Phase Review

   Phase is an AEG self contained CCG that came in the 2016 Black Box.

   It plays two to five players and takes between thirty and sixty minutes to play.

   Inside of the box you will find six pre-built decks. 

   300 tarot sized phase cards. 

   150 tarot sized card sleeves.

 

   81 influence tokens.

 

   Double sided rule book.

   Everything in this game is double sided with one good side and one evil side. No two cards are exactly the same. 

   To set up, put ten good influence and ten evil influence per player into The Nexus.

   Each player chooses a deck of cards. The game comes with six pre made decks along with cards to help you build your own decks at a later time. Shuffle your cards well. You may at this time, if you so choose, take some cards and flip them over so you will draw both good and evil cards.

   Once your cards are shuffled, place them next to you in a draw deck. Draw the top three cards. When you draw your cards, you will use the face down side like when using a normal deck. Choose one of the cards in your hand to add to your barracks, which is where your warriors will come from. The other two will stay in your hand for the actions, which are located along the side of the card.

   Your are now ready to begin play. Whoever has the lowest cost on the top card of their draw deck goes first.

   Preparation Step

   On your turn, begin by unlocking any cards that were locked in your previous turn. This step is skipped in the first round since no cards have been played yet.

   Draw and Enlist. You will draw the top card, adding it to your hand. Remember, the face down side is the side you will be using. Take the card that is now on top of your deck and add it to your barracks. On this card, you will be using the side that was face up on your deck.

   Attack Step

   You may now declare if you are attacking. If the active player doesn't have any warriors out, this step is skipped. If the active player does have warriors, randomly determine who will be defending The Nexus. In a two player game, this will be the opposing player. Once this is determined, you enter the action phase. Players can now play actions on warriors. Take the cards from your hand and play them on the chosen warrior, paying any cost. You may skip your turn during this phase. Players may continue adding actions until every player has skipped their turn. If at one point you skipped your turn, then decide you want to add an action, you may do so when your turn comes around again. After every player has skipped their turn, this phase is over.

   Declaration Segment

   Next, the active player declares who they will be attacking. They can either attack The Nexus or another player. If you attack The Nexus, you will gain influence that matches the type of card you are attacking with. Good cards receive good influence, whereas evil influence will receive evil influence. If you attack another player, they will lose influence they have gained during previous play.

   Once the active player has declared who they are going to attack and assigned which warriors will be attacking, the player being attacked, or the person chosen to defend The Nexus will assign who they are defending with. Good warriors must be used to defend evil warriors and evil warriors must be used to defend good warriors. Warriors may not defend multiple warriors, but multiple warriors may defend a single warrior. 

   The warriors are now in a skirmish.

   Skirmish Segment

   The active player now chooses which skirmish they want to resolve first. No other warriors may be added to the skirmish after it has begun. Once the actions have been played, the warriors deal their damage simultaneously unless otherwise stated. If there is more than one defender, the player decides how the damage is divided up between the defending warriors. Warriors who's defense is now zero are destroyed.

   If there are any attacking warriors still in play, they have now successfully attacked either The Nexus or the opposing player. If they successfully attacked The Nexus, they receive one influence for each attack damage. For example: if the warrior was good and had three attack, the player will receive three good influence.

   If they have successfully attacked an opposing player, that player loses one influence for each attack. These influence are removed from the game, not returned to The Nexus.

   Once the skirmish has been resolved, the warrior is then phased (flipped over). This skirmish is now over. All actions played on the warriors are discarded. If a warrior is defeated, they are also discarded.

   Training Step

   After all skirmishes have been resolved, the active player can then choose to take actions and train warriors. When this is done, phase cards to pay the cost of bringing a card into play. Once the player is done training cards, you may enter another action round. Once this action round is completed, play then moves to the left.

   Game End

   Once either the good or evil influence is gone from The Nexus, you may no longer gain any influence of that type from The Nexus. This triggers the end of the game. Play continues until the last player has their final turn, making it so each player has an equal number of turns. Once this is finished, whoever has the most of any one type of influence wins the game! In this picture, my opponent has won since they have nine evil influence and I only have eight good influence.

After playing this game, I have learned one thing; I'm not very good at this game. At least not yet. There is quite a bit of strategy. Deciding when to phase cards to get out warriors and when to wait another turn or two so you have a better chance. Saving warriors in play so you can defend instead of always attacking. There are so many different choices and possibilities.

The cards are high quality and I love the fact that they provide card sleeves. The cards are bigger which makes it easier to read the cards that aren't right in front of you. The artwork on the cards is amazing and adds character and theme to the game. No two cards are exactly the same. There are multiple of each character, but they all have different characters on the other side, creating even more diversity.

And even though I'm still figuring out the odds and ends of the best strategy, I really enjoy playing Phase. Maybe some day I will even beat Hubby.
 

 

Star Trek Five-Year Mission Review

   Star Trek: Five Year Mission is a cooperative game for three to seven people.

   Inside you will find an Enterprise and seven crew members from the original series.

   If you flip them over, you will find the Star Trek: The Next Generation Enterprise and seven crew members from that series.

   There is a pile of dice, a timer, Enterprise damage marker and a deck of cards with either blue, yellow or red alert on the back.

   To set up, Choose which series you want to play. Place the Enterprise in the middle of the table. Next, hand out the crew members. You can play with any combination of crew members, but it is recommended that you have at least a captain and the doctor.

   Each player gets two red, two blue and a yellow die. If you are playing with three or four players, place one die of each color in the dice pool (Enterprise) and place the Enterprise damage marker on the start space.

   Place the blue, yellow and red alert cards under the Enterprise. Place the Boldly Go card under the blue alert deck.

   Play starts with the Captain and then moves clockwise. To begin your turn, flip over any of the alert cards and place them under the corresponding deck.

   Next, if you have less than five dice at this time, take dice from the dice pool to add to your dice before rolling. This will happen after your first turn. You can choose any of the dice that are available in the dice pool. Roll your dice. If your dice match the dice on the card, place them on the card.

   Any remaining dice are then placed on your player mat on the action dice area. When moving your dice to your mat, make sure you do not change the number on the dice. You can use these dice on your following turn, re-rolling only the dice you choose. Each crew member also has a once per turn special ability.

   When a player completes a card, it is removed from the play area. If it has a yellow delta symbol, it is moved to the score pile. If it has a special one time use ability, the player that completed the card takes the card until needed. Once used, you may move it to the score or discard pile.

   The dice used to complete the card are moved into the dice pool for future use.

   Some cards will have arrows on the dice. In this picture, this means you have to use a red die that is a five or higher to place it on the card. The blues need to be a three or lower and a two or lower. When the dice on the card and grouped together, you must place all of the dice in the group at the same time.

   When the dice are separated on the card, you may add any of your dice that match. If there is not an arrow either above or below the dice, it must be that color and number to be placed. If at any time you flip over a card that has the blue Prime Directive symbol, you must complete this card before completing any other card in play.

   If the card has the orange timer symbol, flip the timer. You now have three minutes to complete this card. If it is not completed before the timer runs out, the card will go into the failed alert pile. The white die means that you may use any colored die for that spot.

   Some cards will injure a player. If this happens, choose one of your dice and place it into the injuries space. These dice stay there until an action is taken to heal the player. The doctor can use one of their dice to heal you or you may use a turn to heal yourself. If you choose to heal yourself, you still must flip over an alert card. You may then move one die from the injuries section to the active section.

   Some cards will have effects on them that must happen when flipped. Some examples are injuring you or damaging the Enterprise. Some limit the dice you may place or make it so you may not talk to your opponents.

   When the Enterprise is damaged, move the damage marker up one. Whichever color space the damage marker is on is the lowest alert you can flip cards from. For example, if it is on a yellow space, you may only flip yellow and red alert cards. You can repair the Enterprise by using one of your dice to move it down. Here you would have to use a red die that is four or higher to move it down to the start space. If your damage marker is on a higher space, you may move it down as many spaces as you have red dice to repair it. If you are on the last damage space and another damage is taken, the Enterprise is destroyed and you have lost the game.

   You may only have three alert cards from each color flipped at a time. Once this happens, you still must flip over an alert card. The card that is flipped is placed in the Failed Alerts pile.

   Once you have either five failed alert cards or the number of points to complete your mission, the game is over. If you have five failed alerts, you have lost the game. If you reach the desired number of points, you have won! Live long and prosper.

   Some cards have special alerts that can be used at a later time. The icons are located on the bottom right of the picture on the card. They do things such as changing the face value of a die, healing, swapping crew mates abilities or using a die as any color.

   There are also dangerous alerts. They do things such as make you draw extra alerts, use the timer or have you complete a certain card before working on others.

   This is a game we enjoy playing as a family. You can even include the younger kids. Have them roll dice and help match up colors and numbers. My youngest is a huge fan of dice and is always willing to help match. If you like the game Roll for it! it has a similar feel. It's easy to learn and can be played in under an hour. It's a game that is mostly luck from rolling dice. There is a little bit of strategy, but you mostly just roll the dice and hope you get what you need.

   Having said that, if you enjoy dice games and co-ops, this one is a good one to add to your collection. I'm sure if you get the right Star Trek fans together, it would add a whole new level of fun.

   Make it so!

Code Master Review

   Code Master is a single player game by ThinkFun games.

   You have a few different tokens, blue crystals, a portal and an avatar.

   It also comes with a scroll book and a map book.

   Each page in the map book has a few different levels on it. Green is beginner, yellow is intermediate, blue is advanced and red is expert. Each level will will show you how to set up. For level one, you will put your avatar on the five space, the portal on the three space, you will use two red and two green moves and you will use scroll one.

   Once you set up your board, you will start your programing. The goal is to get your avatar to the portal by using only the number of moves and colors that you are given. On this level, you will get four moves, two being red and two green.

   If you look at the map, there are more lines and colors than you will use. You have to plan out your moves so that you end up at the portal with no moves left.

   On this level, I programed a red move, green move, red move, green move.

   Move your avatar along the lines. First was a red move

   Then a green that went across the top of the map.

   another red

   and then the green that brought me to the portal. If you make a plan and it doesn't work, simply start your program over.

   Some levels have blue crystals. Place the crystal on the number indicated.

   When you stop on the space, simply slide the crystal onto the avatar's staff when it stops on that space.

    If there is more than one crystal, you may only pick up one per visit to that space. You may need to go past it a few times to gather them all. You will notice some of the paths on this map are made with arrows. This indicates you can only go that direction on that path.

   Some of the harder levels will use a little more complicated scroll. The hexagon spaces are used for conditional tokens.

   If your scroll has more than one space for a conditional token, you must decide which token you want where. The blue hexagons represent the number of crystals you have. If you have the number indicated, continue on along the path with the green check mark. If not, follow the path along the red X. The orange tokens are Troll tokens. This is asking if there is an orange troll on the space you are currently on. The purple tokens are the same as the orange, only they are asking if there is a purple troll on your space.

   Place your conditional tokens on your guide scroll and plan out your program.

   This is a great game to get your mind going. My oldest loves to pull this game out and work his way through. The beginning ones are rather simple, but they get harder quickly. I have yet to get all the way through the book. If you or your child enjoy programing games, this is a great one to play. Perfect when you only have a minute or are on your lunch break at work.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers