Kosmos Two Player Series - Lord of the Rings: The Duel by Peter Neugebauer

Not a classic like Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation, neither is it the uninspiring and confused Lord of the Rings: The Search by the same designer. Lord of the Rings: The Duel by Peter Neugebauer holds the middle ground. A fun card game of quick combat between Gandalf and the Balrog over a chasm, on the bridge of Khazad Dum.

Each player has a deck with twenty-seven cards. Four duels will be played, three preliminary and one final. For the preliminary duels, each player will draw nine cards from his deck, play six, and save the remaining three for the final duel. After three rounds, during the final duel, the players will play all nine remaining cards; careful planning is important so that you have some good cards left.

Scoring is done on the cool bridge on which stylish wooden figures represent Gandalf and the Balrog. At the end of the game, whichever piece is closest to the top of the bridge, wins.

First round card play

The cards themselves are pretty clever. On the right side is an attack strength, indicated by zero to four "magical symbols". On the left side is a defense strength, also indicated by a number of magical symbols. All cards are played next to each other in a line, so the card you are playing defends against the card played by your opponent, then attacks the other player's next card. For every undefended symbol, a point is scored, moving your cube up the energy track. After all cards are played in a round, the difference in the players' progress on the energy track determines how much the winner moves up the bridge, from one to three steps.

Each deck also contains a few special cards like the Balrog's Whip, which allows the player to pick up and reuse an already played card, or Gandalf's Magic which lets him discard a card played by the Balrog. A timely play with one of the special cards can turn around a duel going badly.

After the fourth duel, the player higher up the bridge wins. If both are on the same level, the winner of the final duel is the winner of the game.

The Balrog and Gandalf at two points each.

Carol, as Gandalf, started out by crushing me in the first duel and moving up two steps. I tied the game during the second duel. During the third duel, I went ahead by moving up a single step. Carol managed to win the fourth and final duel, moving up another step, and putting the game into a tie, which gave her (and the forces of good) the victory.

The end of the Final Duel

Coming up:  We recreate the War of the Roses in Rosenkonig.

Kosmos Two Player Series - Druidenwalzer by Michael Rieneck

I consider Druidenwalzer to be one of the most beautiful games in the series as well as one of the most challenging. The art by Andreas Steiner is lovely and the gameplay, based on Mancala, is filled with subtle strategy while getting tighter and more tense as the game progresses. Carol, on the other hand, hates it.

Please note that what is to follow are a lot of references to spirits, faeries and other flighty topics.

Each player represents one of the two Druid cults, The Suns and The Moons. Each cult has four trees it protects from subversion by the other cult. The player who subverts two of his opponent's trees wins the game.

Each player starts with Druids (colored cones) on three of his trees. Only trees with Druids may be subverted by the other cult. Each tree has five Spirit cards with a value from one to five below it. When a player plays a Spirit card from his hand onto a tree, the Spirits dance, and a tree or even multiple trees might be subverted.

The game is set up and ready to go.

On your turn you have three choices. You may play a Spirit card, discard a Spirit card, or Move a Druid. Moving a Druid is the easiest, you simply move one of your Druids to an unoccupied tree. Since only trees with Druids can be subverted, you are now protecting the empty tree. Of course, once you've lost a tree, you have a Druid on every tree, so moving a Druid is no longer an option.

Discarding a Spirit card from your hand or one of your trees is a way to get weak or problematic cards out of the way. Unfortunately, you have a limited number of cards so if you discard too many, you become vulnerable to losing a tree from lack of cards.

The main action in the game is playing a Spirit card. You place a card from your hand onto a Spirit card pile in front of one of your trees, then move the Faerie Ring onto that tree. Each tree has a number from one to four and the tree you choose determines how far the Spirits will dance. The card itself determines in which direction, clockwise or counter-clockwise, the Spirits will dance, as well as which Spirits will dance. For example, if I play a value 3 Spirit card with a clockwise arrow on tree number 2, all 3 value Spirit cards from both players will move clockwise 2 spaces. The idea of the dance is to get the higher value Spirit cards to move below your trees, while getting the lower value cards to move below your opponents trees.

One of Bob's trees has been subverted by the Sun Cult.

After the dance, Druid conflict occurs. Except for the tree with the Faerie Ring, you compare the value of the Spirits protecting the trees with like-colored Druids. Generally this means that at least two trees will be in conflict every turn. The trees with the lower value Spirit get a subversion token. The winning cards are discarded and new cards flipped up in their place. If a tree gets six tokens, it is subverted and flipped over to represent its new allegiance to the other cult.

If one of your trees is ever emptied of Spirit cards, you have until the end of your next turn to get a card down on that spot or the tree is subverted.

And that's basically it. It sounds confusing and can be for a couple of turns but you get used to the strange flow of the game pretty quickly. Deciding what value of Spirit card to play on which tree and being able to visualize all the moves that will occur and the ramifications of those moves is challenging. And as the game goes on, it gets tighter as you have fewer trees and Spirit cards left, limiting your options.

Carol started out strong, hitting my trees pretty hard and I was the first to lose a tree while having five subversion tokens on another. Frankly, it looked bad for me, while Carol's damage was more widespread across all four of her trees. With our options decreasing, I managed to subvert one of her trees, and then another before losing any of mine. As you can see below, one of my trees took no damage, while one of her tree's only took one.

Endgame.

I really enjoyed the game and its challenges. Carol still hates it.

Coming Up:  We return to Middle Earth for the final time in Lord of the Rings: The Duel.

Kosmos Two Player Series - Elk Fest by Hermann Huber

Elk Fest is a flicking game. Yes, you read that right, a flicking game. As such, it is the simplest game in the entire Kosmos two player series and takes very little time to play.

In Elk Fest, each player is trying to get his or her Elk, Jule or Ole, (admittedly, the game pieces are actually  moose) from one riverbank to the other. You do this by flicking with your finger any of the six stepping stones and moving your Elk from stone to stone to cross the table. The rules are pretty simple. You get two flicks per turn and can move your Elk any number of times before or after a flick. To move, the Elk moves his front hooves onto a new stone, with his rear hooves moving to the stone the front hooves started on. If you drop the Elk into the water (he touches the table) then your turn is over and the other player gets three flicks on his turn. The player whose Elk touches the opposing riverbank first, wins.

Jule starts out.

One thing to remember is that after the initial turns, the players can flick any stone, so moving the stones near your opponent's Elk is an important defensive move. Most of the time, though, you're moving your Elk and your own stones, until the Elks meet in the middle of the table and things get momentarily congested.

Ole gets close to the riverbank.

My Elk, Jule, was the first to get in range of the opposing riverbank, but I muffed several flicks. Carol gave me more chances by missing several shots herself, but in the end was able to get in range and move Ole onto my bank.

Ole makes it for the win.

Kosmos Two Player Series - Lord of the Rings: The Search by Peter Neugebauer

The Search is definitely one of the stranger of the Kosmos two-player series in that it's theme is completely and utterly wrong. One player plays Frodo and the other Sam, searching Middle Earth for the One Ring and then racing to Mount Doom. Yes, you read that right. Neither has the Ring and they're both competing to find it and destroy it. What's more, finding the Ring isn't necessary to end or win the game. Once you've located and raced to Mount Doom, you count up the points and determine a winner. Oy.

I will say this up front. This game has a terrible reputation and few fans. I had tried to play it years ago with the rules included with the game and failed spectacularly. However, with the correct translation of the rules available on Boardgamegeek, the game became playable. Not great, but at least playable.

The two players start on the Shire tile, placed in the center of the table. The players alternate drawing and placing tiles until an 8x6 cross of tiles is created. Then the game commences. On your turn, you play one tile down to the board from your hand of three tiles. The terrain on the new tile must match terrain on every adjacent tile. If you create a complete, enclosed region, you immediately place an Encounter Chip matching the terrain on that space, some face up, others face down. Mountains are always two tiles while other regions can be huge. If you can't legally place a tile, place one upside down as a sort of "wild" tile.

Once you've placed your terrain tile, you can move your Hobbit to a bordering region. This is where the size of a region becomes important. If you're in a large region, you can go to any of the many bordering regions, while small regions have less options. If there is a Green or Yellow Encounter Chip (representing good characters or items) in the new region, you take it. The chip will provide some assistance to you, either in battle with the Brown chips or through special actions such as extra movement or turns. Brown Encounter Chips  (representing enemies) may require you to fight a battle. If you lose a battle, you skip one or two turns, delaying your quest, but if you win, you gain victory points. Blue chips (representing other characters or items, including the One Ring) can only be reached when you have a boat, which can be purchased with two Brown chips in your possession.

And basically, that's it. You wander around, trying to pick up as many chips as you can, defeating as many enemies as you can. You're not really searching for Mount Doom as the last tile placed on the board becomes Mount Doom. If you're closer to it when the game ends and you have the most points from the tiles, get to it and win the game. If you have fewer points, keep collecting chips while your opponent rushes to Mount Doom.

Carol and I went back and forth, collecting chips as above. While large regions give you greater movement options, they reduce the amount of Encounter Chips you can capture. Near the end, I created a bunch of smaller regions to get more chips I could reach. Finally, I turned up the last tile and quickly made my way to Mount Doom and we scored the game. I had thirty to Carol's 22, so I took victory. (Although, since the Ring was destroyed, didn't we both win?)

I like the art on the chips and most of the bits are nice. The terrain tiles are a disaster of clashing colors and weird angles, as you can see. I wouldn't mind playing again to see if there are any other strategies, but I suspect there aren't.

Coming up: Two elks compete to cross a river by hopping on stones in Elk Fest.

Kosmos Two Player Series - Hera & Zeus by Richard Borg

Hera and Zeus depicts an epic struggle within Greek mythology. One player plays the father of the Greek gods, Zeus (Bob), while the other plays Zeus' wife, Hera (Carol). Zeus has kidnapped Hera's favorite human, Artus, while Hera has kidnapped Zeus' lover, Io. The players battle it out to rescue their hostage by deploying various mythical figures.

While each player's deck has its own beautiful artwork, each is identically strong, consisting of numbered cards which represent the card's strength in battle (0 to 7), to cards with no combat value but some mythological power, and some cards with both. The game starts with each player drawing nine cards and playing three face down in front of him to make three columns across from the other player's cards. Throughout the game you will play cards down into these three columns.

Hera goes first. On your turn, you have as many actions as you have columns. Actions include playing a card down into the playing field, drawing a card into your hand, attacking an opposing card in your opponent's front row, or playing a mythological action card from your hand. When you play down onto the playing field, you can put the card anywhere, even in front of other cards, with a maximum of four cards in any one column. The cards in your front line may fight the cards in the same column from the other player.

Combat is simple. If I want to use one of my front cards to attack its opposite number, I flip mine face up, declare the attack, and my opponent flips their card up. If they have a number card, we compare numbers and the smaller number is defeated and discarded. (Yes, it's somewhat like Stratego.) Cards behind it in the column move up one space. If the defender's cards have a mythological action, that action is activated and resolved.

The mythological cards have a variety of powers. The Medusa, for example, turns anyone who attacks her into stone but is defeated by the Hero or Amazon. Pythia (strength of 0) has several powers including being played from your hand to look at your opponent's hand or turn up all the cards face up in one column, or played on the playing field to beat the most powerful cards, Poseidon and Nemesis. Pegasus (strength of 1) can be played into the playing field as a numbered card or can be played from your hand to attack a card in your opponent's hand or on the playing field. There is a Hera card and a Zeus card and while they're played, you get four actions a turn, regardless of the number of columns. Sirens let you draw a card from your opponent's discard pile, while Hades lets you put a card from your own discards back into your hand.

What is really interesting about H&Z is that there are numerous ways for each player to win. You win if your opponent is forced to discard their hostage (Io or Artus) through combat or various mythological cards, if your opponent can't use all his allocated actions, if a player starts their turn with no cards in their playing area, or when Pandora is activated in the same column or hand as the hostage. Strategically, while you want to expand quickly to get your powerful cards into play, you have to be careful not to draw your hostage from your deck too early because the only time it's absolutely safe is when it's in your draw deck.

Bob's paltry forces

I started out badly, challenging one of Carol's front cards before I had built up my playing field and so was reduced to two actions for a couple of turns. I recovered and was lucky that Io stayed safely in my draw deck for a long time. There was a lot of back and forth with Carol having the upper hand most of the game and me struggling to keep up.

Unfortunately for her, Carol drew Argus and had to either get him down to the playing field or keep him in her hand where I might find him with Pegasus attacks. She put him down into her biggest column which was opposite an empty column on my side. I played Pandora opposite of this column and Carol attacked. Attacking Pandora is bad as it destroys all cards in the entire column for both players. In this case, that included Argus, giving me the game.

Coming up:  We return to Middle Earth with Lord of the Rings: The Search.

Kosmos Two Player Series - Gone Fishing! by Michael Rieneck

In Gone Fishing!, one player represents two Anglers (fishermen) out for a day of sport and the other represents the Fish. Each player plays one round as the Anglers, working their way around a lake, and one round as the Fish, trying to avoid being caught. Players only score points when they're the Anglers, and the highest score after each have had a go is the winner.

The Anglers confront the lake

The board is a four by four grid on which sixteen Lake tiles are placed by the Fish player so that the other player can't see them. The tiles include ten fish in a number of values, worthless junk like a tire, hat and shoe, and a diver who is also worthless but never comes out of the lake when caught. Surrounding the lake are a bunch of piers from which the Anglers try to catch fish in the row or column where they are moved.

Once the tiles are set, the Angler player moves one of his Anglers clockwise any number of spaces. The Fish player must then reveal to him one tile in that row or column. Typically, you show the Angler a tile he can't catch or one of little value. To catch a tile (not necessarily the one revealed), the Angler now plays one of his twelve Catch tiles (three tiles each of values 1 to 4) representing a distance. If he plays a 2 value Catch tile, for example, he'd catch the tile two spaces away from his Angler. He keeps whatever he catches, unless it's the Diver, discards the Catch tile from the game, and then must move his Angler an additional number of spaces, equal to the Catch tile played. Since the Angler only moves his two Anglers once around the lake, he has to be careful to not move them around too quickly. The diminishing number of Catch tiles also starts to limit his options.

After the Angler catches a tile, the Fish player can then move three Lake tiles through empty spaces. This is key as it allows him to move fish out of danger and onto spaces the Angler can't reach with his remaining Catch tiles. Early on, there isn't much room to maneuver, but as the tiles start being caught, good tactical moves become possible and really important.

Finally, each player has a few special tiles they can play on their turn. The Angler has one tile that lets him peek at a Lake tile and one that prohibits the Fish player from moving tiles that turn. The Fish player has three special tiles, two tiles that move an Angler forward one pier, and a tile that lets him switch any two tiles.

After one player has played the Angler, the two players switch, and the other plays the Angler. At the end of that round, whoever caught the highest value of fish wins.

Bob's catch.

I started out as the Angler and did pretty well, catching 24 points of fish, including the large 6 point fish. Carol was only somewhat effective in moving them into positions I couldn't reach.

Second round from the fish's point of view

On Carol's turn as the Angler, I was much more effective at moving my fish out of the reach of her Anglers. She didn't catch the high value 6 point fish, but did catch a lot of small fry, scoring 17 points.

Carol's catch

I enjoyed Gone Fishing which is certainly lightweight, although there is some strategy involved. As the Angler, there's a memory element where you try to remember the revealed Lake tiles in order not to waste your Catch tiles. As the Fish, there are lots of tactical decisions as you try to limit the Angler's options.

Coming up:  We play Greek Gods in one of our favorites, Hera & Zeus.

Kosmos Two Player Series - Perry Rhodan: The Cosmic League by Heinrich Glumpler

 Perry Rhodan is a popular science fiction book serial in Germany. In the game, each player is a trader, moving his ship among the six planets of a solar system, picking up and delivering goods and passengers. Each delivery wins the player the currency of the galaxy, the Megagalax, and the first player to accumulate 70 Megagalax wins. At the start of the game each player has five cards in hand, one container for holding goods, and may replenish his hand by one card at the end of his turn.

Goods awaiting shipment

On your turn, you may execute up to two Planetary Actions, one Flight, and may play up to two Intervention cards. Planetary Actions are (1) load a container, (2) unload a container, or (3) buy a technology. Loading and unloading is pretty straightforward. You take all of the cards on your current planet that have the same destination and put them on your container card. Containers can only be loaded once until they reach their destination and are unloaded, at which point the container can be reloaded with goods destined for another planet. When you unload goods, you get paid the value of the cards in Megagalax and flip the cards over to reveal the next destination on the other side. If you flip two cards that have the same destination, they are removed from the game, meaning that the goods available for shipping is constantly dwindling.

Buying a technology requires you to pay Megagalax to play a card from your hand to the table in front of you. Technology includes things like additional Containers for shipping goods, additional replenishment actions so you can redraw more cards at the end of your turn, and cards that let your ship move faster, farther, or execute Planetary Actions from orbit. The first technology card you play cost 1 Megagalax, the second 2, and so forth.

Taking one Flight on your turn means moving your ship from planet to planet. At the start of your turn you roll a die and may move that far. If you roll a one, you get to roll again and add the new number. What's interesting is that traveling towards the star is more efficient than traveling away from it (gravity and all) so it's faster to travel inwards.

Intervention cards can be played out of your hand. They let you do things like steal goods from the other player, execute an additional flight, switch the positions of the two ships, load goods from another planet, and deliver a passenger for 3 Megagalax. They can be cancelled by the other player playing an identical card.

The star acts as a score track

Carol and I stayed pretty close during the game. There's a similarity to Jambo in that you constantly gain victory points and then must spend some to increase your abilities. I really enjoyed the planning that went into efficiently picking up and delivering goods and the way that clever card play could foil your opponent. We both added technology and moved cards quickly. As we approached the goal of seventy points, we were almost out of goods to ship. I managed to secure the last couple of valuable lots and made it to seventy just ahead of Carol.

Coming up: We switch gears and take a leisurely afternoon off in Gone Fishing.

Kosmos Two Player Series - Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation by Reiner Knizia

As you might guess, Confrontation is based on the Lord of the Rings books and films and features artwork by John Howe who did artwork for the movies. One player plays the Fellowship whose goal is to get Frodo and the One Ring to Mordor while the other plays the forces of Sauron trying to either kill Frodo or get three evil minions into the Shire. If any of these goals is met, the game ends with a win for that player.

The Fellowship is ready to move out.

The board represents Middle Earth with sixteen areas such as Moria, Eregion, Gondor and Dagorlad The Shire and Mordor can hold four pieces, the Mountain spaces in the center can hold only one piece, while all others can hold two pieces. There are a few other geographical features which affect movement, including a tunnel through Moria which is great for the Fellowship, unless the Balrog stands guard.

Each player has nine pieces in the game, each with a unique power and each representing a member of the Fellowship or an individual or group working for Sauron, such as Saruman, the Witch King, Orcs, or Shelob. On your turn, you move one of your pieces one space forward (a couple pieces can move more than this or move in different directions). If there's an enemy piece in that space, you fight. Since you can't identify the enemy piece from the back, there is some risk involved in attacking. (If this sounds familiar, it is similar to the game Stratego, although Confrontation requires a LOT more thought and strategy.)

The powers of the characters are mostly thematic and add to the fun of the game. For example, Aragorn has flexibility of movement and can attack in any direction, not just forward. The Flying Nazgul can attack any single Fellowship piece anywhere on the board. Gimli automatically defeats the Orcs if he encounters them while Legolas automatically defeats the Flying Nazgul. Sam's strength is only 2, but if he's in a space with Frodo and they're attacked, he takes Frodo's place and his strength becomes 5.

Combat is a simple affair. Each piece has a combat value ranging from 0 to 9. Each player plays one of his hand cards to add to his value and the highest total value wins. The losing piece is removed from the board, while ties result in mutual annihilation. Each player also has Magic cards which can be played instead of a number card. These allow you to retreat, ignore the other player's number card, automatically kill both pieces, etc. The Dark player's cards have higher number values and the Fellowship player has an extra Magic card.

The Honored Dead await the next game.

What's remarkable about the game is how well balanced it is. Despite having eighteen game pieces, each with a different power and different goals, the two sides are evenly matched. I've played dozens, maybe hundreds of times, and it all comes down to strategy. There is no luck involved.

To make sure we both had an equal chance, Carol and I agreed to play the best out of three games. For the first game, I randomly drew the Fellowship. While Frodo managed to move towards Mordor and avoided death, he moved a little too slowly and before he could evade the last of Sauron's minions, Carol moved three pieces, the Black Rider, the Flying Nazgul, and the Orcs, into the Shire for the victory.

We switched sides and Carol took over the Fellowship to nearly identical results. Frodo evaded capture but I was able to get the same three pieces, the Black Rider, the Flying Nazgul, and the Orcs, into the Shire. This was a bit unusual because games usually end with the death of Frodo or the dunking of the One Ring.

Mid-Game.

For the final game, we randomly drew and I was once again the Fellowship, which had lost both previous games. I was more careful this time not to let Carol get any three pieces too near the Shire and combat took a huge toll on our pieces. But I gave as good as I got, resulting in my last four pieces being the four Hobbits which I thought was cool. Sam, Merry and Pippin gave their lives to save Frodo and soon it was the lone Hobbit against three Dark pieces. Carol did get one character into the Shire, but seeing that her remaining two pieces were too far away, I slipped Frodo past them to Mordor to destroy the One Ring.

Frodo in Mordor for the win.

Coming up:  For our twentieth game, we become pulp space heroes in Perry Rhodan: The Cosmic League.

Kosmos Two Player Series - Times Square by Reiner Knizia

Times Square is about competing night club owners trying to get the popular celebrities of the day to frequent their club.The board consists of a seventeen space street with a manhole in the middle. Players draw and play cards from the deck, allowing them to move the celebrities to get them to their side of the board. Each celebrity has special movement rules, so the game is a constant back and forth tactical challenge.

The celebrities in the game are Saucy Sue, whose cards allow her to move only one space at a time; Saucy Sue's two Bodyguards, who can move 1-2 spaces but must always stand on opposite sides of Saucy Sue; Handsome Hal, whose cards move him 1-3 spaces; and Dancing Deb whose cards will move her 1-5 spaces or back to the manhole cover and whose cards can be used as a joker to move other characters. Finally, there's Champagne Charlie, who can't be moved with cards, but moves toward a night club whenever Saucy Sue and both her Bodyguards are on one side of the manhole or when a player moves any celebrity onto their night club entrance spaces.

On your turn, you play as many cards of one color as you wish to move a character or characters. You may alternatively lure a character (except Dancing Deb) to Handsome Hal by moving them there without playing any cards. Once that's done and you've redrawn up to eight cards, you then move Champagne Charlie if appropriate.

If a player gets either Champagne Charlie or Saucy Sue to their night club entrance, they win. Otherwise, you go through the deck twice and when it runs out, whoever has Saucy Sue on their side of the board wins.

After much jockeying back and forth, neither of us could get Sue or Charlie to our night club to end the game. As we came to the end of the deck the second time through, Carol had Saucy Sue on her side of the board while I had one final turn, giving me an opportunity to win. Unfortunately, I didn't have the necessary cards in hand and couldn't bring her back to my side. Carol wins Times Square.

Coming up:  One of my favorites, wherein Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring face off against the forces of Sauron in Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation.

Kosmos Two Player Game Series - Dracula by Michael Rieneck

Oooh! Scary!  Dracula was a new acquisition, purchased after we started this series. In Dracula, completely unsurprisingly, one player plays Dracula while the other is his nemesis, Dr. van Helsing. Dracula's goal is to find all five Victim cards, adding them to his undead horde, while van Helsing is searching for Dracula's five Coffin cards. You also have four energy cubes which represent your life points. Lose your last energy cube and you lose the game. Carol played Dracula and I played van Helsing.

Each player has his own unique set of fifteen Encounter cards and ten Action cards. The Encounter cards are played face down on the board throughout the game and when one of the players moves onto the card, he may flip it up and encounter it. In addition to the Victim and Coffin cards, there are Vampires and Vampire Hunters (Companions) who will battle the other player and Symbols of Power which will damage the other player. 

The Action cards are played from your hand and determine how far your figure can move on the board, your combat strength in that turn, which color barrier you can place and may give you a special action (like taking an extra turn, picking a card out of the discard pile or giving you a bonus in combat). You only play one Action card each turn.

The board is a four by three grid depicting the streets of London with Dracula starting in the Harbor in one corner and van Helsing in the Carriage House in the opposite corner. Each player secretly selects six of his Encounter cards, puts all twelve cards together and shuffles them, randomly laying the a card face down on each space on the board. Then, each player draws five of his Action cards and you're ready to play.

On your turn you may move your figure as many spaces as you want, but the Action card you play must have that many movement points or you lose energy cubes for the excess. Once you stop on a space, you look at the Encounter card there. If the card you encounter is one of your own, you pick it up and may swap it with one of the Encounter cards not in play. You may then continue moving. If you encounter one of the other player's Companions, you fight the goon by playing an Action card and comparing combat strengths. If you win, the Companion card is discarded and replaced with one of yours. If you lose, you give up an Energy Cube. After you've moved and played your Action card, you may move one of four colored barriers which restrict movement to help you steer your enemy into dangerous areas.

The multi-purpose Action cards are an interesting twist. You may start the turn intending to play one with high movement points or a particular special action, but once you arrive, you find you need a higher combat strength in order to defeat the Companion on the space. Do you play a different card with fewer movement points and lose the energy cubes or be forced to play a different special action? There's also a heavy memory component as you need to remember where your opponent has played certain cards so you can avoid them and track the target cards.

Despite each player having unique Action cards, the game seems pretty balanced. Carol and I jockeyed back and forth for position, trying to find our target cards without getting beat up by the Companions. I was more successful in hunting down and defeating Carol's Vampires, but stupidly encountered Dracula's Amulet twice, losing two energy cubes in the process. After another encounter, I was down to one energy cube. I had found three of Dracula's Coffins and Carol had found three Victims when I stumbled on another of her Vampires. None of my cards in hand could win the combat, so I lost my last energy cube and the game.

All the cards turned face up after the game.

Coming up:  Dueling nightclubs compete for patrons in Times Square.

Kosmos Two Player Game Series - Odin's Ravens by Thorsten Gimmler

In this game, each player represents one of Odin's Ravens (see how that works?), Hugin or Munin, in a series of races. The winner of each race gets points based on how many spaces ahead he is when the race ends. You can also get three points in a race by winning "The Magic Way" competition. First player to twelve points wins.

The flight path is a series of nine terrain cards, each with one or two types of terrain. The cards are laid out at the beginning of each race so that no two types of terrain are in a row. Each player has his own deck of cards and starts the round by drawing five cards. Finally, a Magic Way card is turned up which shows either two types of terrain or one type of terrain and an Odin card.

Hugin and Munin

On your turn you can play up to three cards from your hand. The basic action is playing a flight card with a specific terrain to move your raven forward onto the next card in the flight path (for example, if the next card is a mountain, you play a mountain card and then move your raven onto that card). If you don't have the next terrain, you can play two matching cards as a joker to move onto the next card. Awesomely, if there are multiple cards with the same terrain ahead, for example, three lake cards, playing one of that type of card moves you all the way to the end of that terrain! So there's a big advantage in manipulating the terrain cards in the flight path.

How do you manipulate the flight path? Also available in your deck are Odin cards which give you special actions like rotating or changing the order of the terrain cards, placing the Odin marker in front of your opponent which requires them to play an additional card to move onto that terrain, adding landscape cards to the end of the line, rearranging your auxiliary stack, or moving your or your opponent's raven forward or back one space, respectively.

The Auxiliary stack on the left, the draw deck in the center and the discards on the right.

Another option is to play a card face down to your auxiliary stack, which is the key, unique mechanic in the game. In addition to playing three cards from your hand each turn, you can play up to three cards from your auxiliary stack, allowing you to play a maximum of up to six cards. The trick is, you have to create the auxiliary stack as you go by playing cards face down onto it. There's a complication, though, because you may not change the order of the cards. So if you need a card from your auxiliary stack that's under another, too bad, you have to play the card on top first. This requires a good deal of thought as you have to carefully plan the order in which you play cards into the auxiliary stack so that you can later play them in a devastating move.

You may also play a card to "The Magic Way". This card has to match either the terrain type or Odin card on The Magic Way card turned up at the start of the round. This card does nothing for you during the race, but the player who plays the most cards to The Magic Way by the end of the race gets three points.

The Magic Way

Finally, at the end of the turn you may add a new terrain card to the end of the flight path. Generally, you only do this because your opponent is close to winning the race and you hope to stop them. This can backfire because if they do finish, the get an extra point for traveling one more card.

Carol came out of the gate strong and won the first race by a whopping four cards and also played the most cards to The Magic Way for a total of seven points to my zero. I came back the next race with five points, two from the race plus three for winning The Magic Way. I won the third race by three, taking the lead, eight to seven. Carol won the next race by one card plus she won The Magic Way, making the score going into the last race eleven to eight. Carol then trounced me in the fifth and final race, scoring three for the race and three for The Magic Way for a final score of seventeen to eight.

Final scores:

   Carol      7 + 0 + 0 + 4 + 6 = 17
   Bob        0 + 5 + 3 + 0 + 0 =   8

Coming up: We visit Victorian England for a confrontation with Dracula.

Kosmos Two Player Game Series - The Pillars of the Earth: Builders Duel by Stefan Feld

Our fifteenth game was the one with the longest name in the series, The Pillars of the Earth: Builders Duel, based on the popular fantasy novel by Ken Follett. You can see in the picture below that the box is thicker than most of the others in the series, although the added depth doesn't seem necessary. There's also a full size, 2-4 player, The Pillars of the Earth game that we've played at GCOM Germantown and it's really good, although completely different.  

In Builders Duel, one of the players builds a cathedral while the other builds a fortress. Each building consists of three sections, each of which requires three processed resources to build. During the game, players collect raw materials such as sand, sheep, stone and wood, process them into finished goods, and then add them to their building. The first player to complete his or her building wins.

Bob's Fortress

Actions are assigned through an interesting mechanic. Each turn, nine action cards are laid out in three rows. The start player places his three markers on each card in a column, each card in a row, or diagonally. The other player then has to place his markers the same way, but must overlap exactly one card with the first player. The players then have an "auction" of sorts using seals to see who gets the card they both chose. Once that's done, both players take the actions on their cards.

The seals are double-sided coins, a personal one you keep permanently and neutral seals you collect and spend throughout the game. Values on your personal seal are 2 on one side and 3 on the other, while the neutral seals are 0/5, 1/4, and 2/3. During the auction, the first player takes a seal of his choice and flips it (yes, flips it in the air like a coin) to determine his bid. The other player then contributes as many seals as he wants, flipping them in turn, until he passes the value of the first player. At that point, the first player can contribute more seals until he retakes the lead, going back and forth until there's a winner. Once you use your personal seal, you may contribute no more. All neutral seals used are discarded after the auction.

The auction is interesting because you can go for a big score and use the 0/5 seal if you have it, but you may flip the 0 side, while the personal seals offer a guaranteed 2 or 3 value, but you can then add no more. Of course, if you spend all your neutral seals, you're vulnerable in future auctions until you can acquire more, so you need to choose your battles carefully.

The action cards get you raw materials, allow you to process raw materials into finished goods, buy neutral seals, allow you to sell wool in order to get more coins, switch the start player, etc. Once a player has completed his actions, he may apply processed goods to his building at a cost of 2 coins for one, 6 for two and 12 to build an entire section of three. Additionally, the first player to build a particular section gets a bonus of coins, seals or a free resource conversion.

The game ends when a player has completed his building or when four passages of three rounds each are completed. The player who completed his building first, or whoever has the most complete building if neither is done, wins.

Carol's Cathedral

I started out with an early lead after Carol spent all her seals, allowing me to win the extra card for a couple of rounds in a row. Hilariously, both of us frequently forgot the build phase of the turn which meant we missed a couple of opportunities to add to our building. Near the end, Carol caught up and going into the final turn both of us were within striking distance of finishing our building.

During the final turn, the game came down to one final card we both needed to win. The auction was close and would be determined by one final flip of the coin; whoever won the toss would be first to complete their building.

I won the toss, finished my fortress and won the game. It wasn't entirely satisfying winning like that, but it sure was exciting.

After four losses in a row, Bob wins Builders Duel.

Coming up:  Mythological creatures race at the behest of a god in Odin's Ravens.