It seems at this time of year reviewers’ end up doing a ‘best of’ list.
In the case of games, not everything I review is a new release, so I can’t really suggest the best of 2014, but I can at least pick the game I deem best from among the 40, or so reviewed in the past year.
Bullfrogs - A Strategy Card Game of Amphibian Combat a card game for two-to-four players from designer Keith Matejka is first.
Each player has a set number of cards, along with a handful of pieces representing frogs and bullfrogs.
The idea is to move your amphibians around the ever-changing maze of cards until they are full of frogs. The players with the most frogs on the ‘lily pad’ wins the card, and associated ‘victory points’.
If you are looking for simple rules, quick game play, and family friendly, check out Bullfrogs athttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1152516291/bullfrogs-a-strategy-card-game-of-amphibian-combat?ref=live
The second honourable mention goes to the miniature skirmish game Norsgard.
Let’s start with a snippet from the rule book intro, something most gamers are likely to peruse before deciding on a new game.
“Norsgard is a game that takes you into the world of eternal winter – Isbran. A world where valor and cold steel mean more than the glisten of gold. In Isbran it is the brave, not the wealthy, that deserve to become heroes of stories told over mugs of ale.
To start with having a campaign system built into the core rules, and mark that as a huge win.
Most miniature game systems, and certainly the best among skirmish level offerings, eventually come up with campaign rules. There is great pride in having a character grow over a series of skirmishes, and you really do ‘feel’ the loss should one of the more developed characters die.
While most games will offer up one, or two which catch attention, often through the art or miniatures, Norsgard adds some interest by taking a bit different vision of traditional fantasy races.
And that brings me to the best game I have reviewed in 2014; Dameo.
Dameo, is a 2002 release from Christian Freeling ( http://mindsports.nl/index.php/arena/dameo/ ).
Dameo has dramatic movement in that there are literally dozens of options on a turn.
A man moves one square forward, either straight or diagonally. The diagonal move of a man is the only diagonal move in the game. All other moves, whether capturing or non-capturing, are orthogonal only.
In Dameo one can open with any man so there are 26 unique opening moves white has at his disposal. For each of these there’s a symmetric one. Black, on his first move, doesn’t face a symmetric situation, so he actually has a choice of 52 answers.In fact, I’d put Dameo in the top-10 abstract strategy games among the hundreds out there, because the rules remain simple, the game is easy to play with available checker boards and anything for checkers, and has tons of depth and replayability.
