Grief and The Grizzled

For the "Lost Generation", World War I was the Great War, the War to End All Wars. Today, what we remember are the numbers - 100 years ago, 19th century tactics against 20th century tech, hundreds of men charging to their deaths between the trenches.

The war has stopped becoming deeply personal. Lost in the statistics is the fact that it claimed the lives of individual people who were spoonfed abstract notions of brotherhood, liberty, and country. We don't think about their suffering anymore simply because too much time has passed - and because there is still quite enough suffering today.


But The Grizzled has stepped in so that we can experience some of that suffering. It is a cooperative card game that puts you in the shoes of French infantrymen trying to survive in time for the war's end. You play, win, and lose together, trying to answer the game's tagline: "Can friendship be stronger than war?"

Before you find out, you need to know how to play. Here's the quick version; for the full explanation, check out Eric's video review. The game moves through Missions, and you deal out Trial cards from the Peace deck. When the Peace deck is gone and you can see the Dove of Peace, everyone wins.

Different cards in the original French game, courtesy of boardgamegeek.

There are 6 types of trials, and you must play these Trials from your hand without talking about what your hand contains. But if there are 3 types of any Trial at a time in the center, you lose the Mission. So you can withdraw from the Mission in order to help your friends, but any cards you have left in your hand will add cards to the Peace deck, making it harder.

See the Peace card in the center? We almost won! But Eric died of his wounds, so we all lost.

Two things are immediately apparent about the game: first, it is really, really hard to beat. Trials that are Traumas, Traps, and Phobias make it difficult to complete Missions. One bad Mission will eventually cause the Peace deck to just fill up and make it impossible to win.

Second, there is just so much grief inherent to the game and its creation. The soldiers you play as have the names of actual people, the designers' ancestors, who fought in WWI. These same names are carved into a Monument card, placed opposite the Peace card, which signals that you have lost the game. And artist Tignous was killed in the attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo earlier this year just after submitting his final illustrations.

This makes playing a very emotional experience. At the very least, you don't talk about the Trials in your hand, which in some sense parallels the reluctance of trauma sufferers to speak of their experiences after the fact. Anyone who hadn't been through it simply wouldn't understand.

Can friendship be stronger than war? I do hope so, but The Grizzled makes me skeptical. I think it is a "must buy". The game simply seems set up to make you fail, which I love since so many friends did die during the war. It is a work that delivers a very tough experience which is highly relevant to its theme, and hits on emotionally bittersweet spots along the way.

The homage to Tignous, bottom right.

Area Control with a Chinese Flavor

Legend has it that the board game Go was used to train future leaders in the hopes that it would aid them in the struggle for control of a fragmented China. Had it been around, Eternal Dynasty might have been a better simulation of the trials they would soon face. Playing it just seems so much like preserving an empire that is constantly under attack.

The Ultimate PS Vita Twitch Game - Beat My Record!

Just a bite sized update before Eric shows us all the wonders of Gen Con! This isn't a board game review, unlike what I've written before about Specter Ops and Warhammer Conquest.

I quickly look up at Pedro, who gives me a thumbs up. "36 minutes, looking good." I look down again and tap. The screen refreshes.
A checkered display of good blue marked out in a sea of bad red. I take a breath.
Tap. Fingers fly to the blue. Tap. Eye scans. Blue there, yes! Blue, yes. Blue. Taptaptap. Red - stop. Stop.
Blue to the left. Tap. Swipe up. Tap. Pinch here. Tap. It's pinch, dammit. Taptap. 
New screen. Flip. Rightleft. Flip. Updown. Tap. Ugh. Red. Instant failure.
Groan.
But I love it. Tap.
The screen refreshes.

@brkg_ shows us how to play Squares! (Yes, you need to shake the #psvita like that)
Posted by LEAP Game Studios on Monday, July 20, 2015

So Squares is a really fun, super reflex intensive PS Vita game that just came out last week (iOS version is currently in the works). I got the chance to play it right before launch, and it is the perfect combination of challenging and addicting.

Push Your Luck Videos #67: Codenames

Alright after playing a few games today I had to get my video review in ASAP because it is a good game. Similar in feel to games like Fake artist goes to NY, Spyfall and Mysterium, Codenames is a light social game that creates a lot of discussion between players and will be a good way to start or end a game session.

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!