Board Game Review - Nidavellir

Nidavellir is one of those games that I kept seeing on the ‘Hotness’ list but never really took the time to learn anything about it. I finally decided to give it a try and I’m glad I did.   

Thematically, Nidavellir is the name of the Dwarf Kingdom and the kingdom is being threatened. Your goal is to hire up an army to help repel the threat. Honestly, the melding of the theme is pretty tenuous but the art and style is fun.  

At a high level this is an auction game where you bid coins to try and hire cards from three different taverns. The cards interact in a set collection / combo method to score points and give some unique bonuses and abilities. 

Board Game Review - Running With the Bulls

Have you ever had a desire to throw yourself in front of a bunch of charging bulls?  Well, Calliope Games has a way to do it that’s safe for you and for the bulls.  Their game Running With the Bulls lets you help direct your own group of “runners” as they try to race across the city of El Toro to a variety of possible destinations. 

The runners and the bulls are represented by colorful dice and the city of El Toro is filled with whimsical artwork with lots of little nuances to make you laugh. 

The game is played over three days (rounds).  Each day, all players roll their dice to determine their starting point at the top of the city.  The larger bull dice are also rolled and will start alongside the runners.  

Book Review - The Eye of the World

I'm certainly late to the party on this one. The Eye of the World sat on my shelf unread for over two decades before I finally cracked the cover and it was already old and well beloved by the time I purchased a copy. Now that I've finally dipped my tip into the monumental work that is Jordan's Wheel of Time series, I can understand the appeal. 

The prologue quickly set up some tension and intriguing insights into the overarching storyline and mythos. It also left the reader with plenty of questions, just the thing to keep pages turning.

The book does a great job of introducing us to a wealth of characters, locations and stories. I was pleased that most of the characters quickly felt distinct with their own characteristics and voice. Their actions and reactions felt fairly believable given the circumstances and the nature of each character. We didn't get a ton of depth into the characters from the prologue but moving into the first chapter, the author methodically puts characters into our path and drops details to us in a slow but increasingly steady pace. 

Board Game Review - Blue Lagoon

Have you played Blue Lagoon? 

 

The game has two rounds. Each round is scored the same and gameplay is basically the same in each phases with a slight rule twist in the second phases. While this is a strategy game, the rules and gameplay are simple enough for younger players or new gamers. The art and theme are great as well. 

 

On your turn, you either place one of your explorers or one of your villages onto the game board. In the first phase, your settlers must either be placed in the water or else on a tile adjacent to a token you already placed. Villages must be placed on land next to a settler you’ve played previously. For the second phase, you remove all of your settlers but leave the village tokens on the board. On your turn you place your settlers next to one of your already placed items.  

 

Book Review - The Clockwork Scarab

I received an advanced reader's copy of The Clockwork Scarab ages ago, but somehow it slipped through the cracks. I remembered being intrigued by the overall premise—young female relations of Sherlock Holmes and Bram Stoker taking on a mystical mystery in a steampunk London. It sounded like fun. I finally cracked the cover and dove in but I found myself struggling to stay as interested as I would have liked.

The overall premise is intriguing. The development left me wanting more. The story is presented in first-person narration by Evaline Stoker and Mina Holmes as they pass the storytelling narrative back and forth between one another from chapter to chapter. The alternating narrative does help with the sometimes uneven delivery of plot elements since jumping from one perspective to another (often within different locations and with different knowledge) explains why we get unsteady introductions of information and plot points. 

We learn that the Stoker family is actually a bloodline of vampire hunters and that Miss Stoker is a sort of hunter in training, still working her way up to being a full Slayer. Interestingly, it seems that her brother, Bram Stoker, isn't quite as involved in the realm of the supernatural. He is merely writing what he considers to be fiction. Meanwhile, Miss Holmes is the niece of Sherlock Holmes, who is definitely a real character and not fiction. And although Miss Holmes has shown that she has intelligence and deductive skills, she is still relegated to being kept apart from all things Holmesian.