Dice, Hoo Haaa, what are they good for ?

1 of 5 games released this year by designer Andrei Novac, Praetor is a worker placement game where players use dice as workers to perform actions or activate different locations on the board. Workers/dice will eventually grow in experience thereby providing better benefits when retrieving resources but eventually they will retire and may only be reactivated again via special locations. Players can gain new workers by sending them to school in a 2 step process and at the end of a turn, players will need to pay income and pension, otherwise, they will suffer penalties in terms of morale. When the game end is triggered, the player with the most points will win the game.

ARggh ARggh Human, Have you any brain? Zombie HUNGRY!

Its the near future and while you are in a meeting with your cabinet, the television started reporting news flashes. Reports are now coming in of a strange outbreak and its not just an isolated incident. At least 1 outbreak of an unknown disease has been reported in each of the 5 major areas of the world. As live footage start to trickle in, you are greeted with scenes of chaos and people eating people and the dead rising afterwards. As the horror starts to set in you realise, this is it! This has been foretold in so many movies, books and TV shows. This is the Zombie apocalypse! Can you keep your population alive enough to overcome this scourge? Will you be the first to succumb to the unstoppable horde? Welcome to Zombie State: Diplomacy of the Dead!

Push Your Luck Podcast Episode 42: Awards! Awards! So many awards!

Jonathan and I talk about some games they have played recently. Namely, Packet Row, Agora and Citrus.

We also discuss the recent announcements of the Spiel des Jahres and Kennerspiel des Jahres winners and also the Dicetower Awards 2013 and what they thought about the winners.

The auction for my boardgames is over and I am now busy contacting the winners to arrange the logistics. I am very humbled and grateful for the support and well wishes shown from this auction and would like to thank EACH and EVERYONE of you that have bid on my items so generously. I have been touched and pleasantly surprised by the congratulatory words and best wishes when I met some of you. 

Thank you everyone and I hope I won't let you all down! :D

The link for the podcast can be found here http://s3.amazonaws.com/PushUrLuckPodcast/PYLP+Ep+42.mp3

As usual, do subscribe to us on iTunes and PLEASE rate and review us! This will help others find our podcast as well. Also do leave us feedback either on this post or via our guild on BGG. I am sure we cannot be so perfect such that there are no complaints so do talk to us, I promise we don't bite :P

Follow me on twitter @duckizz and also my youtube channel (search duckizz).

See you in 2 weeks!

Nothing Says "I Love You" Like... Pimping - Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island

Well, this is the last of the custom inserts I got from Chris. Haven't made any new orders since then, although I am extremely tempted to get one done for Keyflower, Dungeon Petz, and Trajan. Haha. *Must control self...*

Anyway, its the last one for now, but the nicest one of the lot! This post does not only show the custom insert, but also a few other nice upgrades I got for some of the tokens in the game. Heh heh. Enjoy!

Longer, Bigger... Haha, oops.. Istanbul! Helios! Macao! Homesteaders!

Previously I had posted a session report on the small filler games we played at Eric's. This time this report is for all the heavy hitters we played instead, and all of them except for one were new to me. Did the heavy games turn out to be as mediocre as the lighter games we played? Well, you'll see.

The first game to hit the table was Istanbul. I was not expecting to play this game but a friend went out to borrow it from another friend so we could get it tabled. Istanbul is a nominee for the 2014 Kennerspiel Des Jahres award and is also my pick to be the winner ( although I made the pick without having played it yet. Haha ). Did it turn out to be as good as I thought it would be? Well, the answer is a resounding Yes!

The game is very colorful and eye-catching. A thumbs up from me.

Faster, Smaller, not necessarily Better

In what may have been my last weekend of games with Eric before he leaves, we played a whole bunch of games in the span of 12 hours. There were a lot of new games played and I'll try to cover most of them in 2 posts. This first post is for the bunch of smaller games we played; though they were small, did they pack a punch? Let's find out!

First up was a print and play that Eric made - Yardmaster Express. 

I had my eyes on Yardmaster when the game was up on Kickstarter, but in the end I had decided that I would wait for its release to see if it deserves the buzz it received during the campaign. 

I had completely brushed aside Yardmaster Express since I was waiting for Yardmaster. 

Push Your Luck Podcast Episode 41: Our 2014 Spiel and Kennerspiel des Jahres predictions

Eric and Jonathan discuss the nominations and recommended list for this year's Spiel and Kennerspiel des Jahres awards and also predict who will win them!

As usual, to comment about our podcasts, leave us reviews and rate us on iTunes. Or join our guild on boardgamegeek for more information.

Also Eric's auction to sell his boardgames to raise funds for his tuition will have 1 final day tomorrow!
If you have not bid, what are you waiting for ? Check it out here
http://bgg.cc/geeklist/174904/liquidating-my-games-fund-my-studies-bid-generousl

For direct link to our episode, click here
http://s3.amazonaws.com/PushUrLuckPodcast/PYLP+Ep+41.mp3

Nations - Building a house of cards, one card at a time

I've only managed to play Nations once previously and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. My first game was with 5 players and took us 3 plus hours. But during which I was very engrossed and taken by the game and it most certainly did not feel like 3 hours. Well, I managed to get another game of it in, and this time it was also with 5 players! Was it another 3 hours? YES. Hahaha

Now, if you know me, Nations is the type of game that I don't normally enjoy. It takes too long, has too many flowing phases/parts in the game, and it requires players of similar "levels" to fully enjoy a competitive experience. So I guess it was quite a shock to Eric and the others when I suggested we play Nations with 5 right after dinner - it was already 8 close to 9pm by then.

Russian Industry, Robinson Traits, and Life

I thought I would just do a short write up on my Friday night session of Russian Railroads, Robinson Crusoe, and That's Life! ( with a bit of advertising )

I must say, it's been a long while since I last played Russian Railroads. Which is surprising to me since it doesn't even take that long to play! Haha. Well, I decided to go with the double industry strategy this time round. So that's how my whole game went really. A one track mind focus on the industry and a little bit of Kiev on the side when the opportunity presented itself.

Early on in the game - Round 1