Alien Frontiers is another great board game that sits in our Family Favorites board games list. Not only that, but it also made Trevor’s Top 8 Best Board Games list. With only 8 games on the list, that’s a pretty high distinction.

So how would the expansion Alien Frontiers: Factions affect our opinion of the game?
Trevor sums it up simply, “Awesome!”

We still haven’t gotten Brooke or Mom to play Alien Frontiers, but the boys and I think the Factions expansion only enhances the game. And it’s highly likely that we won’t play Alien Frontiers without it. In fact, if I were a betting man, I think it would be a sure bet.

If you need a refresher on Alien Frontiers, or haven’t heard of it before – first jump back to our original video and written review of Alien Frontiers.

What’s the draw of Alien Frontiers: Factions?
As the name suggests, the biggest draw are the new Faction boards. But that’s not all. With the Factions alone, it might be borderline on whether we’d play with the expansion every time. The Factions expansion also adds in 8 new Alien Tech cards and 24 Agenda cards that beef the game up even more.

Faction Boards
Alien Frontiers is typically categorized as a “worker placement” board game. That essentially means that players can place their token (or some other component) on spots on the board that will grant resources, special abilities, or actions. Players then utilize the combination of things they gather to build up elements that grant victory points or other winning conditions.

In Alien Frontiers, there are 9 areas on the board where players can place their ships (dice) to gain resources or other special actions. The new Faction Boards add even more places for players to place their ships.

Rather than being limited to the central board, each player will have a random Faction Board in front of them where players can also dock their ships.

The cool thing about Faction boards is that they grant 2 abilities. One ability is automatically granted to the owner of the board. The second ability on the board is granted to the person who docks their ship on the board. If someone else docks on your Faction to use that ability, they have to pay you an energy resource. Players can also dock their own ships on their own Faction if they want to use that second ability as well (obviously not paying themselves a fee to do so).

The other cool thing is that not all Faction Boards get into play. There are 8 Faction Boards in the expansion, but players randomly select 1 board per player in the game. So each time you play, there will be different abilities to utilize. Great way to mix it up a bit.

Agenda Cards
While the Faction Boards are pretty cool, we think the Agenda cards pack an even bigger punch. Why? Because they introduce a hidden scoring element.

Alien Frontiers has a score track where players can always see who’s in the lead on points. If constantly fluctuates during the game as players place colonies, lose control of regions, or steal Alien Tech cards that grand victory points. Always back and forth.

One of the things we love about Alien Frontiers is how much things can change in the last few turns of the game. Players can swing in with lucky dice rolls or play Alien Tech cards that shift the balance of power on contested regions of the planet and thus affect everyone on the score track.

The Agenda cards can throw in an additional end-of-game swing. Every Agenda card has two agendas on it which give victory points based on special criteria. If a player meets the criteria on their Agenda card, they get an extra point. And some of those points will be hidden until the end of the game – which can propel a player just enough to swipe victory away from others.

Each Agenda card has an In-Game Agenda and an Endgame Agenda. The one of the left is an in-game situation. If a players meets that agenda during the game, they can reveal their agenda to score and immediate point. The one on the right is the endgame agenda that players just reveal at the end of the game.

Players start the game with 3 random Agenda cards and can get more during the game. However, each player can never have more than 3 Agenda cards. So if they get more, they’ll have to choose which to discard (unless you’ve got the special Alien Tech card that let’s you keep 4).

Love the Agenda cards!

5th Player

Alien Frontier: Factions also comes with components for a 5th player. Like I mentioned earlier though, we haven’t been able to entice the girls in our family to join us in a game, so we haven’t tried playing with 5 yet. We can only imagine it adds it’s own intensity as the docking spots on the board remain filled and become more valuable.

But of course we’ve played with the cool purple dice and colonies! They’re too colorful to pass up.

Adding a 5th player to the game will definitely increase the time the game takes to play, but we plan on giving it a shot with 5 players soon.

Even more Alien Frontiers Goodies

We should also mention that there’s more than just Alien Frontiers: Factions. Clever Mojo Games has already added Faction Pack #1 and an Upgrade Pack! The components in the base game are very high quality. The board is fabulous, the cards are great stock, and the wooden colonies are nice. But the Upgrade Pack adds some additional visual and tactile fun to the game.

The Upgrade Pack delivers cool Colony miniatures and Field Generator miniatures that supplement the theme of the game. Just take a look at the photos and tell us what you’d rather play with – the wooden colonies or these cool bubble colonies. We pick bubble colonies all the way.

Another simple addition in the Alien Frontiers Upgrade Pack are the Dockcover tokens. This are handy when playing with less than 4 players. Sure the docks already on the board indicate which spaces to use with less than 4 players, but that can frequently be forgotten. Instead, use these little cardboard pieces to cover of the docks that aren’t used in 2- and 3- player games. Another nice addition. Great thinking Clever Mojo Games!

Fits in the box!
We’ll wrap up our review with this sweet thought – it all fits in the original game box!
No worrying about what to do with all the new components and how to store them because they all fit nicely together with still more room to spare. Which is great because we know more Alien Frontiers expansions are yet to come.

Thanks Game Salute and Clever Mojo Games for providing Alien Frontiers and the expansions – it’s a fantastic board game that keeps getting better!

Summary of Added Components

Alien Frontiers Factions:

• 8 Faction Boards
• 24 Agenda cards
• 8 Purple Colony tokens
• 6 Purple dice
• 5 Rocket scoring tokens
• 8 Alien Tech cards

Alien Frontiers Faction Pack #1:

• 1 Faction Board
• 2 Agenda cards
• 1 Alien Tech card
• 1 REV Figurine

Alien Frontiers Upgrade Pack:

• 40 Colony miniatures
• 3 Field Generator miniatures
• 1 Set of Dock Cover tokens

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We’re super excited with the recent announcement by Fantasy Flight Games to reprint Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation.

Not only is this one of our favorite 2-player games, but one of our favorite board games period!

It rocks!

And you’ll soon be able to get a copy as well.

We’ve heard from a number of people that have seen our video and written review that they haven’t been able to buy a copy of Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation anywhere. It’s been one of those unfortunate situations where a fantastic board game has gone out of print.

So we couldn’t be happier to see it coming back to market.

In fact, the first person I made aware of the news was a good neighbor friend that I had over to play Lord of Rings: The Confrontation one weekend. A couple of plays that day just weren’t enough and he’s been aching to play it ever since. It almost goes without saying that he’s very excited to hear the news as well.

See for yourself in Trevor’s video review of Lord of the Rings the Confrontation.
(It was actually the 22nd game we reviewed – such a long time ago…)

You can also read a bit more on our full review of the game here.

While there aren’t changes to the game play, there are changes to the board game components. For example,

• The rulebook contains additional clarifications.
• Includes bridge-sized cards, as well as scaled down character stands and tiles, with new character cards to serve as reminders of character abilities.
• The game board now has visual reminders, such as character limit indicators and darker mountain borders.
• It features cool new artwork for variant game Fellowship characters, as well as for several cards.

Plans are for it to hit stores in Q3 this year.

Are we going to rush out and buy a copy of the new version?
No. We’ve already got one.

But that doesn’t stop us from being super excited for everyone else out there that will now be able to get this great board game to play with their friends and family!

And if, I mean, WHEN our neighbor buys a copy of the new version we’ll have our chance to take on the battle with the new Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation. Already looking forward to it!

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Dominion Cornucopia is the 5th expansion for the incredibly popular Dominion card game and continues to add more diversity to the game. In fact, Cornucopia likes to reward players for having diversity in their decks.

If you need a quick review of Dominion (or haven’t heard of Dominion), then first check out our video review of Dominion to see how to play.

What’s the draw for Dominion Cornucopia?
The draw is that it’s Dominion of course.

In our review of Dominion Seaside we were pretty clear that once you get playing Dominion and add an expansion, there’ll be no stopping in wanting to pick up more expansions. It’s not because the base game is lacking anything. It’s simply because it’s fun to keep trying new cards.

Like the other Dominion expansions, Cornucopia doesn’t change the method of play at all. Players are still working to build up their deck of cards to be able to buy victory points and win the game. So the elements of fun come down to what all the different cards let you do.

New addition – Prizes

One of the big twists to the game that Cornucopia adds is Prizes. Cornucopia only adds 13 new Kingdom cards to the game, but it also adds 5 unique Prize cards. The 13 Kingdom cards are like others before them in that each Kingdom card type has 10 cards that you can randomly add to the supply of cards to purchase. But for the Prizes, there’s only one card of each:

• Trusty Steed
• Diadem
• Followers
• Bag of Gold
• Princess

To gain a Prize card, players first have to have a Tournament card in their deck. So if Tournament isn’t in the supply, you won’t need to set out the Prizes. But if it is, then get your Prizes ready. When a player plays a Tournament card, they first get an extra Action. Then each player may reveal a Province card from their hand. If the player who played the Tournament has a Province in their hand, they get to pick one of the Prizes, or a Duchy, and put it on the top of their deck. Sweet!

And these Prizes are pretty nice. Click on the picture of the Prizes to read what each card offers.

The only downside to the Tournament and Prizes is that it’s dependent on having a Province in your hand at the time you play the Tournament – which typically means that it will come up in the 2nd half or later in the game. So you won’t get much time to use your Prize. Of course, that’s also addressed by having you place the newly acquired Prize on the top of your deck, so you’ll get it in your hand on the next draw. (Unless you’ve got some other cards in your hand that are letting you draw more cards right away – cool combos.)

The new Kingdom Cards
The 13 new Kingdom cards add even more variety to Dominion. And many of the new cards reward players for having a variety of cards in their deck. So rather than just zero in on a couple of card types in the supply to build your strategy around, players will want to buy many different card types.

Here are a few examples:

• Fairgrounds: This is a Victory card that provides 2 victory points for every 5 differently named cards in your deck at the end of the game. So if you’ve got 15 differently named cards in your deck, each Fairgrounds card will provide 6 victory points – as much as a Province! And it only costs 6 Treasure to buy.
• Harvest: Reveal the top 4 cards of your deck and discard them. Gain +1 Treasure per differently named card. So if all 4 of those cards are different, there’s +4 Treasure to use on a Buy that turn.
• Menagerie: +1 Action, plus Reveal your hand – if there aren’t any duplicate cards in your hand, you get +3 cards. If there are duplicate cards, you only get +1 card. Cool benefit for keeping a variety of cards in your deck.

Our Favorite Cornucopia Kingdom Cards
There are 2 Attack cards in Cornucopia that we love adding to our deck – Jester and Young Witch.

• Jester: +2 Treasure and each other player discards the top card of their deck. If it’s a Victory card, they get a Curse. If it’s any other card, they gain a copy of that card or you do – your choice. So cool! So if they turn over a Gold, you bet I’ll choose to gain a Gold. If they turn over a Curse, even better, now they’re getting another!
• Young Witch: It’s similar to the Witch in the base game but just a bit different. Players get to draw +2 Cards from their deck, but then they also have to discard 2 cards. Of course a lot of times, discarding 2 cards isn’t that bad, so playing the Young Witch is still a good way to cycle through your deck. In addition, during set up another Kingdom card is added to the supply that serves as a “Bane” card. If other players have that card in their hand when a Young Witch is played, they can reveal it to block the Curse.

Final Verdict
Dominion Cornucopia adds some fun cards to Dominion. Is it an essential expansion to get? Maybe not. However, since it’s a smaller expansion, it also doesn’t cost as much as some of the larger expansions that add more Kingdom cards.

Because there are so many Dominion expansions (with more still to come) we’ll suggest another way to go about getting expansions for Dominion – Have your friends buy some!

That way, when you get together, everyone can bring the sets they have and you can randomize from all the expansions you have amongst you. So we’ll bring our base game, Seaside, and Cornucopia and my buddies will bring Intrigue, Prosperity, and Hinterlands. (None of them have picked up a copy of Alchemy – smart move. But we’re still looking forward to adding Dark Ages.)

And we’re all set for a lot of fun!

(We also like that the size of the Cornucopia box is great for storing the 3 Dominion games we own with still more room to spare.)

Dominion Games:

• Original (base)
• Intrigue (base)
• Seaside (expansion)
• Alchemy (expansion)
• Prosperity (expansion)
• Cornucopia (expansion)
• Hinterlands (expansion)
• Dark Ages (expansion)
• Many more to still come

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Pandemic is one of the first board games we reviewed because it’s such a great family board game. It was the first cooperative board game we ever played and was an instant hit in our family.

From its original release in 2008, Pandemic has taken the gaming world by storm. Tons of cooperative board games have been created since then trying to duplicate the success of Pandemic. And every time a new cooperative board game hits the game shelves, they’re immediately compared to Pandemic. Not a bad position to be in.

Earlier this year, Z-Man Games released a new edition of Pandemic to celebrate the 5 year anniversary of the game. And while we haven’t yet tried the new edition, we have seen it in the game aisles of big box retailers. Way to go Pandemic!

But that’s enough about the base game Pandemic because we want to talk about Pandemic: On the Brink – the expansion we bought that we hardly play without any more.

What’s the draw of Pandemic: On the Brink?
Pandemic: On the Brink adds a lot of stuff: A 5th player, 6 new roles, 8 new special events, new components, petri dishes, and 3 challenges – like the bio-terrorist (a favorite). But the coolest thing is that it’s not an all or nothing proposition – you can choose whatever elements you’d like to add in or leave out. And combinations of the new elements means there’s a lot of replayability.

This doesn’t mean we were tired of playing just the base game. But rather it means we’ve simply added new ways to enjoy Pandemic.
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We caught a video segment today about board games from one of our family’s favorite internet sensations: Rhett and Link

They’ve talked about board games before on their YouTube show, “Good Mythical Morning”. But this recent video clip from “The Mythical Show” is called “Most Complicated Board Game Ever” and it’s just begging to be watched.

It’s quite the board game and culture mashup.
We challenge you to see how many different board games you can recognize in this video.

 

Of course, we also looked to see which board games referenced in the video are ones that we’ve done reviews of.
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Happy Mother’s Day!!

With today being Mother’s Day in the US, there have been numerous of articles about mothers over the last few days.

Two in particular caught my attention.
The first was written by two of our favorite authors on the topic of families, Linda and Richard Eyre, titled “Really celebrating Mother’s Day“.

What caught my attention? Well, their intro says it all “Along with expressing appreciation to our own moms, let’s consider how much our whole society, our whole economy and our whole world should celebrate the irreplaceable role of mothers everywhere.”

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We’re still hooked on Descent: Journeys in the Dark 2nd Edition.

And while we may not be playing it as regularly as we did in January after we first got the game and posted a video review on it, it’s still set up on a table in our basement – just begging us to play. In fact, Caleb really does beg to play it regularly, “when can we  finish our campaign?”

The trouble is, since Trevor, Jaden, and Caleb are playing the heroes and I’m playing the overlord in our current Descent campaign, we all need to be around to play. (Actually we did play proxy for Jaden one time when we couldn’t wait any longer.)

But with a teenager that has a job, boys in rehearsals and doing school plays, homework and school schedules, scout camps, and dad out of town on work here and there (also getting up to speed on a new job), it’s a tough proposition to all be around to sit down and play.

Of course, that also means we can get other games to the table (as opposed to January where it was practically ALL Descent) since other games don’t require the same 4 players to play.

However, before our Descent campaign play slowed a bit, we did buy a copy of the Descent: Journeys in the Dark Conversion Kit. And we’re so glad we did!

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One of mom’s favorite games is 7 Wonders. In fact, she placed it 2nd on her recent list of Top 12 Family Board Games.

So is it any wonder that we’d pick up a copy of an expansion for 7 Wonders?

If mom loves a game, we’re definitely going to get it out often. Because when choosing what game to play, you need to select one that the players will enjoy. So if we want mom to sit down and play, then we need to pick one she’ll enjoy. And 7 Wonders is that kind of game.

When it came time to choose an expansion for 7 Wonders, we had two choices: Leaders or Cities.
After looking at what each added to the game, dad decided to buy a copy of 7 Wonders: Cities.

What’s the draw for 7 Wonders: Cities?
The biggest draw for 7 Wonders: Cities was the addition of a few elements that looked like they’d add some cool twists to the game, namely Debt and Diplomacy. And they show up on some of the 27 new Black Age cards (9 per Age).

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