An Average Gamer - Reviews in 500 Words

Looking at a game from 2017 today. When it came out, there were lots of people looking at Hotshots by Fireside Games . There were lots of comparisons to Flash Point . I see them as having the fire theme in common, but they diverge from there. I think Hotshots is a good gateway or filler game. It is easy to learn and plays quickly. We played two 2-player games in about 90 minutes. Our first game was quick with some good card draws that always pushed the fire into Scorched tiles or off the board. The second game was far more challenging with it coming down to the wire in getting a final fire put out before it could spread and scorch our last tile. This is also a game that can be played solo. I also like how it manages solo play. All the rules remain the same which for me is a huge plus. I hate it when games alter rules for solo play or ask you to run two characters in order to play. In Hotshots, the game is controlled by players drawing fire cards at the end of their turn. With one p...

Photo from Battlefoam of the tray in use.  This won't be 500 words since it's not really new, just an update to a previous post. It seems the guys at Battlefoam  saw my review of their insert trays and listened to some of the things that I thought could be improved. So, not only did they respond, they shared pictures of their redesigned tray. This new tray has deeper card holders and the token tray is divided so it is easier to sort tokens. This is a big win in my book. And on top of that, they also listened to the comments about a tray for the tiles, and they made one as an add-on. You can get it for your game if you choose, or if you are fine with just letting the tiles sit on top, you won't need to spend the extra money. So kudos to the guys at Battlefoam for taking the suggestions of their customers and making a good product even better. Optional add-on for $16 to hold your game tiles.

The Hero Realms Box Today’s review this is not a new game, but one I got to play for the first time: Hero Realms . If you are familiar with Star Realms, also from White Wizard Games, the mechanic used is the same. Cards provide either resources (in Hero Realms that is gold), Attack damage, Health or occasionally some other special effect. You play all the cards in your hand, if you can, since there is no carry over from one turn to the next. We were also using the Hero Expansion packs that are not in the core game. That allowed us to play specific character types instead of a non-descript hero. This is a deck builder and the goal is always to add cards to your deck that will work well together. Gold is used to buy cards from the market which are face up for all players to see. I happen to enjoy deck builders but this one does suffer from the same minor flaw that other deck builders can have. If your market draw at the beginning of the game contains too many high-c...

Tray 1 of the Journeys in Middle Earth set. There are lots of companies putting out organizers for game boxes these days. You have wood, resin, Etsy stores and the list goes on. I don't know if any are better than another. I am sure plenty of people have their favorite and will talk endlessly about how the one they use is the best. I don't have a favorite, but I am going to talk about Battlefoam . This is the first foam insert I have ever bought. I had Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth . I knew I was going to paint up some of the miniatures and I knew that I wanted something to protect the paint work (I paint slow so the last thing I want to do is repaint something).  I saw an ad for Battlefoam in my Facebook feed and thought I would give it a shot. It was just $34 with shipping in the United States. I put the order in and it arrived about a week later. Real life kept me busy for a few days, but when I finally got a chance to fill it, I was happy with the ...

Table set up and rules reading I played Star Wars: Outer Rim last night. I ran Ketsu Onyo and played against Lando, Jynn Erso and Bossk. It's a fun game and felt relatively thematic to the Star Wars universe (it felt like all of the characters who showed up fit in the same time). I listened to a review beforehand so I knew basically what to expect. And I was not disappointed It is, for the most part, a pick up and deliver game with some combat and challenges along the way. The rulebook seems clearly laid out and with only one person reading the rules, literally 30 minutes before we played, all 4 players were able to get up and moving on Turn 1. That is not to say there are not some nuances that required us to look things up. But again, the layout of the guide books made finding an answer easy. I am a strong proponent of not needing to watch a playthrough video in order to play the first game (but that is also not to say I think playthrough videos are a bad idea, they are very...