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Wonder Woman came Face to Face with the Kompromat at the Adlabas

Posted by Steph

Weekly Update

07 Apr 2021

Steph Hodge

(punkin312)

United States
Tennessee

Well, it's no Ginkgopolis...

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Hia Everyone!

My 2021 Awesome Gaming Calendar is Now on sale for $10!

Tonight at 5pm CDT join us as we play awesome games! over on: https://Twitch.tv/boardgamersteph! We will be playing: Ticket to Ride: New York, Aldabas: Doors of Cartagena, & Targi: The Expansion.

From Sunday:

Nations

Regicide

Now on Kickstarter!
Board Royale: The Island

I was asked to cover a new Kickstarter game from Grand Gamers Guild. This game is hitting KS on April 20! Michael and I played Aldabas: Doors of Cartagena. New to me!

We will actually be playing this on the stream tonight, so I hope you can join us for the fun!

I honestly didn't know what an Aldabas was, but it is an old-fashioned door knocker. A theme I wouldn't have ever thought of or expect in a boardgame, so that is new and unusual.

In Aldabas, you are trying to collect the most points from the cards you are able to collect in your tableau.

There are different types of cards, and they will score for the 1st place influencer and the 2nd place influencer. You will want to have the most value in as many different types so you can score as much as you can. For example, if you have the most influence in the soldier's suit you will win bonus points for the nobles you have collected in your tableau. So you can see they all sort of play off of each other.

Each turn you will get 2 actions. You can buy a card from the display to your hand, play a card to your tableau, or collect 2 coins from the supply.

When you play a card to your tableau, you will activate that card and the adjacent cards below and to the left. You must also never play the same color card next to each other and you have to always be supporting a card, so there are a couple of placement rules.

The game is over once one player has completely filled their tableau with a 3x4 grid of cards or if the money stash has been depleted.

Michael and I could basically dive right in. The rules are straightforward and easy to understand. Figuring out the combos and how everything ties together was the puzzle. I had my idea of what would score me the most points, and I tried to make it work, but I wasn't finding the right cards to compete with that influence majority. I was actually playing a bunch of cards that gained me a TON of coins. I was flush with coins, I just needed to figure out how to use them.

I ended up using the coins for influence so I won MOST of the majorities. I actually thought I would win this game, but I missed out on finding the most important card in the game! I didn't find a Clergy card. I didn't realize how important that card actually was. the clergy will score you points based on your full influence in your tableau. It would have been HUGE points for me. Let's just say #mistakesweremade.

It was a CLOSE game. Michael had the Clergy which made a bunch of points. I had no idea who would win. I felt defeated, but it actually ended in a TIE! 34 to 34! Now the tie-breaker was most coins. I had it in the bag on the tie-breaker. Luck was on my side!

Such a nice card game! I love the simplicity and beauty of it. I can't wait to show it off on the Livestream tonight. I think this will be a game that works well for a bunch of people. It is quick and intuitive. I very much enjoyed playing!

Microbadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blog

I got to check out a 2 player card game called Kompromat. New to me!

In Kompromat you are dueling the other spy for the clues and items. Over 6 rounds you will want to claim the most points from the cards you collect.

Each round there are 4 cards on display. When it is your turn you will reveal the top card of your deck and place it on your side next to one free card. Your goal for each card is to have the most value closest to 21 without going over. So you will place your first card face up and then you will essentially push your luck placing more cards to hit that target. You will keep placing until you want to stop. The next cards you add will be face-down so your opponent doesn't know if you bust or not.

Once both players have bet on all 4 cards then the stacks are revealed. If you revealed a stack that is over 21 then you bust and have to take a bust token which is actually worth 1 point! The catch is if you ever have 9 of these tokens, you will automatically lose the game right then.

Some of the bonus cards you can gain will give you the ability to help manipulate the stacks or other powers.

I have had a bunch of fun playing this the few times I have. (Video below)

In the first game, it was clear I would be losing the game since I was busting left and right. Since I was busting so much, I had to KEEP pushing my luck to try and hit 21 exactly. If you hit 21 exactly you can get rid of one of your tokens. It was my only chance in the game.

I had 8 tokens and the first card in the lineup for that round had an automatic gain a token attached to it, so, if I didn't hit it exactly at 21 then I am sure Michael would auto bust that so I would have to win it. If I made 21 it would have been okay, but I ended up busting when I tried so I super lost!

Perhaps I learned from my mistakes as I was able to have a major comeback when we played on the Livestream!

I have to say this game is a lot of fun. There are some crazy moments since there is that .5 value card that just throws everything through a loop and keeps it super interesting.

Easily one of the best "duel" games out there. I LOVE the push-your-luck aspect of the game. Everything just works for me. I would highly recommend this one to anyone who enjoys a good 2 player card game. And it is super quick!

I ended up checking out a Heroclix game. I hadn't played one before but have been amazed at the awesome quality of the figures. I think it is really clever to have the stats of the characters right there in the base so you know exactly what's what. The game I got to try was DC Comics HeroClix: Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary Miniatures Game. New to me!

I hadn't played Heroclix before, but I surmise if you are familiar with any Heroclix, then you will feel right at home with this Wonder Woman set.

The game is essentially all combat. You will spend action points to move around the board and attack when able. The attacks will trigger off of the character's stats and what you roll on 2D6.

What makes Heroclix interesting are all of the unique abilities from attacks, defense, speed etc. There is a HUGE player aid that helps with all of that, which can be a bit daunting for new players, but thankfully, you won't need most of it. It is handy when determining what your few characters can do.

As we were new players to Heroclix, Michael and I were able to get into it relatively easy enough, but not all command words were defined, so had to spend time trying to figure out what some of the powers actually were. I am sure fans of Heroclix already know such commands that weren't defined, but it wasn't clear to us.

There was also a discrepancy with Wonder Woman herself since she had 2 bolts in one place and one bolt in another, so that wasn't clear either. I was told to treat it as 2 bolts.

All in all, Michael was kick-butt and totally took me out. He had some killer powers with Medusa. I basically needed to do ranged attacked, but found myself in melee so it was doom and gloom.

Ultimately, this isn't really my type of game. I am not into full-on combat gaming like this is. I think it works great for those who do enjoy it though.

I was certainly happy to try it and now I got a better feeling for the Heroclix world. I think the minis are pretty awesome, and I love how they were all females included in this particular game. That was pretty cool. It will work for the right group no question!

I am so excited that Pandasaurus keeps bringing all the NSV small box card games to the US for distribution. This time the new game coming out is The Game: Face to Face.

It is amazing to me that The Game has had so many variations and they continue to be awesome. In Face to Face, you are in a duel. This is a 2 player game where you are trying to get rid of all your cards first or simply survive longer than the other person.

You will have a deck of 2-59 cards. Much like in The Game, you will have 2 piles, one for decreasing values and another for increasing values.

The catch is at the end of your turn you will draw only 2 cards no matter how many you played. You can draw the full amount if you HELP your opponent. And by HELP, I mean play on their stack any card that will make it better for them. No, you don't want to help them out, but you will want to replenish your hand so it will happen.

Tricky tricky stuff going on in this game. Do you play risky and help your opponent or should you hold back a little and play reserved so you can have better control. If you play too reserved then the other person might go out before you, or maybe you stalled enough so they run into a dead end.

All I know is that I am horrible at this game! The first time I played with Michael I was taking big risks and it seemed to be paying off. I got through most of my deck, but always comes a time when it is all doom and gloom and I wasn't able to play 2 cards on my turn. I ended up losing it.

Well, in the video below it wasn't much better. I tried to play a reserved hand, and it was just not working out for me either. Michael hardly helped me at all and it cost me the game.

I am pretty convinced I will never win this game, but I will always want to try. I realllllly like this one. For anyone who always enjoys a lite card game for 2 players, you should not miss out on this. It is not cooperative, so I think that will be a draw for many people. Quick too, so check it out!

New to the Collection:
Chronicles of Crime 1900

Thanks for following along!

Happy Gaming!!!

-Steph

All images in this post are copyrighted, owned, and controlled by Steph Hodge Photography, unless otherwise noted.
Please contact me if you would like to purchase or use my images in any way.
Disclaimer: I am a contract Employee of BGG. I review games that are provided by the publisher. I am not compensated for my blog content.
Thank you.

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