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!

Scoville Review

   Scoville is a game to see who can make the hottest chili by planting and harvesting peppers. It plays two to six players and takes about an hour.

   The board comes in four pieces that fit together like a puzzle. One thing that I really like about this board, is it tells you right on it how many of each type of cards you need according to the number of players. You don't have to flip through the rule book every time you play.

   To set up, place the board in the middle. Take a red, blue and yellow pepper in your hand. Mix them up and randomly draw out two. Place the two peppers in the middle two pepper spots that are outlined in green. Above that, place the morning auction cards. Flip over the number of cards according to the number of players. You will bid for these cards starting in the second round. To bid, place any number of coins in your hand. Everyone reveals the coins at the same time. The highest bidder gets to choose where they want to go in turn order. After turn order is chosen, players will choose one of the cards in the auction and receive the pepper that is shown. It is important to remember that during the harvesting phase, it goes in reverse turn order.

 

   Along the left side, you are going to place market cards, again, according to the number of players. You can buy these with peppers and earn coins, peppers and points.

 

   Place the award plaques on the bottom left. Put them in order so the highest point value is on the top. In a two or three player game, you will take the top plaque off of each pile. When you plant a pepper that matches the color on the plague, take the top plaque and place it behind your screen. These will give you points at the end of the game.

 

   On the bottom right is where you have your turn order. This will change throughout the game. For the first round, place the players turn markers in your hand and mix them up. Randomly place them starting on the 1. This is the turn order for this round. After each round, you will slide the player tokens into the empty circle above the turn order. This order is used if there is a tie.

 

   Place the correct number of recipe cards on the right side of the board. Put the peppers and coins where they can be reached by all players. Your board is now set up and ready to go.

 

   Next, each player chooses a player screen.

   Each player then takes their corresponding screen, their farmer, a blue, red and yellow pepper, a five coin, five one coins and your special move cards. The special move cards let you either plant an extra pepper, move one extra step, or double back once during the harvest stage. You can use them one time per game. Put these behind your screen. Place your turn marker on the turn marker spaces.

   In turn order, you will plant a pepper. (After the first round, the bidding starts the round)

 

   There are four breeding charts. These show you the turn order on one side and the color combos to make new peppers on the other.

   After each player has planted a pepper, you will go in reverse order to harvest. The first time you harvest, you will start your farmer on the star in the middle. Every other turn, your farmer starts where it left off the previous round. You can move up to three spaces, always moving at least one space. You do not get a pepper from your starting space. Each space is indicated by the notches between two peppers. When passing between the two peppers, you gain a pepper according to the breeding chart. Example: moving between a yellow and blue pepper will give you a green pepper. If there is only one pepper, you do not receive a pepper.

   You may not move through another farmer and must go the direction your farmer is facing. You may pivot your farmer before you move him to face the direction you would like to go.

   After the harvesting phase, you can purchase cards with your peppers. In this example, a card is being purchased with a red and purple pepper. In return, they get a brown pepper, three coins and the card is worth one point. Points are indicated on all cards by the fire symbol. You may purchase one card from the market and one recipe per round.

   When there are fewer market cards than the number of players, discard any remaining cards. It is now afternoon. Place the number of afternoon market cards according to the number of players. You will also put the deck of afternoon auction cards up. Leave any remaining morning auction cards. Once those have been taken, place them with the morning deck and flip new cards from the afternoon deck. All morning cards are blue and afternoon is green. This makes it easy to change them out when needed.

   Play continues until there are fewer afternoon market cards or recipe cards than there are players. Once this happens, that round finishes and the game is over.

   Once the game is over, count up your points. You get the points indicated on the market cards, recipe cards and plaques. Each special action card that hasn't been used is worth four points. Every three coins is equal to one point. You can sell peppers after you have purchased your cards. The peppers are worth one coin per two peppers that have been planted. This is a good way to get points for some of those left over peppers or if you need more coins for the auction bidding. Whoever has the most points, wins the game!

   I love this game! It is probably my favorite strategy game so far. There isn't really much luck to this game at all. It's easy to learn and play. The components are awesome. One thing I really like about this game is the more rare the pepper is, the taller it stands.

   I do have to say, if you are color blind, this game may be a bit difficult to play. We aren't color blind and still have a hard time telling the difference between a few of the colors, mainly the black and purple. Some of the peppers aren't cut quite right to fit into the pepper slots on the board.

   Overall, I would highly suggest this game. There isn't really any downtime between turns since you have to pay attention to what others are doing. Every play can change your strategy. This game is definitely going to get a good amount of play time.

Face Off Dice Review

   Since the Holidays are coming up and there will be gift giving, I decided I would share a game we love to play with our kids. Justice League Face Off Dice Game is a fun family game that you can play with however many people you'd like since you pass the dice around.

   It has Batman on one side

   And Joker on the other. It also comes with a nice lid so you can store the dice inside.

   The dice have six pictures on each one. There are the Villains, Lex Luther and the Joker.

   The other four sides have the heroes. Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and Flash.

   To play, decide who goes first. Roll all five dice. You then decide if you are going Hero or Villain.

   There are many different combinations you can try and get with your dice.

   If you decide to go Villain, put aside the dice you want to keep. You can re-roll the remaining dice. When you roll it, keep it secret under the cup.

   Peak at the dice and then the fun begins. You can decide to pick something you really have, or you can bluff. For example, here I can say I have a four Villain mix. You then go around the table and people can guess if you are bluffing or telling the truth.

    If someone calls your bluff, reveal your dice. If you were bluffing, the player that called your bluff gets your points. If someone calls your bluff and you were telling the truth, you get double points. If no one calls your bluff, you do not have to reveal your dice.

   If you roll the dice and you have more Heroes and decide to go for them, you can re-roll up to three dice.

   There are a few different choices you can go for when going for Heroes. As you can see, they don't score as high.

   You can push your luck and keep rolling the dice as many times as you would like. The only catch is, if you roll only Villains, your turn is over and you don't score any points. The first one to get to 250 points is the winner!

   When we first bought this game, we were thinking it would be a fun one for our boys to play together. When the Hubby opened it, read the directions and then played through it once to teach them how to play, they all had a ton of fun. I decided I should try it too. I mean, who doesn't like to join in a game when everyone is laughing and having a good time?

   The game was a lot of fun! There's a lot more in it then you would think. By the end of the game I couldn't tell if my boys were bluffing me or not. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but it made the game more challenging.

   This game would be great for a stocking stuffer or a small gift. There are a few different versions. We've seen both Marvel and Star Wars ones. I think this game would be a great addition to any game collection.