Sure. Each player gets 4 tiles of their color and a starting hand of 4 Battle cards. The Battle cards are (initially) chosen by the players in a similar fashion to Fairy Tale; you start with 5 cards, select one to keep, then pass the remaining cards to your left. This continues until all players have 4 cards they have chosen. Not only does this allow you to ‘build’ your own starting hand (thus ensuring it isn’t horrible), it also can give you something of an idea of what your opponents’ have, which is good information.

So on your first turn, you have your Battle cards and tiles to place. You also get 3 RUs to start the game. That’s your money. They are pretty scarce throughout the game, so you have to be cautious about how you use them. Resource management certainly plays a part here.

You get a play aid, which indicates that all of your technologies - Weapons, Shields, Engines and Comms - are at 0. This means you get no bonuses to begin with. Shucks. These techs aren’t complicated tech trees; they rise in a linear fashion, with the higher the tech, the bigger the bonus. The techs mostly do exactly what they sound like the do; Weapons gives you a bonus to your hand when you’re the attacker in Battle. Shields give you a bonus if you’re the defender. Engines let you place extra tiles on the board on your turn, Comms let you draw extra battle cards. The cost of each tech is the same as its level. So if I want to raise my Engines to level 3, not only do I have to have the preceding level, but it will cost me 3 RUs for that level. In order to keep them balanced (as Engines is really an attractive option), Weapons and Shields each give a bigger bonus that Engines or Comms. So while Comms gives you 3 extra cards for level 3, Weapons and Shields will each give you a bonus of 4 for their level 3s, respectively. Get too far behind on those and you could get blown up, but good.

Right, I was discussing your turn. Tangent… sorry. I’ll outline the turn order as it’s pretty clear about how you go about becoming Master of the Galaxy..
1. Replenish your battle hand to the maximum.
- On turns other than your first, you may have Comms higher than level zero. If this is the case, draw enough Battle cards to bring your hand up to your allowed max.
2. Take income.
- You don’t get any on your first turn (you already got 3!? whaddya want for free? ) but on all subsequent turns, you get 1 RU just for being the swell being you are. This is in addition to money you would earn for any moons you currently own. Moons give you an addition 2 RU of income, unless you have to pay 1 RU in tax to the player that owns the planet.
3.Take alloted tiles.
- Count out the amount of tiles you get to place this turn.
3a) Place fortifications.
- This is first in your placement phase by necessity. Often people would want to place fortifications later on and forget where they had initially placed tiles. Since you can only fortify tiles you owned at the beginning of the turn, this rule clears up any confusion.
3b) Place your other tiles. Resolve Battles as necessary.
- When you’re placing your tiles into unoccupied space, no problem. However, if your buddy already owns that spot, you gotta battle for it. Sweet. Talk big about how you’ll crush them, mention how many massive Battle cards you have, glare at each other some and go to it. The winner then usually gloats about how powerful they are.
3c) Replenish your Battle cards up to 4.
- If you’ve battled, and if your battle hand was reduced to less than 4 (guaranteed on your first few turns), draw some to go back up to 4. This goes for your opponents, too.
4. Purchase or play Research Cards, Purchase Battle Cards, Purchase Technologies
- Yes, it’s the shopping phase of your turn. Everyone loves shopping.
5. Exchange Battle card, if no Battle has occured.
- If you attacked someone (you space pirate, you) no tradesies for you. If not, dump off your crappy stuff and cross your fingers.

So that’s what you’re going to be doing. When you’re expanding your intergalactic empire, be sure to take advantage of the encounters that are scattered around the board. Those ones are freebies. You take the tile, you get the encounter. Not all are good though, so think hard about whether or not that’s what you want to do. You can also choose to have an encounter without being forced to take those specific tiles. You send out a scout ship (by discarding one of your alloted tiles that turn) and draw one of the encounter tiles from the side of the board. Encounters are good things to have as they do a variety of good things. Most of them are beneficial too, so keep that in mind.

Taking planets and/or moons is also highly recommended. The planets give you a permanent bonus to your techs (or other neat things like Resource Mining or fortifications) and the moons give you more money. However, the moons are always orbiting the planets (so plan ahead) and the planets… well they’re worth big points, so make sure you can keep them once you’ve grabbed ‘em.

There’s more stuff too, that I won’t go into detail about right now.. like your Special Power, Desperation!, and exactly how Battle works.

Once we’re done, how do we know who wins?

Win, win, win. That’s all you ever think about. Isn’t it about the fun of playing the game?

No. I want to kick [insert person’s name here]’s butt. Tell me how.

Okee dokee. Well I mentioned about how engines were a big deal. That’s because every tile you have showing on the board at the end is worth one point. The ones underneath stacks with someone else’s tile on top aren’t worth diddly, so tough. On top of that, your planets are worth 4, any moons you own are worth 2 (both of those are in addition to the tiles they’re sitting on), your Special Power is worth 4 (if you didn’t use it) and each RU you still have is worth 1.

On top of those points, you score at the end of the first 2 phases - there are 3 in the game, with the final phase ending in the Supernova - but only for the planets and the moons. Those points are added to your end-game total and the person with the most points gloa.. err… thanks his/her opponents for a good game.

Thanks again for reading… I have a lot of fun writing these up.

Originally posted on BoardGameGeek.

I haven’t written about Supernova much lately. It’s likely due to the fact that I haven’t played it much either. This, however, is because the prototype is off getting all fancified. And by ‘fancified’, I mean done up right and proper by Mike Doyle. I feel simultaneously excited, nervous and scared about it, kind of like how many feel just before opening the door when set up on a blind date. That being said, I know it’s going to turn out fantastically. Mike puts so much time and effort into the details of his creations, I simply can’t wait to see what he comes up with.

On with the Questions and Answers!

What is the point of the game? How does it play?

Well, the point of the game is to become the galactic grand poobah (my term). That, and to lay the smack down on your friends. This, of course, differs from what the rules say, but I have to be more ‘professional’ in the rules. As for how it plays, if you haven’t already read the rules, I’ll summarize.

Each player represents a space-faring civilization, attempting to colonize new worlds and expand their influence across the galaxy when they learn their co-habited solar system is about to be blown to smithereens by the upcoming supernova of their Sun. You lay tiles onto the board each turn, each of which represents your influence in that region of space. The more space that you have influence over at the end of the game, the more points you get. The civilization (player) with the most points wins and becomes the aforementioned poobah. Ahhh, but it’s not that simple. Over the course of the game, you may spend some money to increase your technologies. You can boost Shields or Weapons to intimidate and/or blast your opponents, or you can raise your Engines or Comms, with which you can expand faster or hold more Battle Cards, respectively. What’s this about Battle cards? Oh, right. Anytime you want to take a spot on the board which one of your friends have already taken (or vice versa), you have to fight over it (the more smack talk, the better). For this, you use Battle Cards. You may use them in a variety of combinations to try to win the Battle. You then take into account each player’s level of Weapons/Shields and the height of their stack of tiles to determine the winner. Planets and Moons are valuable as they convey extra points during and at the end of the game while also providing a bonus and income (respectively).

So what’s fun about that? Why should I look at this game instead of Nexus Ops or Twilight Imperium? How is this different?

Well, I haven’t played Twilight Imperium, but I have played Nexus Ops. Nexus Ops (from now on referred to as “NO”) is pretty cool cause it has little smelly alien guys that kinda look like gummi candies. Nice. The thing about NO is that although you get some pretty nice miniatures, you don’t every really get the feeling that you are expanding and growing an empire. Supernova gives you that feeling, at least to a degree. Plus, when you take control of a solar flare and obliterate 4 of your friend’s tiles, well… that’s just cool. I really like how the choices you AND your opponent’s make in Supernova changes the dynamic of the game. If my opponents all start to boost their engines in lieu of other techs, I might want to do the same. Or, I can increase my Weapons to take out their planets as they have less shields to defend with. If I decide instead to spend my money on Research (cards), it can give me more options on my turn. I could also change tactics within the course of a game, which is always a good plan. Often, you may want to be aggressive early to get the points for a planet and as many moons as you can hold onto at the end of the first Phase. Then rest on your laurels and build up your resources a bit until the third phase when you again go hard at a planet for final scoring.

As for how Supernova compares to TI, well, it’s shorter. That’s about all I can tell you about that.

What are some of the different Research cards you can buy?

There are 20 different Research cards in the game, and there are 2 of each for a total of 40 cards. The following is a selection of those cards.

Teleportation – Trade places with one of an opponent’s tiles, up to two hexes away from your own. The opponent’s tile must be of equal height or lower.

Call for Reinforcements – Fortify any two of your tiles with tiles from your reserves.

Fleet Academy Recruits – Draw 4 Battle Cards. Choose up to 2 cards to keep. Discard the same amount of cards from your hand.

Battlestations – Increase your Battle Hand by one card until the end of this turn. If unused, the card must be discarded.

Surface Eruption – Add 1 to the distance of a Solar Flare that you have won control of. You must display this card upon winning the bid.

Space Vacuum – Remove one tile from the bottom of any stack of tiles. This MAY be used to remove a single tile.

Lunar Acceleration – Move a moon one space forward or back in its current orbit, maintaining its current direction.

Research cards are designed to give you a few extra options. They aren’t excessively powerful, nor were they designed with ‘take that’ play in mind. There is some of that, but for the most part, I tried to make them be more about helping yourself than drastically harming your opponents. This keeps the game from changing so much between turns that there is zero planning involved. That being said, the game changes enough that Supernova is definitely a tactical game, not a strategic one.

Who would like this game? What type of game is it?

Although I think the debate between Euro and American styled games is a bit overboard, if I must qualify Supernova within those boundaries, here’s my consensus: it’s a bit of both. Don’t call me a fence-sitter too quickly. It really is. There is some very ‘euro-esque’ resource management and decision-making involved. However, the game quickly becomes about conflict as you try to expand within the boundaries that your friends/opponents are confining you to. If you’re looking for a ‘why can’t we all get along?’, no-conflict euro, this isn’t your game. Well, I suppose it could be, but MAN is it ever dull when people aren’t attacking each other. That doesn’t mean it’s entirely a bash-the-leader kingmaker game either. There is a certain amount of that, but mostly to just keep the obvious leader from running away with the game. But the thing is, the leader isn’t always obvious… unless you spend the downtime counting people’s tiles on the board. But how much fun is that?? Supernova is at it’s best when you and some friends want a game to play while having a bevvie and snacks and want something that gives you some interesting decisions as well as some conflict and a bit of nastiness. It’s fun, pretty lightweight, and aimed at that gamer who has likely grown up on Risk and is starting to explore the broader world of boardgames.

What about theme!?! I know it’s about these races and an exploding sun, but give me CHROME!! (see: chrome)

Gotcha. We’re working on that. As you read, there is a published author working on the backstory for the game. It will be available (most likely) as a downloadable PDF from the official site once the game is released. There will also be much more theme-related flavor text both in the rules and on the research/civilization/desperation cards than there is now. Have no fear, it will make you feel space-faring and galac-tastic.

Thanks for reading. I hope I’ve helped answer some questions about Supernova. If you have more, post here or feel free to geekmail me. I always enjoy chatting about Supernova.

For some reason, I really enjoy Stefan Dorra’s designs. I’m not sure why, but they just seem to work for me. Tonga Bonga is a racing game of bribery that in my opinion, hasn’t really gotten the attention it deserves. So… why do I like it so much? Read on.
My reviews all (will) cover several things: an overview of the game, the components and their quality, the ruleset and its clarity, the fun factor, value for the buck, and the lowdown.

Overview

Tonga Bonga is a game of boat racing to various islands in the South Pacific. Everyone is trying to make the most money by delivering goods to 4 of the 6 islands on the board and then racing back to Tonga Bonga for a bonus. To do this, you must bribe your opponents by offering up cash for them to place their workers (dice) on your boat. You then need to roll the dice well… or poorly, depending on your objectives. By rolling well, you can claim the money that your opponent’s are bribing you with. However, if you roll poorly, they don’t go very far. So really, both options are good for you.

Favre4MVP has outlined the rules very well here.

Components

In the box, you’ll find a large board, 4 sets of dice and wooden cubes in different colors, 4 boats, and some really great molded plastic money. Oh, and lots and lots of air. As one of the pics for the game shows, the box is a standard Ravensburger size box, but it could have been about half the size, were the board a quad-fold. Ah well, at least they didn’t skimp on the bits. The boats are awesome with your sail representing your color. The dice are great too, with the pips going from 1-5 and the sickboy. Yup, it shows a guy puking over the side of the boat. Possibly one of the best ideas for dice ever. The money is close to the highest quality I have in any of my games. Manila’s might be slightly better, but Tonga Bonga’s is much more visible from a distance.

Components: 9 out of 10

Ruleset

The rules are short, well written and clear. Except for the fact that I always forget to rotate the starting player, they’re great.

Ruleset: 9 out of 10

Fun Factor

Tonga Bonga isn’t a heavy game, by any stretch of the imagination. That’s possibly why I like it so much. The great fun in this game is in bribing your opponents. Offer up a bunch of money for each of your sailors and you’ll likely get some high valued dice from your opponents. However, you can offer practically nothing if you just want to annoy them. This is equally fun… and even better if everyone rolls high. Then they are forced to give you high dice with practically no reward, which always plasters a big stupid grin on my face. Of course, my opponents don’t seem to like it much. Heh.

Fun Factor: 9 out of 10

Value for the Buck

Here’s where Tonga Bonga falls down a bit. As far as I know, it’s out of print. That doesn’t mean it’s hard to find, but you likely won’t find it on the shelves of your FLGS in North America. Here on BGG there’s always a few up for grabs as well as on ebay.co.uk or ebay.de. However, you’re likely going to have to fork out around $50USD for it, including shipping… which I’ll admit is pretty steep. Nonetheless, if your group enjoys light, quick games with a dash of luck, a smidgen of backstabbery with a sprinkling of tough decisions, you could do far worse than Tonga Bonga.

Value for the Buck: 6 out of 10

The Lowdown

Tonga Bonga likely won’t be remembered as Stefan Dorra’s best game. However, it fills the niche for a light racing game with a good amount of player interaction with resource management and backstabbery. Good family fun.

The Lowdown: 9 out of 10 (not an average)

Bizarrely, this is my first review on the ‘Geek. I’m approaching 75 games in my collection and for whatever reason, Combo King has inspired me to write a review.

My reviews all (will) cover several things: an overview of the game, the components and their quality, the ruleset and its clarity, the fun factor, value for the buck, and the lowdown.

Overview

Combo King is a dice-rolling game where all players try to get rid of the cards in their hand (4-5 per player, depending on # of players) by successfully completing the required roll as described on each card. Players get chips when successfully completing a combo. Players may use the chips to roll again during a turn, take extra turns, force other players to draw cards, or discard a card. It is simple, fun, and fast-paced.

 Components

In the box, you’ll find a deck of 60 cards, 8 dice, a rulebook(page), and 36 poker chips. I was quite impressed with the quality of all the components here. The box is small, but frankly larger than it could be. In my opinion, this is okay as long as it’s not ridiculously large. In this case, it is not. The insert is well done and is lined with a felt-like substance. Although this is cool, they missed a tiny opportunity here; they could have left one side of the insert empty so that it could be used as a rolling tray. Nonetheless, it functions well. The dice are very large and feel good in your hands and roll really well. The cards are of decent quality; they aren’t the thickest I’ve ever seen but are better for it as they shuffle really nicely. As they aren’t used excessively, I’m sure they will last a very long time. The poker chips are the surprising inclusion here; they are chunky and fantastic. In many games at this price range, you’d expect mini poker chips or even Bingo-style chips, but not here. They are one of the reasons I bought the game as being a game designer, getting some nice components to ‘borrow’ for a prototype is handy.

Components: 9 out of 10

Ruleset

Not much to say here; the rules are short and clear. They comprise of a single double-sided page. During play, the only question that arose was if you are allowed an extra roll at any point during your turn, not just at the end. For instance, when attempting ‘Avalanche’, your three rolls have to each be lower than the previous. We surmised that, as it does not say that you *can’t*, then you can. Otherwise, the rules are easy to understand and don’t omit anything significant. They can be downloaded as a PDF here: http://www.gamewright.com/gamewright/pdfs/Rules/ComboKing-RU…

Ruleset: 8 out of 10

Fun Factor

Combo King’s big attraction is likely this. It is simply FUN. It is not deep, nor strategic whatsoever. However, it offers quick bouts of tension on an ongoing basis; this is something many strategic, heavier games fail at. When you have 3 tries to roll a ‘Full House’ and you’re on your last couple of dice and you’ve got one roll left… The tension is at its peak when all players are into the game. I suspect that Combo King would be even better as a ‘beer and pretzels’ game. I’m not condoning drunkenness as a prerequisite for the game, but I imagine its fun would be increased with a beer or two. I’ll leave it at that. As for the number of players, the more the merrier. There is a deck of 60 cards and each player only has 4 or 5, with the possibility of using up to about 8 per game. There’s no reason why this game couldn’t play up to 8, really. All you’d need is about 8 more dice and possibly a few more poker chips. Even then, the extra dice wouldn’t get used that often as there are quite few ‘All’ cards that would require the use of more than the 8 included dice. That being said, it would definitely be worth adding these dice as it would make the game even more fun. The downtime between turns is very short, so the impact would be low.

Fun Factor: 8 out of 10

Value for the Buck

I paid $15 Canadian at a brick & mortar store here in Canada. I suspect buying from an online retailer in the US would be quite a bit less than that. For that price, the value of the game is undeniable, even for the components alone. Considering how many games it will take you to see and try all 60 of the combos, Combo King fares very well in the value department.

Value for the Buck: 9 out of 10

The Lowdown

For what it is - a fun, easy-to-play, quick game of dice - Combo King comes up sixes. It’s worth your dollar and your time as a great filler or a beer ‘n pretzels game to play with your buddies while watching the game.

The Lowdown: 8.4 out of 10 (not an average)

• Some of the roles weren’t powerful enough. The Chambermaid was all but useless and wasn’t even played.
  • The Chambermaid allows a player to move guests up on an elevator. This is a good plan in theory but in practice, it doesn’t really do all that much for you. This has been changed completely. Now, the Chambermaid allows you to increase the Concierge by up to 2 points and use up to 3 points from the Concierge with no action cost.
  • The Hotel Owner allowed you to play a card twice that isn’t higher than a 3. This has been amended to a 4. Although this breaks the whole ‘no sum higher than 7′ rule, it just wasn’t that great as it isn’t even worth the same as a good draw of a 7. But by making it an 8…
    
  • I added a new role called the Doorman, which allows you to draw 3 guests out of the bag and immediately place them on an elevator of your choice.
• I liked that the roles aren’t really exceptionally powerful. They aren’t intended to be; they shouldn’t make nor break the game. The meat and potatoes is still in your hand management and choices with respect to where you place your bellhops. In fact, using the roles is costly, which is exactly what I wanted. By making them slightly costly, it balances out their potential use as a constant ‘take-that’ style of play.
• I really liked having guests start in the lobby. This adds some interest to which elevator you leave there, as the cheapest elevator can certainly bring guests to almost any of the floors quickly. It also give another way for people to get slightly easier/quicker points, enabling them to come back from a deficit easier. I’m going to change one rule due to this addition; 24 guests always must be in play on the floors or on the elevators; more is allowed, due to the Doorman. The guests waiting in the lobby are not counted toward this total.

All in all, I’m quite happy about these modifications. I’m looking forward to playing it again this weekend.