Hocus Pocus: Beware! The Sanderson Sister Will Completely Own You!

While wandering through Target before Christmas, I stumbled across Hocus Pocus, designed by Prospero Hall and published by Ravensburger and based on the Disney movie by the same name.

I have to say that I never really got into the movie Hocus Pocus but it's one of my wife's favorites so I knew I had to get this for her for Christmas.  She was really excited to see it and we soon broke it to give it a test run.

Holy crap.  This is a kids game?  What are we doing wrong?!?

As the title for this post implies, we lost against the Sanderson sisters... three time in a row.  We did manage to win the fourth game... by slightly cheating but hey, a win is a win right?  Maybe?

The mechanics for the game are very simple.  You start with a hand of three or four cards (depends on how many players you have...) and you go around the table playing the cards into the "cauldron".  The card must either match the ingredient or the color to be played.  If you match all the ingredients, all the colors, or have one of each ingredient and one of each color, then you stun one of the sisters and go to the next round.

Simple, right?

The trick is that you play with your hand closed and aren't supposed to discuss your cards unless you have Binx the cat in front of you.  Some of the cards have his icon which brings him into play.  During your turn you can also ask the other players one piece of information about their hands, but that's it!  "Does anyone have newt saliva?" or "Does anyone have green cards?"

While you might not think this limited information would amp up the difficulty too much, it really does!  You have to cooperate without actually being able to tell each other what you have which makes things very tricky.  On top of that, there is also a chance the sisters will cast a spell on you.  Play a card with the spell book symbol and then look out!

On top of all of this, there is the limit on the cards.  If you run out of cards and are required to draw, then game over man!  While this isn't too bad the first time through, it gets harder with each round because you don't get all of the cards in the discard pile back.  Only the cards with the Binx or Spellbook icons are shuffled back into the deck so not only have you lost a number of cards, you've kept all of the spells, some of which force you to draw more cards!

After our third lose, we decided to play with all of our hands open just to see if a win was possible.  It is, but man it's not easy!

So is this a good game?  In my opinion, yes.  Sure it keeps kicking our butts but so does Ghostbusters: Protect the Barrier and we still enjoy getting that one to the table.  What makes it so good is game play itself is pretty basic so you can get right into the action.  The tricky part is getting all your ducks in a row to actually pull out the win.  I think once we get our head around the strategy and card distribution a bit better this game will get easier but I like that this simple game really makes you stop, think, and work together to win.  If you are looking for a light but challenging game that won't break the bank, I recommend giving this one a try.  Until next time...

Core Space: Set Up Dry Run and Some Initial Thoughts

Since I have all the bits and bobs punched and assembled for Core Space, I decided to give it a dry run on to set up for the example mission, Salvage Run.  Start to finish took me about 30 minutes give or take just for the board, which isn't bad considering how nice it looks.

There were a couple of things that weren't initially clear in the rulebook (the doorways vs. the openings for example are pretty similar) but overall it was pretty smooth.  Other than that little hiccup, everything seemed to be clearly labeled and went together smoothly.  And the end result?  Honestly it looks really sharp!

I haven't punched out the doorways or window, and probably should for LoS purposes but I was thinking I might just do that in game.  I was hoping to squeeze in some play through as well but life returned to normal, so I needed to run some chores before everyone got moving.  This did give me an idea of the total room need though and I think I will be able to clear enough space on my larger hobby table to do a full set up.  Might be a little tight, but it would give me another reason to tidy up my hobby space some more.  Things have gotten a bit messy... oops!

I have a couple of observations though that I thought I would share for anyone looking at taking the dive into Core Space.

Terrain

The build for the Salvage Run scenario uses literally all of the scenery; walls, tables, crates, you name it.  While this might be seen as a red flag, it really does give a nice and dense play space without being too crowded.  Battle Systems makes quite a few other sci-fi sets besides the expansions for Core Space, so I can see that expanding this would be very easy and really not that expensive all things considered.  Could I make a bunch of scenery like this that was modular and looked cool?  Sure, but no where near as quickly as punching and assembling this terrain has been.  And this stuff is very sturdy as well.  I also recently picked up their Fantasy Village set and after assembling several pieces of that, this stuff has a nice solid feel to it.  No, you can't walk on it or anything ridiculous but just holding the pieces you can tell that they are of a solid construction.  There are also a lot of ways to customize the Battle Systems terrain just with all the scatter bits they include.

Class boards

The base game comes with eight class boards, and I know that the deluxe rules let you create your own characters but I never saw a breakdown of which classes were in the base game.  So here they are.

Crewman/Augmented (x2)

Crewman/Soldier (x2)

Crewman/Hunter (x2)

Tech/Support (x2)

Seems like a pretty good mix though I'm curious what other ones come in the various crew packs.  Looking in the deluxe rulebook, it looks like there is also a Merg and machine class board which should come in the Yamato and Skylark crew expansions respectively, though I'm curious what other combo are included.  I was worried about there being enough of a mix but I think the way that they handled it should spread out nicely, especially once you add in a crew or two onto what it in the base game.

Overall, I'm really happy with this purchase and I can't wait to actually get a game in.  From what I've seen and read, it looks like Core Space does a great job balancing between being a miniatures game and a light role playing game which is just what I've been looking for.  Until next time...

Core Space: Super Glue Incoming!

I decided to hold off working on my Fantasy Village until I get some brush on super glue, but I'm going to push forward with digging out bits for Core Space!  Sooooo much stuff to punch!!!  So far it has gone fairly smoothly though I did run into some issues with the laminated weapon counters not being quite punched through.  Easy fix though as I just peeled the extra material off the "sprue" and cleaned up the counters with some snips.  My hostility tracker didn't do quite as well though, and I lost the top corner because I was being too hasty.  Oops!  Still not too shabby considering all the bits that covers!

I was able to continue with some more punching last night (after watching some of Jubei-Chan: The Ninja Girl... I was laughing so much I was crying!!!) and over the weekend I might work on getting some figures cleaned up and primed.  Assuming I don't go crazy seeing what type of terrain I can throw together!  Very excited to get this one and so is my daughter which is a great plus.  I was expecting to be focusing on solo play with it but she is interested in giving it a spin as well which would be awesome!

I've also already decided that I want to expand my collection.  All of the expansion packs look really cool, though I'm a little on the fence for the Yamato crew expansion.  From what I've read, Brutus and Ellen appear to be a tag team combo which is a cool concept in the long term.  For initially digging deeper into the game, I might hold off on this set a little bit just so I can fill out more single crew options.  Besides another crew, I'm also thinking of getting the Shootout at Zed's expansion.  The Galactic Corps set looks sweet as well, but the extra terrain with Zed's just looks to enticing to pass up, not to mention the extra class boards as well.  If this game is half as good as I'm expecting, I'm sure I'll wind up with both of them eventually.  Until next time...

Random Updates: Core Space In A Battle System

It's been a while but they've finally arrived; the Battle Systems Ruined Village and Battle Systems Core Space!  I had hoped to take a look at the village set "in the flesh" before taking the plunge, but after watching several play throughs I'm feeling really good about shelling out the cash for Core Space.  The mechanics look very straightforward and the terrain looks really nice as well!  As for the minis... I'll have to see tonight.  The joys of USPS notifications. "Your package is here.  You can't look at it though.  Ha ha!"

I plan on cracking them open tonight and maybe I'll even get to paint/build something?  Maybe?  Hopefully?  If not tonight, then definitely by the end of the week!

On a somewhat unrelated note, I was able to get together with a friend of mine this weekend and try the Sentinels of the Multiverse: Oblivaeon expansion.  It seemed vaguely promising at first... and then it all went to Hell in a handbasket! My friend and his son both went through three characters before we lost while I knocked it all the way up to five, and one of those literally entered the game and instantly died.  "I'm here to save the..." splat...  Still a lot of fun even if we did get our butts kicked!  Slightly time consuming though (think we clocked in around four hours for the one game?) so make sure you bring some snacks if you want to try to save existence!  Until next time...

Random Update: Incoming!!!

Not much time for hobby BUT... I did buy some things.  This time of year everybody has a Black Friday sale and I decided to take advantage of the one from Miniature Market!  I could have gone a whole lot crazier than I did but I decided to show a bit of restraint...  kind of.

So we have...

My tiny pile of Black Friday goodness...

On the top of the pile are the Teknes Union workers for Wrath of Kings.  More pig warriors!  I really didn't like these figures when I saw them in the Kickstarter but once I actually got them to the table, I knew I needed some more.  They are just goofy, full of character, and fun to play!  This box takes me up to 24 workers which should be more than I will ever need!  The perfect number!

Next is Tomb Trader.  I've seen this one a couple of times on Miniature Markets sales, and this time I was able to grab a copy.  The players are all legitimate archaeologists... really... not tomb raiders at all... and you try to make it out with the most treasure for the "museum" before the temple collapses.  There is bit of deal making thrown in and as long as everyone agrees, then everyone can leave with something.  But if not... no treasure for you!  This just sounds like a fun, light game and I'm looking forward to trying it out.

And last but not least...  Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Board Game.  I never watched too much Buffy so I'm not one of the show's cult like following, but this game has really good reviews.  The basic concept is you need to defeat the big bad to win, but along the way you need to deal with the lesser monsters of the week.  Take them all out before too many townies die, and you win!  I've actually been looking at this one for a while on Amazon but it's been locked solid at $33.  With this sale, it dropped all the way down to $18 which made it a must buy just so I could check it out.

What I found interesting about this game was the reviews all took the approach of Buffy fan and everyone else, but either way it had good reviews.  On top of that it also can be played solo which will make it perfect when I go back into the field.  I enjoy painting and pushing around my minis, but sometimes it's good to just crash in the hotel and play a game.

That said, there is still a bit more that I've picked up since then.  The Battle Systems Ruined Village set will be arriving tomorrow and the Battle Systems Core Space core game will be arriving next week.  Yeah, I went a little crazy for the BS but I'm excited at the prospect of some quality assembled terrain, and my daughter has even expressed an interest in Core Space though that one can be played solo as well.  Lots of good stuff heading this way and I'm really looking forward to trying it out!  Until next time...

Random Update: Well, I Had A Plan... And Maybe I Still Do!

Last week was a short work week, but proved to be a very busy one for me.  In my few bits of free time, I decided it was time to really take a good look at Battle Systems terrain.  I had first heard of them back with one of their first Kickstarters but I didn't dig any further.  As I try to find time to squeeze in miniatures, terrain, and gaming I decided it was time to rectify that and give them a good look.  If I can get some decent terrain for a reasonable price, well Hell ya!  Sounds like a plan!

Looking at their site, they have tons of options; fantasy, sci-fi, modern... pretty much all your most common gaming needs nowadays.  And looking closer at the individual pieces, they look pretty cool and the price is very reasonable, especially when you consider how much time their system saves.

Even so, I didn't want to just pull the trigger without getting a first hand look at things, so I scoured their catalog and picked out a few things to check out that would give me a good sense of how their stuff looks.  This was all well and good... until I looked at shipping.

My order consisted of two items, the fantasy thatched cottage and wooden fences.  All together, this rang up to a mere $23.98 which is more than reasonable.  Unfortunately shipping added another $23.88 which makes it a bit less so.  To try to save on international shipping, I looked at some of the stockists in the northeast but most of those unfortunately were focused on Magic. which is a damn shame.  It really looked like a great option, and for those of you in the UK, I would definitely recommend checking them out!  For those of us in the States though... it's bit hard to justify.

At this point I was going to throw in the towel but I decided to take a look at a couple of the other US stockists just in case.  A few more TCG stores later and I discovered... well, Discover Games down in Atlanta.  They didn't have the smaller kits that I had been considering, but they did have the village ruins set for a couple of dollars less than retail.  On top of that, they are running a 15% off sale that ends today.

Yeah... this town has seen better days... It'll be perfect!

Can you say instant buy?

So now, I wait...  Very excited I was able to get a hold of it though, and they carry more items from the line so there might be some more orders to them in my future!  Until next time.