My Rating Scale

My Rating scale

This post explains how “My Rating” for my game reviews mean. It is important to have a quick look as some games with low rating may actually be interesting for some players!

Here it is… explained

My Rating Scale
Rating	Description
	Throw this game away; it’s not even worth giving a try
	I wouldn’t recommend playing any games in this category. Games in this band are plainly bad, or resemble another game that is a lot better
	This is the gray area that includes board games that are just average. I consider a board game average if I think it would only last a couple plays before becoming obsolete or if it is playable with nothing great or innovative about it. Games in the higher end would probably appeal to player who like similar board games and have exhausted games with higher ratings.
	Games with these ratings will generally appeal to players who like similar games or the genre. Games in the higher end of this category can be considered must-haves if you want to broaden your collection of board games!
	These are absolute must haves. Games in this category must be great to play, have something amazing, innovative, or unique about it and have a long life span. They should appeal to everyone.

Summoner Wars: Phoenix Elves vs. Tundra Orcs

I have been hearing so much good about “Summoner Wars”, a new customizable card game with a perfect blend of strategy, luck, and fun. It is therefore without surprise that I have been looking forward to test the game and see if it stands up to its reputation!

Quick facts

“Summoner Wars” is a expandable and customizable card game where Summoners fight to the death on a battlefield.
2-4 players for 30-60 minutes
Some language dependency (you’ll need a sheet with card translations)

Quick review

Due to my profound love of Elves, I purchased the “Phoenix Elves vs. Tundra Orcs” pack. Because I spent hours reading reviews and watching youtube videos on the game, I wasn’t surprised with what I saw. Esthetically, “Summoner Wars” is mediocre (but nonetheless, not an eyesoar). The board is made of a matrix of rectangles where you will can place your warriors and fight opposing forces. It’s made of paper and needs a substantial amount of flattening before first play. However, you can purchase a cardboard version (or make one yourself) for somewhere around £10 ($15) online. The cards are separated into a Summoner card, warrior cards, walls, and spells. Each Summoner, and each unit has their own special ability. The Summoner and warriors have nice illustrations, but I was greatly disappointed by the fact that all spells had the same boring illustration! The rest of the materials you receive are life counters and die.

The object of the game is to defeat the enemy summoner. To do so, you have to summon various creatures and fight your way through to the opposing summoner. The game is originally intended for 2 players, but you can extend to 3 or 4 players (although really, I believe it’s only meant for 2 players).

I introduced the game first time to a group of players that are used to playing “Magic the Gathering”, so the rules to “Summoner Wars” were very easy to understand and master. Note however, that “Summoner Wars” is nothing like “Magic the Gathering”! Once we read through the rules, we were ready for some “Summoner Wars” action!

My first game was fantastic. “Summoner Wars” was surprisingly challenging, tactical, with that little amount of luck from throwing die when attacking that made it just perfect. The different factions require totally different strategies and are completely different from each other. My only worry was whether or not the units and abilities are properly balance (which I will be able to tell more about in the future).

I can’t wait to play more of it and to purchase all the other available decks.

So, here are my marks… (details of my scoring system can be found in another post)

Summoner Wars: Phoenix Elves vs. Tundra Orcs
	0	1	2	3	4	5
Appearance			*
Difficulty			*
Fluidity						*
Strategy					*
Luck				*
Interaction						*

“Summoner Wars” is an incredible customizable card game that combines strategy and luck like no other card game. Although beauty and design is lacking, this game is a must have for every fantasy card game fan.
MY RATING….. 7.90/10

BGG RATING… 7.65/10
T-T RATING….. N/A

Keltis

To be honest, the only reason I really wanted to try out “Keltis” is to see why it won the Spiel des Jahres over “Stone Age”! So when I saw it on sale, I couldn’t resist just buying it.

Quick facts

“Keltis” is a set collection game where you play cards of different colors in a certain order in order to advance pawns on different paths.
2-4 players for 30 minutes
No language dependency
Winner “Spiele del Jahres 2008″

Quick review

First impressions first: I thought the board looked ok and that the clove-shaped pawns were nice. Really though, I don’t think the game has enough fancy pieces to justify the hefty price.

The board is composed of five pathways of different colors. For each color, there are 2 sets of 11 cards ranging from 0 to 10. You have 5 pawns. At your turn, you can play or discard a card from your hand and then draw a card from the draw pile or the discard pile. The only catch is that you need to play the cards in ascending or descending order! That’s it. After one game you can master the game mechanics, there’s really not much to it. The game ends when 5 pawns are at 6 (check board) or above, or when there are no more cards to draw.

The only strategical or tactical side of this game is to be careful which cards you discard when you decide not to play a card. It’s also important to be wary of when the game could end, because really, you want to be the one who ends it! At the end of the day, winning is mostly due to luck, and not really strategy.

To be honest, at the end of my third game, I felt like I was conned into paying a premium for a relatively average game just because it had the Knizia tag on it. I also still can not believe how it got the Spiel des Jahres award over “Stone Age”.

Still though, I would definitely play this game again because it’s short, it’s easy, and it’s fun. No more than 2 games at a time though, because it will start getting boring!

So, here are my marks… (details of my scoring system can be found in another post)

Keltis
	0	1	2	3	4	5
Appearance			*
Difficulty		*
Fluidity					*
Strategy		*
Luck				*
Interaction		*

“Keltis” is a an average, fun, quick, simple game with good mechanics, but that certainly doesn’t deserve a Spiel des Jahres.
MY RATING….. 5.80/10

BGG RATING…  6.60/10
T-T RATING….. 7.24/10

Attribute scoring system

1) Attributes

Attributes are scored as a means of describing the overall gameplay. These do not reflect whether a game is good or not, but rather give an idea of what to expect from a game.

Appearance
This rates the general appearance of the game. A value of “0″ would refer to a game with no graphical layout whatsoever, whereas a “5″ would mean the game has fantastic illustrations, design, and esthetic quality.

Difficulty
This relates to the complexity, comprehensiveness, and understandability of the rules. Games with no rules or very few rules will have a low score, whereas games with long and complex rules will be scored higher.

Fluidity
This rates the fluidity of the gameplay. A low score can be warranted by, for example, the necessity of re-visiting the rules, constantly having to remind yourself of the order of turns, or simply being confused of what to do when. A high score would mean that the game is easy to follow through (even if the rules are complex) and that players are aware of what is happening.

Strategy
This attribute rates the necessity of having a strategy in a game. A low score means that the game does not require any particular reflection regarding play strategy, whereas a high score would relate to a game where careful and early strategic planning is required.

Luck
This rates how the outcome of a game is influenced by luck (for example, dice throws, card draws, etc…). A game where winning is only achieved by luck will have a high score, whereas a game that does not have any random elements that influence game result will have a score of “0″.

Interaction
This attribute rates two things:
- The necessity to interact with other players (for example, to trade resources, attack monsters, etc…)
- The ability to influence or alter the gameplay of other players (for example, bidding for cards, attacking other players,  blocking trade routes, etc…)
A low interaction means that players barely interact with each other or are able to “block” other players.

“Game Name”
Attributes	0	1	2	3	4	5
Appearance
Difficulty
Fluidity
Strategy
Luck
Interaction

2) My Rating

The overall rating is given out of 5 stars. It is independent from the attribute scores and gives an overall score of how fun, intriguing, unique and re-playable a game is. Here is an example of a game score 85%.

Thurn and Taxis

Well, this game should apparently be great since it did win a load of awards, including the Spiele del Jahres 2006, an award that I have great faith into. Considering that, it goes without saying that I had to buy “Thurn and Taxis” at some point in time.

Quick facts

“Thurn and Taxis” is a card drafting and network building game set in the renaissance in Germany.
2-4 players for 45 minutes
No language dependency
Winner “Spiele del Jahres 2006″

Quick review

So, my first impression was that everything looked very nice. The game board is a partial map of Germany with connections between around two dozen cities. Each city has a name and an illustration of a real historical monument. The rest of the contents are just cards, bonus tiles, and rule summaries.

The object of the game is (surprise) to win the most victory points. To do so, houses are places in cities in with postal roads have been built using cards. You gain victory points for the length of the roads, for roughly the number of roads (it’s slightly more complex), and when you have a house in each city in a or a combination of regions, etc…

The rules can be mastered in 5 minutes. All you do in a turn is pick a card from 6 face-up cards or from the draw pile, play a card to form a postal route, and “build” said route. You also pick 1 of four “special abilities” each turn that can permit you, for example, to draw 2 cards, exchange the pile of face-up cards, or play 2 cards.

The game won’t last long, an hour if you’re really slow. It is recommended to have 2-4 players, but I recommend playing with 4 players. The reason for this is that there is no real interaction between players apart from using the “Exchanger” ability to replace the face-up cards, by drawing cards that other players need, or by grabbing bonus tiles that other payers are trying to earn.

So, here are my marks… (details of my scoring system can be found in another post)

Thurn and Taxis
	0	1	2	3	4	5
Appearance					*
Difficulty		*
Fluidity						*
Strategy			*
Luck				*
Interaction		*

“Thurn and Taxis” is a fun game for beginners that is quick and simple, with nothing truly amazing or intriguing about it.
MY RATING….. 6.40/10

BGG RATING…  7.21/10
T-T RATING….. 7.26/10