Pass in Review: Champions of Faith

 Champions of Faith is another Biblical boardgame my wife and I have. 

In this game, 2-6 players take on the roles of Old Testament heroes and try to achieve the objectives listed on their character cards. 

Each character has traits in Leadership, Wisdom and Endurance.

As the players move around the board, they'll land on spaces containing challenges that will test them against either their Wisdom or Leadership. The respective values become die roll modifiers.

If the player wins, they gain a blue token.

Endurance is similar to Hit Points in other games.

Collect 3 blue tokens and one gets a key. 

Obtaining the required number of keys, will give the player a chance to enter the Hall of Faith (Heaven).

The first player to enter the Hall of Faith wins.

The game contains high-quality miniatures, and tokens, along with a sturdy game board and character cards.

The clay tokens, colored green (leadership), white (wisdom), red (endurance), and blue (successful challenges), have a nice feel to them.

The only problem my wife and I had with the tokens was it was hard to read the denominations printed on them.

These came in increments of 1, 5 and 10. The blue token has no printed value and just indicates a player succeed in a challenge. 

So I took all the tokens and slathered them in various shades of ink wash: Blue, tan, green and red.

This also help keep the color of the tokens from coming off. The red tokens especially, left stains on our fingers.

If you're in the mood to play a game representing some of the challenges faced by the heroes of the Old Testament, then Champions of Faith is a nice family game to play. 

Pass in Review: Miracles and Pitfalls

 

Several years ago, I bought my wife a couple of Biblical games.

One such games is, Miracles and Pitfalls.

The rules are simple: Draw a card, and answer a question regarding verses in Scripture. Answer correctly, roll a six-sided die (1d6), and move your playing piece the indicated number of squares. Then the next player takes his turn in the same manner.

The rules recommend children can look up Scripture verses in order to answer the question.

The first player to reach the finish, wins.

Think of it as Biblical Trivia Pursuit, for 2-6 players. 

The game is made of good quality items.

However, I found the “Parcheesi” style playing pieces to be bland and boring.

So, I decided to make alternate playing pieces.

I downloaded and printed several cardboard figures from Junior General—Ancient series.

My wife bought a couple bags of Banquet Card Stands on Amazon.

I cut out the figures I wanted to use, folded and glued them, and inserted them on to individual stands.

I painted the bottom of the stands, and wrote the names of each character.

There are 11 characters from The Old Testament:

Each figure represents a specific Old Testament hero or heroine:

My wife and I came up with five New Testament characters:

And these are:

My newfangled playing pieces neither add or detract from the game.

I made these merely to improve players’ immersion into it.

(Image from the film poster: The Ten Commandments)

Pass in Review: Lord of the Rings Monopoly

 It must be more than half-a-century since I last played Monopoly.  And this was back when there was only one version.  The game debuted in 1935, and has spawned a slew of variant editions, starting in the late 20th Century.

One of my grandsons recently received a Boba Fett Edition for his birthday.  

Our respective grandkids are now advancing beyond the Candyland/Chutes & Ladders level of games.  So when I expressed interest about joining in the gameplay, my wife took this as a cue to buy me a Lord of the Rings Edition for my birthday.

The game comes in a hefty cardboard box, with cover art that evokes images of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings (LotR) movies.  The gameboard is matted and sturdy.  The money tokens are small, cardboard coins that come in 1 & 5 denominations, known as M .  It took me a while to discover just what an M  is.  It stands for "Monopole," which it seems has been the case for years.

Funny, I always thought it was "dollars."

Anyway, back to the gameboard.

Starting in the middle, there are a series of circles that track the progress of bearing The One Ring to Mount Doom from whence it was forged.  

The fringes of the game board is a colorful arrangement of locations using images from the LotR films, that players move their tokens around on.

 But beware, the Eye of Sauron, depicted on the two black 1d6s that players use to determine how far they go.  If a Ring Bearer rolls the Eye of Sauron, he must drop the ring where his playing piece landed.  Otherwise, the symbol is a regular "1."

The Ring Tracker Token advances up the slopes of Mount Doom every turn a player possesses The Ring.  

If a player loses The Ring, or gives it away, he has to pay the amount shown in the circle, and the Ring Tracker Token slides back to the bottom. 

The player currently bearing The Ring will be immune from paying rent, going to jail , or pay the fine if he lands on the Gollum or Ringwraith squares.  However he will be affected by Quest Cards, like every other player.  Quest cards often demand additional actions from the player who drew it.

Otherwise, the game is played like the original Monopoly; buy/selling properties, etc. 

The game can be won by the traditional means of bankrupting your opponents, or if the Ring of Power is destroyed.  The game ends immediately when The Ring is destroyed, and the player with the most money and assets wins.

Here's a look at the storage tray and rulebook:

A close-up of the storage tray containing the player tokens, buildings, currency and Quest Cards:

Instead of Houses and Hotels, players build Outposts (brown), or fortresses (white):

There are 9 player tokens, each representing a member of the Fellowship of the Ring.  From left to right: Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas, Gimli, Frodo, Samwise, Merry and Pippin.  However, the game is for a maximum of 6 players.

Here's a close-up of Frodo bearing The Ring, and Samwise:

What I found odd was the game using the traditional names and images for the corner squares--

--Go,

--Go To Jail,

--Free Parking,

--and In Jail/Just Visiting.

I mean, there's free parking's available at the Black Gates of Mordor?  Who knew?

Now I must admit, I'm an immersion gamer, and found the lack of LotR-appropriate images to be a bit jarring.

So I set out to remedy this.

Using my Comic Life program and PowerPoint, I made alternate corner spaces from images I found online.  (Since the game already utilizes movie images, and I'm not selling this as a product, I should be okay with copyright issues).

Anyway, legalities aside, here are my corner spaces--

--Imprisoned (The Secret Passage), replacing In Jail/Just Visiting,

--Captured! replacing Go To Jail,

--The Gifts of Galadriel, replacing Go, where players collect 2  M , and 

--Hiding From The Enemy, replacing Free Parking.

On a lark, I added one final touch.

I thought the cardboard coins were a bit wimpy looking.  And fake game money is expensive.

Fortunately, I came across a company that made coins for half the price of their competitors.  (I'm sorry, I can't remember who they are).

So I bought two packages each consisting of about 10, gold, silver and copper coins.  They come in 3 denominations, 1, 5, and 10, marked in Roman Numerals I, V, and X, respectively.

I look forward to playing this game.  When I do, I'll be sure to write an After Action Review (AAR).

Na-Den Pedim Ad

(Elvish for:  Until we speak again).

Game Report--Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar

(Image from Restoration Games)

A couple weeks ago, I got together with my friend Joe.  Instead of playing any of our usual wargames of military mayhem, we opted for the more family-friendly adventure game Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar.

This is a remake of the 1986 Milton Bradley game, now published by Restoration Games.

(Image from Milton Bradley)

Back in 1986, I felt I was “too old” to play such “kiddie games.”

Fast-forward a few decades—add one pandemic—and what free time I may have to gather with friends, evaporates.

So I'm desperate  willing enough play anything.

No matter which version you have, think of Fireball Island as “Indiana Jones on the Volcanic Island of Chutes and Ladders.”

Up to four players are dropped off with the mission of collecting all sorts of treasure, pictures and souvenirs.  All while dodging “fireballs” (marbles), and their light-fingered fellow players, who can swipe an item from you as they run past.  

The game’s big MacGuffin is The Heart of Vul-Kar, a large red jewel prominently placed on the island’s summit.  Because The Heart is the single largest source of points, it can have a mesmerizing effect similar to “The Precious-s-s-s.”

But the Geological Clock is ticking, so players can’t dawdle. Sooner or later the island’s volcano god, Vul-Kar, will get fed-up with the foreign devil fortune hunters, and unleash a cataclysmic eruption.  

(Image from:  Krakatoa East of Java)

Ars Technica has a full review, and there’s a How-to-Play video, along with one of several play-through videos available on YouTube.

The game is rated for anyone age 7 years or older.  Joe’s two boys are about 5 & 6 years old and seemed to grasp the basics of the game rather well.

However, when playing with younglings, adults need to forgo their usual desire to “...crush your enemies, see them driven before you...”.  

Instead, us grups have to encourage fun & fair play, even as fireballs are flying and the island is coming apart at the fault lines. 

(Image from Ars Technica)

Our game session lasted over a couple of hours due to explaining the rules and breaking for lunch about half-way through the table-top treasure hunt. 

I can’t remember who ended up with “The Precious-s-s-s,” but it changed hands a time or two before the Final Cataclysm.  

I didn’t bother going after it, and instead contented myself with swiping all the minor jewels I could get my hands on.  

I was also the first one to get to the choppa before the island blew, and got the “lucky penny,” worth some bonus points.  Joe’s boys were right behind me and piled into the helicopter. 

(Image from:  Jurassic Park)

What about Joe?

Alas, Joe was hit solid by a fireball as he sprinted to the helipad.  The boulder pushed him down to the very bottom of the hill.  As a result of this critical hit, he didn’t have enough movement points to get off the island... 

(Image from: Raiders of the Lost Ark)

So if this sort of fast & furious looting-spree sounds like more fun than another plodding round of  “...do not pass Go...”, consider adding Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar to your family’s Game Night Library.