winner and you can play it on top of a table, so let's not bandy semantics here!

Besides, I've seen a group of eight people play this and act as if they were watching an Olympic Gold Medal hockey game! If that's not a sure sign of an entertaining game, I don't know what is! 
  
Next up I taught King of Tokyo to three players who had a victory-point grabbin', opponent-bashin' ball with it. This one always goes over like gang-busters. Hmmmm, maybe I should finally break down and pick up one of the expansions for this one. Whattya think, people? Yea or nay?

Then I helped a table of five get into a game of Alhambra.

In this one, players attempt to construct the most spectacular palace / fortress complex and, in the process, show up their opponents. Three times during the game a scoring card randomly appears, giving players a victory point reward for having the majority of buildings in six different colors. The first scoring round only rewards the player in first place while subsequent cards dole out points for  second and third place finishers respectively. Players also score one point for every continuous wall segment surrounding their Alhambra.

The economic heart of the game is the Building Market which randomizes what structures are up for sale, how much they cost and what currency is used to buy them. If a player pays exact change for one of these new acquisitions, they'll earn themselves a free turn. Wise architects will soon realize that chaining several actions togehter is the key to victory.

I love Alhambra! I think my enthusiasm for the game was contagious since the five experienced gamers I taught this to really seemed to groove on it. What's really interesting is how different the game plays with three players versus five. With a smaller group, it's pretty easy to make plans and still have what you need to follow through when your turn comes around. Naturally, when you add more bodies to the mix, there's a pretty good chance that someone else will snap up something you need, forcing you to think on your feet.

If you're a fan of introductory, gateway-style Euros like Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne, then you owe it to yourself to try this one out. Hopefully I'll be able to do a full review of this one some time in the near future.    
    
Next up was Jaipur, which I've already talked about in my last Hal-Con post. 

Although there are a lot of multi-player games that can be scaled down for a smaller group of people, I always try to recommend a game specifically designed for two players if it's just a couple. Not only that, but a lot of games meant for larger groups often require rule tweaks in order to work for two players and sometimes this can cause unnecessary confusion.

Jaipur is definitely one of the better two-player games out there.  Since you can only take one action per turn (either take cards or sell cards), it ensures that the game moves along at a fast clip. Despite being limited to only one of two actions, there are so many variables and strategies involved in those two choices, the game becomes deceptively strategic.

I know I've made a good recommendation for a couple when they don't need to ask me for another. That happens so often with Jaipur; when people first encounter it, they get lost and play it over and over again for hours on end! 

Next up I helped another couple get into a game of Castle Panic. In this co-operative, fantasy-themed tower defense game, players work together to try and hold off an endless wave of marauding monsters before they break through your castle walls and ransack your shit.

This is another game that I wanted to rush out and buy just as soon as I saw it featured on Tabletop. In retrospect, I'm kind of glad that cooler heads prevailed. By all accounts, Castle Panic is a fun little game but I've been told that it can wear out its welcome pretty quick. Even after you crank up the difficulty with the "More Panic" rule, some folks maintain that it's still pretty "solvable". Personally, I'm gonna reserve final judgement on this one until until I actually play it.

The couple who tried it at the cafe that day seemed to dig it, even though they were a bit perplexed by the subtleties of monster movement once they breached the outer castle walls. Fortunately they flagged me down while I was running around like a decapitated chicken and once I clarified that the monsters treat the inner towers exactly like they treat the outer walls, they went on to finish the game in abject defeat.  MUH, HA-HA-HA-HA-*HURK*! *cough, cough*   

Sorry, but if you beat a co-operative game on your first try, then it probably wasn't taught to you properly!

When another couple asked me for a good two-player game I got my chance to recommend one of my all-time favorites: Kulami:  

This one is a no-brainer for two peoples. It's beautiful, there's plenty of strategy and the game has three, count 'em, three rules. And here they are:

"In turns, players place their marbles in the empty holes in the board. The first marble can be placed anywhere on the board.  From there on, players must respect the following three rules when placing their marbles:

1. "The marble must be placed either horizontally or vertically in relation to the marble that the opponent has just played.
2. "The marble cannot be played on the same tile on which the opponent has just played their marble.
3. "The marble cannot be played on the same tile where the player placed their previous marble."

Th-th-that's all, folks!  Seriously, this is another perfect match for two players. The constantly changing board, the game's intrinsic aesthetic appeal and the ability to curtail your opponent's moves via clever marble placement all adds up to a winner. This one is definitely on my own personal must-buy list.

I also had a chance to introduce the concept of co-operatives games via the classic Pandemic.   

Every time I EXPOSE more PATIENT ZEROS to this game they always have a FEVERISHLY good time. Hah! SeewhutIdidthur?  *Ahem*...i hate myself.

Next up, I noticed that another couple had selected Citadels to play while my back was turned.

Here's the skinny on this one straight from Board Game Geek:

"In Citadels, players take on new roles each round to represent characters they hire in order to help them acquire gold and erect buildings. The game ends at the close of a round in which a player erects her eighth building. Players then tally their points, and the player with the highest score wins.

"Players start with a number of building cards in their hand; buildings come in five colors, with the purple buildings typically having a special ability and the other colored buildings providing a benefit when you play particular characters. At the start of each round, the player who was king the previous round discards one of the eight character cards at random, chooses one, then passes the cards to the next player, etc. until each player has secretly chosen a character. Each character has a special ability, and the usefulness of any character depends upon your situation, and that of your opponents. The characters then carry out their actions in numerical order: the assassin eliminating another character for the round, the thief stealing all gold from another character, the wizard swapping building cards with another player, the warlord optionally destroys a building in play, and so on.

"On a turn, a player earns two or more gold (or draws two building cards then discards one), then optionally constructs one building (or up to three if playing the architect this round). Buildings cost gold equal to the number of symbols on them, and each building is worth a certain number of points. In addition to points from buildings, at the end of the game a player scores bonus points for having eight buildings or buildings of all five colors."

 
Remember before how I said that I'd prefer to teach a game specifically designed for two people?  And remember how I said that it's a colossal pain in the ass to have to alter the rules of a game in order to get it to work for a duo? Well, while generally that is true, there are a few notable exceptions.

Yes, I'd would have preferred to teach Citadels to a group of four to six players (with the mandatory "Seven District" rule firmly established), but I certainly wasn't about to tell these two fresh-faced kids to pack it all up and put it away. Mainly because I've always wanted to test the assertion that this one actually plays really well with only two people. 

And sure enough, as soon as I explained how the characters are distributed amongst two players (which essentially involves randomly eliminating one and putting three more off to the side) they really seemed to get into it.

Next up, two guys wanted to play a game which involved hucking a mittful of dice, so I quickly busted out Quarriors.

Essentially, Quarriors is two generations removed from Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games. With CCG's, players can spend hours on the sidelines combining cards together in order to create the perfect killer decks, which they then pit against an opponent in-game.

Then Donald X. Vaccarino had the brilliant idea of 'Hey, what if designing your deck was the actually goal of the game itself?' And with that, Dominion was born. Now, Dominion is great and all but as a completely original game it's essentially just a mechanic. Needless to say it didn't take very long before titles such as Thunderstone and A Few Acres of Snow came along and successfully married this new genre to an appropriate theme.     

So, based on the theory of (game) evolution, Eric M. Lang eventually came along and said "Hmmmm, people love rolling dice and we've already had collectible dice games in the past....I wonder what would happen if I came up with a dice building game." And, yea, with that, THE LANG brought forth Quarriors into existence and He saw that it was good.

Here are a few less-esoteric details about the game:

"Players take on the roles of Quarriors - mighty mystical warriors who have the power to capture dangerous quarry from the untamed Wilds! They must conjure the mysterious powers of Quiddity, cast powerful spells, and summon their creatures to battle if they hope to overcome rivals and earn their rightful place as the Champion!

"Quarriors has the frenetic excitement of a dice battle game, with an added ‘deckbuilding’ twist: players customize their dice pools during the game using resources generated by their rolls.

"Quarriors takes the best of deckbuilding games without the tedium of shuffling. Take a typical deckbuilding game, add the speed and fun of dice and in 60 minutes you’re on your second or third game trying unique strategies against your opponents."

The two players who I taught the game to that day also were quickly to pick up on it's intrinsic appeal. In fact, instead of typing this right now, I'd probably be buying a copy of Quarriors if not for the fact that a Marvel-themed spin on the game is due to land sometime around the end of April. I'll be play-testing and reviewing that puppy as soon as I can lay my hot little mitts on it! 

Next up, friends of the cafe Darren and Heather stopped by after spending the better part of their day at the official Halifax Tabletop Day event over at my old alma mater Saint Mary's. Knowing that these guys are totally hard-core (after all, they'd already been gaming for approximately eight hours by that point!), I really wanted to wow them with something new.

The hotness that I decided to spring on them was Splendor! 

Here's the game's elevator pitch, nicely summarized on da Geek:

"Splendor is a fast-paced and addictive game of chip-collecting and card development. Players are merchants of the Renaissance trying to buy gem mines, means of transportation, shops — all in order to acquire the most prestige points. If you're wealthy enough, you might even receive a visit from a noble at some point, which of course will further increase your prestige.

"On your turn, you may (1) collect chips (gems), or (2) buy and build a card, or (3) reserve one card. If you collect chips, you take either three different kinds of chips or two chips of the same kind. If you buy a card, you pay its price in chips and add it to your playing area. To reserve a card — in order to make sure you get it, or, why not, your opponents don't get it — you place it in front of you face down for later building; this costs you a round, but you also get gold in the form of a joker chip, which you can use as any gem.

"All of the cards you buy increase your wealth as they give you a permanent gem bonus for later buys; some of the cards also give you prestige points. In order to win the game, you must reach 15 prestige points before your opponents do."

This one passed the most important test: Darren and Heather really seemed taken by it! I'll even go one further and say that Splendor is another must-buy for me. As soon as I can figure out a legal means of procurement, of course.  

In a completely unrelated side note, feel free to test out that hand-dandy l'il "Donate" button in the upper right hand corner of the page! Believe me when I tell you that the money will definitely go to a good place!   

Above and beyond Splendor's incredible components (I guarantee that the Gem Tokens will make you feel like a Vegas-style high-roller), what I like most about this one is the game's accelerating momentum. As you acquire those lower Level cards, the Gems begin to stack, allowing you to build more advanced structures, attract Nobles and score those invaluable Prestige Points which are required to win. Once things get going, the pace of the game begins to snowball, leading to a frantic climax.

And yes, I'm still talking about a board game, ya big pervs.

In addition to all of the promotional swag photographed above, the Board Room also received a metric shit-ton of free games from publishers, which were given out as door prizes to patrons every hour on the hour. Here, cafe manager Jon-Paul Decosse and the lovely Hunter are shown giving away a sweet free copy of 7 Wonders to one lucky (and apparently quite bashful) customer!

By then the cafe was packed to capacity. It did my heart good to see so many people come out for what's already become an annual global tradition. Everywhere I looked there were smiling faces and people who were interacting with one another, trash talking and generally having a blast.

Whoever said that young people aren't happy unless they have their face buried in a phone / tablet / computer screen need only visit a place like this to see that this simply isn't true. In fact, quite the opposite: since so many twenty / thirty / forty-somethings spend their school or work-weeks staring at computer screens, they really appreciate diversions like this in order to give their lives some equilibrium.

By then it was getting late and my appointed time of departure was drawing nigh. I had just enough time to teach a few more games to the uninitiated, the first of which was Hey, That's My Fish!
 

Here's another environmentally-conscious title: players randomly construct an ice floe which is rapidly sinking into the sea. On the flip-side of every hex tile is a symbol depicting one, two or three fish. Players then alternate placing their penguins on any space containing a single fish symbol.

On their turn, players can move one of their penguin figures in any direction in a straight line, stopping anywhere along their path. In doing so they can't leave the ice floe, jump over other penguins or leap over holes in the ice. Whenever a penguin is picked up to move, the owner claims the tile that their figure was sitting on.  

So, naturally, the goal of the game is to set yourself up for big catches and eke out more endgame moves then your opponents. The winner is the player who catches the most fish! 

I actually took this one home with me over Christmas and everyone I played it with really loved it. It's a nice, fluffy, quick, light little game that serves as a perfect filler / icebreaker. Despite its cutesy curb appeal, it's a deceptively deep little brain burner at times. Also: bonus points to Fantasy Flight for making four different penguin figure sculpts!

Last but certainly not least, I had a chance to teach Survive: Escape from Atlantis to these three enthusiastic participants. According to the all-smiles testimony in this photo, not only did their friendships remain intact, they also really enjoyed the game!

Sure, it would have been great to actually play games that day, but in many ways, it was infinitely more rewarding to preside over dozens of gaming epiphanies! I like to think that I was responsible for more then a few revelatory experiences that day and hopefully I introduced a lot of folks to their new favorite board game!

***

Wanna make every day International Tabletop Day? Then click on the following links to learn more about the games featured in this entry and help support this blog!

The Wheaton Effect Part Six: "King of Tokyo"

Although my first exposure to King of Tokyo was actually Davecon 2012, I really didn't feel compelled to buy the game until Wil Wheaton and his cohorts featured it on Tabletop:

I can definitely relate to Wil's preamble about seeing his first Kaiju film on T.V. in the late Seventies as a kid and becoming completely bespelled by it.  For me, whenever I saw a photo of Godzilla in a book or a magazine, I was instantly mesmerized.  Let's face it: the image of a three-hundred foot tall, fire-breathing giant lizard stomping a major metropolitan city into a mudhole is nothing short of kid catnip.  

Over the years several game designers have given us their take on the classic monster mash with decidedly mixed results.  In 1979 Greg Costikyan brought us The Creature that Ate Sheboygan, an olde-skool wargamey approach to the subject which came complete with cardboard chits and an honest-to goodness Combat Results Table.  Despite showing its considerable age, I still maintain that an updated reprint of this game has the best chance to pay homage to its rubber-suited inspirations.

When Avalon Hill was in its death throes in 1998, J. C. Connors and Ben Knight offered up the low-fi, eleventh-hour die-chucker Monsters Ravage America.  Seven years later, Hasbro decided to blow the dust off this defunct title by repackaging it as Monsters Menace America.  While doing their usual awesome job on the production side of things, Hasbro didn't go far enough when they revamped the rules.  Even though the city destruction / army battling phase of the game is fun, the clunky and arbitrary conclusion left a lot of players cold.  

Then, in 2011, fans rejoiced when Toy Vault announced that the Big "G" himself would get the full board game treatment in Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars.  Even better, the game would be designed by Richard H. Berg, who gave us such grognardian classics as Blackbeard and Terrible Swift Sword.  Unfortunately Toy Vault must have spent their entire production budget on the stellar miniatures, because the rest of the components were either slapdash or impractical and the paper pamphlet rulebook (which looks like it was reproduced on an 80's-era library photocopier) was Beta-level at best.

Fortunately, that very same year, the vastly superior King of Tokyo reared its scaly head.  The brainchild of Magic: The Gathering designer and Wizard of the Coast demi-god Richard Garfield, the game played out like a fusion between Zombie Dice, collectible card games and that playground favorite "king-of-the-hill".  Unlike its predecessors, King of Tokyo completely eschews simulation in lieu of an all-out, main-in-suit monster brawl.  The game's fanciful and humorous graphic design only adds to its charm.

Here's an un-dubbed synopsis of the game from Iello's website:

"Slap around your enemies and become the King of Tokyo!

"Play mutant monsters, gigantic robots and other monstrous creatures, joyfully whack your opponents, rampage the city and become the one and only King of Tokyo!

"Combine your dice to gather energy, heal your monster or just slap others.  Spend your energy to trigger permanent or one-shot special powers: second head, body armor, nova death ray...

"Stop at nothing to become the King of Tokyo... but that’s when the real trouble begins for you!

"Rules Review:

"At your turn, you get three successive throws after each of which you choose whether to keep or discard each of the six special dice.  Your final combination will enable you to win destruction points, hoard energy, restore your health or whack other players into understanding Tokyo is your territory.

"The fiercest player will be crowned King of Tokyo... and will end up facing all the other monsters alone until he wins the game, gets whacked out of the game or decides to let another player take over the city.

"Top this off with special cards purchased with energy and granting a permanent or temporary power, and you hold one of the most explosive and fun games ever!

"In order to win the game, one must either destroy Tokyo by accumulating 20 destruction points or... be the only surviving monster !"        

Still looking for the game's full weigh-in?  Then pound on the following link to get the full tale of the tape!

***

King of Tokyo plays so fast n' smooth that we managed to get four games of it in on the very same night we played Love Letter.  Here's how those games went down:

GAME ONE

THE MONSTERS

Chad...Meka Dragon

Me...Gigazaur

Jeremy...Cyber Bunny

First player Chad managed to score an Attack result, giving Meka Dragon the right to lumber into Tokyo. After scoring a metric shit-ton of Energy, Chad augmented ol' M.D. with Camouflage, giving him the opportunity to shirk one point of damage for every Healing result rolled.  As Gigazaur I tried to focus on what would win me the game, scoring four Victory Points and delivering a sneaky cheap shot to Meka Dragon in the process.

After rolling four different die results on his first toss, Jeremy decided to specialize in Chad-damage, three points of which managed to sneak past Meka Dragon's Camouflage.  He also stockpiled three Energy for later use.  Gigazaur then piled on, knocking Meka Dragon down by three more points.  Chad managed to roll one Heart in response, but his scaly avatar still took two points of damage.  That same round I also hauled in three Victory Points and one Energy Cube.

Weary of getting picked on, Meka Dragon scored three Victory Points and then delivered a single point, Three Stooges-style communal slap to both of his rivals.  Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.  Cyber Bunny responded by netting five big Victory Points on an avalanche of "2's" and then thwacked Meka Dragon for another point.

In stark contrast, I only ended up with a single Victory Point and a paltry pair of Energy Cubes on my next turn.  I promptly exchanged the latter for the "Complete Destruction" card, which would give me nine Victory Points if I could pull off a full house of die results.  

Chad continued to invest heavily in cards, acquiring the powerful "Freeze Time" ability.  After rolling triple "1's" on his very first try, Chad activated the card's ability and played out a bonus turn with one fewer die.  By the time the dust settled he'd scored one Victory Point, collected three more Energy Cubes, further augmented his monster with "Parasitic Tentacles", and then bitched slapped both of us for two points of damage!  

Meanwhile, Jeremy's Cyber Bunny got stuck with a crappy pair of "2's" and "3's".  All he managed to do that turn was stockpile two Energy cubes.  After rolling a "1", a "2", a Heal, an Energy and an Attack on my very first throw, I felt downright obligated to go for "Complete Destruction".  After all, if I could just roll a "3" on two attempts, I'd walk away with nine big Victory Points!  Unfortunately, I ended up rolling two Energy. Even with such a scattered final result I still Healed one point, collected one Energy and, most importantly, dealt one damage to Meka Dragon!

Still clinging doggedly to Tokyo, Chad managed to "Freeze Time" again for a bonus turn.  In the end, he waltzed away with three Victory Points and also managed to double clothesline Cyber Bunny and Gigazaur in the process.  Jeremy tried to return the favor but Meka Dragon went all Camo on him.  He ended his turn with one more Energy Cube and three Victory Points. 

I kept adding to my Victory Point total by conjuring up four "3's".  Gigazaur then lashed back at Meka Dragon but the big dumb jerk was still cloaked so my single strike hit nothing but air.  I also made sure to apply a badly-needed point of Healing.  Hey, even giant monsters need a siesta once and awhile!

For the third time in a row, Chad pulled off "Freeze Time", netting two Energy Cubes and one Victory Point on his first go-round and then dishing out three points of communal hurt on his bonus turn!   Determined to polish off Meka Dragon and claim Tokyo for his own, Jeremy diced up three damage in response.

We all watched intently as Chad rolled his Camouflage die, but he could only conjure up a single Heart.  Like an infinitely cuter sumo wrestler, Cyber Bunny hurled Meka Dragon out of city limits, where the beast crashed to the ground, dead as disco.  

On the first die throw of my turn I rolled a "1", a "2", a "3", a Heal and an Attack.  Currently sitting pretty with 11 Victory Points, I just couldn't resist the siren call that is "Complete Destruction".  Again, the entire table was rapt as I tossed the die once again, scoring an Energy, fulfilling the cards requirements and winning with 20 Victory Points!  

           

Winner: Me!  

Without even setting foot in Tokyo no less!

GAME TWO

THE MONSTERS

Chad...The King

Me...Gigazaur

Jeremy...Cyber Bunny

After three rounds of rolling I was left with four "3's", a Heal and an Attack.  Even though I couldn't use the Heart, I did end up with four Victory Points and Godz...er, Gigazaur picked up a bus, threw it back down then waded through the buildings towards the center of town.  I'm in Tokyo, bitches!    

The King, clearly incensed that his turf had just been usurped, came flying into the Ginza district, delivering a four-damage double axe handle to Gigazaur and scoring two Energy in the process.  In the face of such vicious fury, I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and surrendered the city to the giant, brain-damaged ape.  Meanwhile, Jeremy quietly worked on his Victory Points, scoring three "3's" in quick succession. He decided to celebrate by firing a few rockets into The King's homely mush, scoring two points of damage!

Clearly still woozy from that last assault, I got stuck with a pair of  "2's", leaving me stranded.  I decided to take out my frustrations on The King, delivering a solid claw-rake for two points of damage!  Unfazed, The King gathered up four Energy and then performed a spinning fist attack, dealing a point of damage to each of his rivals.  Chad then used his Energy cubes to pimp out the King with "Alien Metabolism", giving him a sweet price break on new cards.  He immediately used this ability to buy "Omnivore", which would give him a bonus Victory Point every time he rolled a straight of "1", "2" and "3"! 

Smelling blood (or rather, detecting blood via a complex network of sensors), Cyber Bunny pounced, drop-kicking Meka Dragon clear out of town.  Before taking his place as the new champeen, Jeremy also collected two Energy and a single point of Healing.  He was gonna need it.  After rolling two "3's" and a crummy "1", Gigazaur grabbed Cyber Bunny by his adorable metal ears and promptly made a wish.  Despite the three points of pain, Jeremy decided to stand his ground.  

The King wisely spent a turn licking his considerable wounds by applying two Healing dice and then collecting 3 Victory Points.  Even in traction, he still couldn't resist the temptation to fling his feces at Cyber Bunny for a single point of damage.  After wiping the Suzuki Fit-sized chunk of poop out of his ocular display, Cyber Bunny concentrated on making the most of his stay in Tokyo.  He collected three Victory Points on four "2's" and also picked up a single Energy cube.

I finally had a decent round, scoring three Victory Points on as many dice.  I also summoned a point of Healing and one Energy, building up for the perfect time to strike.  The King has no such restraint.  After compiling three Energy and one Healing he waded back into the fray, and then man...er...monkey-handled Cyber Bunny for two points of damage.  Jeremy held fast, collecting two Victory Points for holding Tokyo for a round and earning four new Energy cubes in the process.  He spent this little windfall on a "Giant Brain" for Cyber Bunny, which would give him a highly-prized free re-roll every turn!  

After regenerating one damage with a Heal die, I also decided to get my claws dirty, kicking Cyber Bunny right in the metallic junk for three points of damage!  To my surprise and consternation, Jeremy surrendered Tokyo and I suddenly found myself right in the eye of the storm.  Not particularly choosy about who to pound on, The King lashed out at Gigazaur with a mean single-point left hook.  He also Healed a point of damage, collected four Energy cubes and then  purchased "Alpha Monster", which would give him a bonus  Victory Point every time he attacked.  Yikes!  

Using Cyber Bunny's newly-acquired "Giant Brain", Jeremy orchestrated two points of Healing, a new Energy Cube and three Victory Points!  As a reward for fending off all challengers in Tokyo, I scored two Victory Points at the start of the round.  Despite stranding a single Healing die, I managed to rake in four Energy cubes and lash out at my opponents, dealing a point of damage to each of them.  I then spent four cubes to purchase and then play "Commuter Train" for two more Victory Points!  

After Chad fortified The King with two more Healing dice, the giant ape clipped Gigazaur right in the pie-hole for a point of damage.  Even though it wasn't a powerful hit, I was in really bad shape and I certainly didn't want to stick around for Jeremy's turn.  Ergo, I ran away with my spiky tail tucked between my legs. For performing an attack as the "Alpha Monster", Chad also bagged a single free bonus Victory Point!

Jeremy conjured up two Heart symbols for some Healing and three Energy cubes but couldn't do anything with a stray "2".  He re-rolled one of his Energy results and got a Claw, which delivered an inadvertent yet welcome eye-gouge on The King!  Seeing how close Chad was to victory, I really wanted to roll a slew of Claws, but it just wasn't to be.  After three rounds of rolling I ended up with two "3's", a "2" and three Hearts.  Healing definitely wasn't going to stave off the inevitable!  

As we feared, The King got exactly what he needed on his next turn: three "3's" a "2" and a "1".  Not only did the triples give him three Victory Points, Chad also had everything he needed to fulfill the requirements of "Omnivore" for two more Victory Points.  Chad then capped his win with a flourish: buying and playing "Tanks".  In spite of the three damage delivered by this heavy armor, Chad banked four more Victory Points for the win!     

Winner: Chad!

GAME THREE

THE MONSTERS

Andrew...Alienoid

Me...Gigazaur

Mac...Cyber Bunny

     

Because of Mac's crazed blood-lust, this one was almost over as soon as it started.  In an omen of things to come, I ended up moving into Tokyo on a wretchedly horrible roll of one "3", two "2's" and 3 Claws. Andrew came out of the gate rather well, scoring four "3's" a single Energy cube and a stray "2".  Meanwhile, Mac began his reign of terror by dicing up one Energy, three "3's" and two Attack results.  This was my first bloody nose among many.

The lethality continued as I busted out two Energy and three Attacks, which did little to endear me to my table-mates.  Andrew's Alienoid actually took the high road, rolling two "3's", a single "2" and 3 Energy. Mac, obsessed with bringin' tha' pain, nailed me again for a single point of damage.  In retrospect, I should have bolted right there and then, but I had idea what was coming next.  Clearly disappointed by the distinct lack of carnage thus far, Mac parleyed the three Energy he'd acquired that round into "High Altitude Bombing", which dealt three damage to every monster, including his own.  Sweet Jezum crow!

Undeterred by superfluous crap like strategy or common sense, I diced up three Energy and three Damage for Gigazaur.  In the face of Mac's withering rage, Andrew was reduced to an almost benign presence, rolling two "3's", plus one each of Energy, Attack and Healing.  With only a single Life Point left, I was a prime target for a finishing move from Mac.  After acquiring three "1's" and two Hearts for himself, he then polished me off with three points of damage.  With that, the mighty Gigazaur was felled, leaving the city vacant for a triumphant Cyber Bunny.  

But his victory would be short-lived.  On Andrew's turn, his monster decided to chow down on a Gas Refinery.  After the facility detonated and destroyed the better part of Tokyo, only the Alienoid could be seen lumbering away from the wreckage! 

Winner: Andrew!

GAME FOUR

THE MONSTERS

Andrew...Alienoid

Me...Gigazaur

Mac...Cyber Bunny

      

Cyber Bunny took the initiative, netting three energy and then stomping into the heart of Tokyo via two Attack dice.  Still bitter about last game, Gigazaur chomped down on C.B.'s metallic extremities (?) for three damage whilst scoring a single Energy cube.  Reigning champion the Alienoid decided to add to the chaos, building up one Energy cube and then blasting Cyber Bunny right in the back of the dome for three more points of damage!  Nasty! 

Doggedly clinging to Tokyo, Cyber Bunny struck back, dealing out three damage to the interlopers while nudging his Energy reserves up by one.  Taking Mac's bait, I kept pummeling away with Gigazaur, gnawing on the Bunny's elbow for three more damage.  Andrew, perfectly content to sit back and watch the two of us beat the tar out of each other, calmly stockpiled five Victory Points on five rolls of "3".

Fighting like a cornered badger, Cyber Bunny performed a 360° fire spread, blasting both the Alienoid and Gigazaur for three points of damage.  I responded by accumulating two Hearts and two Energy and then swinging back with single claw strike.  Half-dead, Mac was finally forced to relinquish Tokyo to me.  My reign didn't last very long, however, as the Alienoid built up three Energy and then sniped me from behind for a single point.  Knowing that I was unlikely to survive another full assault from Mac, I crawled out of Tokyo, yielding the city to the Andrewenoid/Aliendrew. 

His red rage exhausted, Mac spent his next turn building up three Energy and Healing one point of damage. After earning two Victory points on three "2's", I rolled one each of Energy, Healing and Attack.  That single errant strike was enough to dislodge Andrew and I suddenly found myself back atop the heap.  Andrew, conspicuously docile that turn, opted for one Energy, two Hearts and three Victory Points instead of attacking.  

In an attempt to string together a bunch of "2's", Mac tried to use Cyber Bunny's newfound "Stretchy" ability
but Andrew forced him to re-roll one die via "Psychic Probe".  The resulting Heart negated any Victory Points but it did earn him a point of Healing.  Andrew proved to be just as annoying during my turn by negating a Claw.  Mercifully, I still finished up with four Victory Points and two Energy, the later of which I traded in for the defensively-minded "Wings".  This acquisition immediately proved fruitful after I avoided two points of damage on Andrew's turn by burning two Energy.

This led to a bit of a debate.  I assumed that I needed to spend two Energy every time I wanted to use my "Wings", but both Mac and Andrew thought that I could only activate them on my own turn.  In other words, they believed that by paying two Energy on my turn I'd be insulated from harm until my next turn.  Although this sounded a tad overpowered to me, I accepted the consensus.  

So desperate was he to heal, Mac actually altered one of his Claw results to a Heart.  Still playing the trickster, Andrew forced him to re-roll, so Mac ended up with three Victory Points, a single "2", one Energy and a lone Heart.  My dice next turn were equally schizophrenic: two Energy, one Claw, a "2" , a "3" and a Heal.  This was so pathetic that Andrew didn't even prompt a re-roll, he just recovered two Life Points on his turn and then purchased Rapid Healing after picking up two more Energy cubes.  

Mac finally got the Healing roll he wanted, five Hearts in total!  Naturally, Andrew refused to let that slide and forced Mac to re-roll one die, leaving him with four Hearts and a single Energy.  On my turn I managed to get three shots in on Andrew and then insulated myself from harm via "Wings".  

Against my better judgement, I renewed my case that we were playing "Wings" incorrectly and this time everyone agreed with me.  Since acquiring two Energy every turn is pretty easy, I could conceivably camp out in Tokyo indefinitely, virtually impervious to harm.  From that point forward we switched to my original interpretation, which made a lot more sense.  Any charges of "Asterisk!" were quickly silenced after Andrew pulled out the win by patiently camping out in Tokyo for two Veeps per turn, using "Psychic Probe" to scramble our best efforts to unseat him and then rolling up some consistently-high Victory Point totals.  

Winner: Andrew!   

***

REVIEW

PROS

• Innovative gameplay feels like a mash-up between a "King of the Hill" Halo match and Zombie Dice.
• Rules are clear, concise and very easy to teach.
• Games are fast and furious and never seem to drag.  We easily played four matches in three hours and still had time for some other quick games.  
• The variable card powers add a decent amount of replay value.
• Our four games are clearly indicative of several perfectly valid strategies.  Do you stay out of the fray and let every one else beat the snot out of each other?  Do you invest heavily in creature augmentation and go for surgical strikes?  Or do you march right into Tokyo bold as brass and start chuckin' knuckles?      
• The components are fantastic.  As some point in time you may find yourself compelled to pull a Pac-Man and gobble up a handful of those green Energy cubes.

CONS

• Some of the card text is a bit vague, leading to misinterpretation. Combining several of these effects together can also result in some big-time head-scratchery. 
• Although King of Tokyo is a lungful of fun, I'd still prefer an Ameritrash-style simulation.  I wanna wade my official Toho-brand monster miniature through tiny high-tension wires and buildings, whilst tearing up bridges and sticking trains and buses in my toothy maw.  I wanna char tanks and the national guard with my atomic breath and gobbling down populace units like Pez.  In other words I want the handsome and brilliant love child of The Creature that Ate Sheboygan and Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars.  Get on that, Fantasy Flight!    
• Except for the monster power ups, there's really not much variety to the game at all. 
• As a kaiju nut, I just wish the game's art design wasn't quite as goofy.

***

As a nuanced and tactical little beat-'em-up, you can't do much better then King of Tokyo.  It easily earns four pips outta six, with a tilt up towards The King's hairy nutsack.  

***

Looking to re-enact your very own version of Gigazaur vs. Cyber Bunny vs. Meka Dragon vs. The King vs. Alienoid vs. The Kraken, I.E. THE GREATEST MOVIE EVAR!?!  Click on the pic below to order a copy of King of Tokyo and help support this blog!