Sunday 14 October 2012

Killing Gladiators in Cardiff!


Will and I took a trip to Cardiff to visit Ian and pop to the home of the Viet Taff, Firestorm Games. Here we found bargains galore but what caught our attention most was the new Spartacus game and the Quarmageddon expansion for Quarriors!
First out of the box was Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery which has received some very positive reviews. I won't go onto a full review here as I would like to get a few more games in before passing judgement but first impressions are very good.

It incorporates a little bit of all the thongs which usually appeal  to our gaming group  (Bartering, betrayal and beating each other up!). Having seen only a snippet of an episode I can say that the game stands up on it's own merit and I'm sure that fans of the show will like it even more when they get to play as their favourite Dominus or Gladiator!



Ian's Gladiator advances on Will's and launches a spear...


...unfortunately this fails to stop Will's berserk warrior, who speeds into to sword range...



...and proceeds ro decapitate him in one round of combat!

It was an extremely enjoyable game (and not just because the Welsh cider was flowing!) with pacts made and betrayed. Eventually Ian emerged the victor having just benefitted from Wills dice turning against him for a second week in a row!


Look at that box control!

The expansion for Quarriors not only adds in new creatures and spells, but has a rewritten rulebook to sort out some of the issues with the order of the players turn and what I can only describe as a nerd-gasm inducingly well thought out vac-formed tray. The tray allows  you to layout all the dice so you can get playing in no time at all! As was pointed out by Ian the tray really lets you appreciate how beautifully designed the dice are. The new creatures add a great amount of variety and the game even came with a free promo card adding yet another creature! 

We managed to fit in a game of Elder Sign too and despite or best efforts we just missed out on sealing in Yog-Sothoth by one Elder sign! It ripped in to our world and proceeded to devour both Carolyn Fern, plucky Psycologist (Ian) and Vincent Lee, Physician at large (me) before 'Joe Diamond' (which will said before every roll!) brought the foul beast beast down.

Another great weekend of games and our collection continues to swell!

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