In an earlier blog I spoke about some board games that would be quick grabs for a New Years board game night. You can find that blog Here. When I wrote the earlier blog it was from the mindset that we were going to have a smaller game group of five or six players. As things turned out, we had nearly double the number of players. Everyone wanted to play games together as well so we did not break down into smaller groups.With this in mind we played a much different set of games even though we actually did have all the of the games I had hoped to play that I mentioned on my earlier blog.
We Started off the New Years with a round of
Archer The Danger ZONE! “the Board Game”
Now we played the full 8 player game and this was the first time I have ever played this before. My impressions were pretty good. It’s not a bad game at all and if you’re a fan of the show. I felt is captured the Archer feel well with players are knowledgeable of the show. If your players are able get into the minds of the players they are portraying this game easily would be epic.
Much like many IP theme games that is where things begin to fall apart. Sadly if you know little to nothing about Archer, this board game comes across as a crude. Other than that if you play a full 8 player game you run the risk of frustration. Often by the time a turn gets to you at the end of the mission phase there is nothing for you to attempt to get. But if you plan for that you can place yourself in locations at the start of the round to get dice rolls before missions begin and gain points by insulting your co workers before the mission begins.
Personally as a fan of the show I found it very fun. My only criticism would be that it gets a bit frustrating and cutthroat as the game nears the end. As the other players begin targeting the player in the lead to keep pulling them back from the edge and prevent the win. Over all it was a very fun game for everyone except one of my friends who was not an Archer fan and really didn’t get much behind the meaning of the cards. As I said before one of the strong flaws of games like this.
I have to give this one a dual Rank. I will say that just on the premise of it as a board game and how it played it only ranks up at a 10. If you love Archer and are a fan of the show Then this is a 13.
After we wrapped up Archer we moved on to a group favorite, The Resistance. This has been a hugely popular game in my group for years. And it’s perfect for lager groups of players. Resistance and games like it are some of the very few that get better with more players. With Nine of us playing in this game it was primed to be a heated game of Resistance. But for the first time in probably 2 years of playing this game. It was over in the first two rounds as the spy’s were outed in the fist few moments of the game by a series of one or two lucky guesses.
Even with a rough round of The Resistance that night I will always stand with the fact that this is a solid game for large groups. Its supper quick and easy to throw down. The rules are very easy to explain to new players. Best of all often you will look at your friends in a whole new light at what good lairs some of them can be.
We wrapped The Resistance up and played another Huge party game Werewolf. This was a first play of this game for me. But much like The Resistance it is very rules light and fast paced. In the base game there is werewolf, a Seer and a Body guard. The game starts in the day in a village that has been plagued by werewolf attacks. That day the villagers must vote on whom they fell is the Werewolf. Once the group votes and picks a player he is promptly Hung and out of the game. Then you move to the night Phase. During the night the Werewolf selects his victim. The Seer can select one player to see if they can discover the Werewolf. The Body Guard can choose to protect one villager. After each has
taken their action you move to the day phase again. If the Body guard did not choose to protect the right villager that player is out and the town must choose whom to hang this day. Play continues like this until either the wolf wins or the village hangs him. We played three or four rounds of this and had some great fun. It played very fast and there was a ton of Role play that happened during the village day rounds after everyone had gotten the hang of the game. My only hard-line gripe about this game is the first round of play. Before you even go into the fist night of the game you must select a villager to die. This literally leaves one player out for the round before the game barely gets started. That alone keeps my ratting for this at the same as The Resistance.
Finally we wrapped up the night with Cards Against Humanity. With all of the expansions as well all of the Crabs Adjust Humidity cards added into the mix. This made for a very long very hilarious wrap up to a great night! A 8 player game of CAH is slow going but always fun. Playing with all the expansions for both these games leaves you with mountain of cards to pick from. Laughs were had by all and it was a good end to a long night.
