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All Hail Knucklebeard!
Australia
Wodonga
Victoria
BorderCon 101 - Bring the fun, bring a smile, grab a game from the pile. Place the Meeple, play a card, swing your sword and kill the guard! So make the trip, don't be docile, look for details on my profile!
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All of my 'Light Reviews' aim to offer a brief overview that allows people to get a good feel for what the game may offer them, the options involved and general flow of play.
Summary
Game Type - Dice Game
Play Time: 10-20 minutes
Number of Players: 2 – 4 (But can be played solo)
Mechanics - Dice Rolling
Difficulty - Pick-up & Play (Can be learned in under 10 minutes)
Components - Very Good
Image Courtesy of Boomer
Overview and Theme
Combo King is a very light dice roller from GameWRIGHT that evokes a 'Casino High Roller' theme. The game dates back to 2006. I did not even know it existed until a mate gave me a copy earlier this year (2011), which I was happy with as I like me some dice rolling random fun.
These games tend to be good light fun or total rubbish…so which one is Combo King?
The Components
Combo King is very sparse on the components and to be truthful could have been packaged in a much smaller box.
 The Dice – The game comes with 8 large chunky red see-through dice, mimicking those used in casinos. I think this is a really nice touch although it can make it tricky for little hands to grab them all and roll them at times. I tend to prefer dice of the round corner persuasion but these hard corner big jobs just seem right for the game.
Image Courtesy of laiernie
 The Cards – The next most important component are the cards. These represent the challenges that each player is trying to complete. The cards are well designed graphically as each card needs to tell the players what the challenge is, how many dice are to be rolled, how many rolls are allowed, whether dice can be locked away or not and how many chips are won if they complete the challenge. All of this information is outlined in various sections of the card using various icons, symbols and colours including numbers of fingers, coloured circles and little dice and chip icons. It is all very well done.
The cards themselves are of standard size and feature a smooth but not quite glossy finish. They appear to be coated and I would rate them as slightly better than the average card stock used in most small box games from GameWRIGHT.
In all there are 60 Challenge Cards to discover.
Image Courtesy of ackmondual
 Chips – In a classy touch, GameWRIGHT actually include decent poker style chips. They are only about 5 grams in weight but they certainly look the part with a nice pattern and the inner circle being grooved. They come in yellow and blue and support the paper thin theme well.
Given the lightweight nature of the game, many a company may have decided to offer cardboard tokens instead of chips…so I appreciate the touch here.
Image Courtesy of ackmondual
 Rules, Insert and Chip Chart Cards – The rules to the game are a simple double sided sheet. Most things are spelled out fairly clearly with only one or two ambiguities becoming apart to us (such as what happens when players are asked to ante a chip and they don’t have one). With a game this light it is fairly simple to create a quick house rule in such instances.
The insert is a nice felt lined number and includes a space for cards, dice and chips. The insert is however a little smaller than the box and has room to move a little. If an owner also wants to stand their box up on a shelf then the chips will also fall out of their chip groove, so a baggie is more realistic to store them in.
The final components are the Chip Chart reference cards. These outline the uses for chips and how many are required to enact each power.
Image Courtesy of Boomer
All in all the game is produced to a pretty good standard given the nature of the game. There are just those 1-2 little points that stop it earning an Excellent Rating.
Image Courtesy of ArtEmiSa64
Set-up
Each player takes a Chip Chart aide card and 1 Chip to begin. Each player also receives 4 cards. Dice are rolled to determine who goes first and the game is ready to begin.
The Game Play
The aim of Combo King is to be the 1st player to get rid of all their cards. Each card represents a challenge and if a challenge is completed it will earn a player a number of chips, but more importantly they can discard the completed challenge to reduce their cards in hand.
The flow of the game is just as easy -
Play a Card – The active player must choose one card from their hand and reveal it to the table. Challenges can be; solo, 2-player or All-in Challenges (which is another nice use of poker parlance).
The active player should read the title of the challenge and explain what is required to succeed. If it is a 2-player challenge they must pick an opponent. Otherwise all players are involved or only the active player is involved (solo challenge).
Each challenge will outline how many dice are to be rolled and how many attempts (rolls) are allowed. Some challenges allow dice to be set aside to help complete a task, whilst others require that the parameters are met within a single roll.
Success or Failure – Should a player succeed, they will earn the number of chips outlined and if the successor was the active player, then the card can be discarded.
The active player’s turn is then over unless they can pay for an additional turn.
Should a player win a 2-player or multi-player challenge but they were not the active player, they still earn the chips for winning but the card must return to the active player’s hand.
If a player should fail a challenge, they can choose to pay 1 chip to take an additional roll. These additional rolls can be made as many times as a player has chips.
Chip Power – It is certainly possible to win a game of Combo King without chips, but they certainly make it easier. Chips have a total of 7 uses but the most common ones are to take an additional roll to try and complete a challenge (1 chip cost), take an additional turn (3 chips), force an opponent to draw a card (5 chips) and to allow a player to discard a card (9 chips).
Multi-Fail – If a player has failed at a particular challenge twice or more, then they can choose to forfeit their next turn to discard the card and replace it with another from the draw deck.
The Pro’s and Con’s
Positive – Combo King doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it appears to be – a luck filled dice roller with a slightly cheesy theme. But it succeeds very well at its main aim. Combo King is meant to be a ‘grin and groan’ kind of game. You’ll smile at your luck and grin even wider when your opponent’s fail. Some challenges will look like you have them licked and them you’ll roll 2 dodgy results that see you fail when the odds were in your favour. What makes Combo King shine is that it knows exactly what it is and doesn’t attempt to outstay its welcome. In fact for some it may end too quickly. It should also be noted that the most fun challenges in the game are those that involve multiple players.
The other major plus for the game is the sheer variety of Challenge Cards. Some of them over the same goal with simply varying totals, but on the whole there really is a wide variety to discover and given that a player may only see 4-6 cards in a single play, it will take some time before a player becomes familiar with all the challenges in the deck.
Negative – The biggest negative is in that last point just made. Whilst the multi-player challenges are the best, there are only three 2-player cards and nine All-in Challenge Cards. That’s only 12 out of the 60 card deck. This seems to miss the mark completely, especially when a light filler like this should be making the most out of a group/party style atmosphere.
The other main setback for the game is that the cards really do vary greatly from quite easy to tough and downright hard. This can result in results being skewed to one player or another from the initial deal. It is not easy to get rid of tough challenges and a player may only acquire 1 or 2 new cards in a single game. Sure it’s a dice game but this potential happens all too often. There is a fairly simple fix though and that is to separate the cards into easy, medium and hard (which is possible as chip rewards tend to be higher for the harder challenges) and have each player dealt 2 easy, 2 medium and 1 hard.
The final criticism is that the game can end rather quickly and this may be fine for those that want to play 2-3 games in a sitting. But for those looking for a single longer game I suggest starting with 6 or 8 cards. This will also allow players to earn more chips before the game ends and thus make some of those chip powers more accessible.
The Final Word
When all is said and done you really have to be a dice rolling fan of luck based games to really get any mileage out of Combo King. If you are then it will prove to be an engaging little dice filler to start off or end those gaming sessions.
My boys certainly enjoy the experience and like the chance to rub shoulders with Mum or Dad on a pretty level playing field.
Those that like dice rollers but would prefer a little more control over their actions should look to games like Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age or those great push your luck dice rollers in Pickomino or Can’t Stop.
Until next we meet may all your dice roll snake eyes and the pots be racked to your corner! | | 
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Michael Wohlwend
Germany
Karlsruhe
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This reminds me of Last Chance.
It's fun when players risk all to get an unsolved card, with 4 of 5 dice allready showing the correct number... only *not* to get the one needed number in the allowed throws :-)
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BorderCon 101 - Bring the fun, bring a smile, grab a game from the pile. Place the Meeple, play a card, swing your sword and kill the guard! So make the trip, don't be docile, look for details on my profile!
