Push Your Luck podcast Ep 63 released!

Eric and Jon discuss the games that they are looking out for at GENCON 2015! Eric will also be at GENCON at the Asmodee Demo booths as part of the demo team! So if you see him there, go say hi! 

Games we discuss:

Dice City

Codenames

New York 1901

SHH

Forbidden Stars

Flick 'em Up!

The Village Crone

Tail Feathers

Discoveries

Dark Moon

Above and Below

Thunderbirds

Extra! Extra!

Trambahn

Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King

Between Two Cities

Magic: The Gathering – Arena of the Planeswalkers

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Review - Specter Ops

I'm smirking, smile so wide it seems to be eating my face. I've just finished all my objectives, the hunters have no idea where I am, and I'm about to make a break for the closest exit. Victory should just be a matter of time. 

Suddenly one of the hunters points at my exact location, throwing his hands up. "He's right here. I know it. I have a feeling." Ugh, the jig is up. They know exactly where I am. 

This is Specter Ops, a thrilling game of hide-and-seek for up to 6 players. One of you is an Agent prowling secretly around the map trying to fulfill objectives. Meanwhile, everyone else is a Hunter trying to capture the Agent. The Agent secretly records their moves on a sheet that is a copy of the game board, while the Hunters are always visible on it.

The game board! Looks good, feels nice. Very glossy.

And the board is a beautiful and glossy grid of coordinates that offers a lot of different places to hide. It's made up of these tight spaces that are separated by streets the Hunters have full visibility on. Players can move up to 4 spaces on the board in any direction, but the Hunters get a car that can move up to 10 spaces on the streets.

So here's what I like about the game: it fits its theme really well. It’s simply thrilling to play the Agent, listening as the Hunters try to catch you in their ever-shrinking net. There's so much tension as you weave in and out of danger, moving suboptimally or using your gear in order to fool the Hunters.

Playing as the Hunters is equally tense. It's a race to uncover the Agent’s whereabouts before they can get to their objectives and escape. The mechanics of the game cleverly make it feel like a frustrating logic puzzle: the Agent has a known starting point, a finite number of directions they can take, and must leave behind a “last spotted” token on the board if they cross a Hunter’s line of sight (the Agent is only revealed on the board if a Hunter has a direct line of sight on them at the end of any turn). Plus each Hunter has a special ability that helps to track Agents down, ranging from the Beast's enhanced senses to the Prophet's mind reading.

Agent's flashbang, top; one of the Hunters, bottom.

But this "logic puzzle" feel can also be a weakness to the game. It's very easy for one of the Hunters to become a puppet master, second-guessing everyone else's moves if there's a more reasonable option. It’s an acute problem in games of cooperation, and other hidden movement games like Letters from Whitechapel seem to have at least tried to address that issue by having a “turn leader” that switches every round. Specter Ops doesn't do so.

Still, even with this problem the game feels really good to play. There’s just enough room for subterfuge while playing the Agent, and you’ll get an adrenaline rush like no other when outwitting the Hunters around you. On the other hand, the Hunters have just enough clues, and seemingly overpowered abilities, to track the Agent down. Once the Agent is spotted once, it's very hard to outwit the Hunters again.  

Overall, Specter Ops is a solid game, especially if you love hidden movement mechanics and using your deduction skills.

My Agent sheet when I played with Eric. He captured me on turn 22 :(

Push Your Luck Podcast Ep62: Spiel Des Jahres 2015 predictions!

Eric and Jon discusses the games recommended and nominated for the Spiel Des Jahres and Kennerspiel Des Jahres 2015 awards. They also discuss 2 games they have played recently which is Aquasphere and Queen's Architect. Also Jon has a small life question at the end. :)


Listen to it here

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Thanks for listening and let us know what you think by giving us reviews on iTunes!

Push Your Luck Video #61 and #62 released!

PYLV #61: Dark Seas by AEG

PYLV #62: CHEW: Cases of the FDA by IDW Games

Push Your Luck Episode 61: Session Impressions

Push Your Luck Podcast Episode 61 is released! 

Jon and I discuss some games they have played recently.

Games covered are:
Deep Sea Adventure
XenoShyft Onslaught
Letter Tycoon
Soulfall
Dark Seas
Antike II
Wizard

VISIT our website www.pushurluckpodcast.com, follow @duckizz on twitter and the youtube channel youtube.com/duckizz for other random blabbering and video reviews - VISIT NOW!

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One Day

So just as an aside from boardgaming, I will be displaying One Day with my classmate Angela today at our End of Year student Game show! If you want to play it, check out the link below:

http://duckizz.itch.io/one-day

One Day is an interactive story generator that creates poetic snapshots of a survivor's life. Sentences, images and music are knit together to form small glimpses into the daily life of a survivor. With up to 2.5 million possible combinations each story is unique in its own way. One Day is simple and easy to navigate so anyone can sit down and enjoy the quiet atmosphere the game creates. 

Consider giving Angela and me some support by clicking on the donate button in the link. It will go a long way into allowing us to further advance One Day!

Stuff we are considering:
a) Release this on iOS devices
b) some more polish
c) better music

Thanks for your support!

Arboretum - My Print and Play version

Animals!

Arboretum, a 2015 release by Z-man games, is a set collection game designed by Dan Cassar. Players are trying to play cards into their play area (or Arboretum) in such a way that when the end game scoring comes, they will first qualify to score points and then score as much points as they can based on the card placement. The copy that Z-man game has released has very clean and beautiful looking art based on trees but not that appealing to me so I decided to create my own version using animals which are cuter, in my opinions ;p