Danny and Trevor share their top 5 lists of Game Expansions. To qualify as an expansion for their lists the game cannot be a stand-alone expansion. What they mean by that is the expansion must be dependent upon the base game to be a true expansion. If the expansion can be played without the base game it is not a pure expansion in their minds.

Board Game Geek defines a game expansion as additional equipment for a game, usually sold separately. Expansions can be used to add a variant or add additional scenario, to add more players for the game, add new maps or tracks for a game, etc.

Typically an expansion is exactly that… it expands the existing game. It may add the ability to have more players, insert more scenarios, give players more equipment, etc. Expansions keep popular board games relevant after players have gone through many iterations of game play. It helps to keep your board game investment fresh for a longer period of time.

If you own any of the base board games mentioned in these lists, you should give the expansion a try to extend the life of your favorite game.

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Danny and Trevor share their top lists for Card Games. To qualify the games must primarily use cards. Some dice and tokens are allowed, but the main component must be cards.

A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played. The cards may be traditional or game-specific.

Many games that are not generally placed in the family of card games do in fact use cards for some aspect of their game-play. Some games that are placed in the card game genre involve a board. The distinction is the game-play of a card game primarily depends on the use of the cards by players. The board is simply a guide for score keeping or for card placement. Board games generally focus on the players’ positions on the board and use the cards for some secondary purpose.

If you are looking for a game that primarily uses cards these lists are for you. I am sure there is a card-centric game here that will give you hours of enjoyment.

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Danny and Trevor share their top 5 lists of Fun Games. They define Funny Games as those that get players to have a good time and laugh. They do not include the games that just try to put the players into a funny predicament. The game itself must be what causes the laughter.

For the game to fall into their definition of funny it must be the artwork, the mechanics, or game-play that is funny. Putting a player into a physically funny position or condition doesn’t qualify.

Funny Games are usually a big hit at parties and get togethers. If you are planning a party and want to keep the guests entertained please try one of the games on these lists. Your party will be the stuff of legends.

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Top 5 Strategy Games

Trevor and Danny share their top 5 strategy games with us. A strategy or strategic game is one where the players decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome.

The term “strategy” means generalship. It differs from “tactics” in that it refers to the general scheme of things, whereas “tactics” refers to organization and execution.

There are different types of strategy games.

Abstract strategy

In abstract strategy games, the game is only loosely tied to a thematic concept, if at all. The rules do not attempt to simulate reality, but rather serve the internal logic of the game.

Team strategy

Team strategy is a plan of how a team intends to win a battle. Teamwork is the most fundamental concept in team strategy.

Eurogames

Eurogames, or German-style board games, are a relatively new genre that sit between abstract strategy games and simulation games. They generally have simple rules, short to medium playing times, indirect player interaction, and abstract physical components. The games emphasize strategy, play down chance and conflict, lean towards economic rather than military themes, and usually keep all the players in the game until it ends.

Simulation

This type of game is an attempt to simulate the decisions and processes inherent to some real-world situation. Most of the rules are chosen to reflect what the real-world consequences would be of each player action and decision.

War Game

War Games are simulations of military battles, campaigns, or entire wars. Players will have to consider situations that are analogous to the situations faced by leaders of historical battles. Traditionally, war games have been played either with miniatures, using physical models of detailed terrain and miniature representations of people and equipment to depict the game state; or on a board, which commonly uses cardboard counters on a hex map.

Turn-based

Turn-based strategy is where players take turns when playing. This is distinguished from real time strategy where all players play simultaneously. Turn-based doesn’t depend upon the player’s reaction speed. The game waits for the player to declare their move(s), as in a game of chess. This provides more thoughtful game pacing, but has a pretty significant downside in a multiplayer setting,

As you can see, strategy games take all if not most of the “luck” aspect out of the game. Strategy games are usually won by the person who employs the best tactics. We hope this video helps you choose the next game for your inventory.

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Danny from ZiaComics.com teaches us how to play Love Letter by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG). Love Letter is a game for 2-4 players age 10+. It only takes around 20 minutes to play and is very easy to learn for new players.

The story behind the game is all the eligible men of Tempest seek to court Princess Annette. Unfortunately, she has locked herself in the palace. You have to rely on those within the palace to take your romantic letters to her. You are trying to get your letter to her first.

Love Letter is a game of risk, deduction, and luck. Get your love letter into Princess Annette’s hands while keeping other players’ letters away. Each player starts with only one card in hand; one card is removed from play. On a turn, you draw one card, and play one card, trying to expose others and knock them from the game. Powerful cards lead to early gains, but make you a target. Rely on weaker cards for too long and your letter may be tossed in the fire!

The whole game is comprised of just sixteen cards. You can easily carry this game in your pocket. It is a great game to play with friends while waiting in long lines.

If romance is not your thing, there are other variations of the game with popular characters/themes. Some of those variations (at the time of this article) are Batman, The Hobbit, Adventure Time, Star Wars, Archer, and Lovecraft.

Love Letter is simple game with lots of replay-ability. It is easy to carry and can be played nearly anywhere. It is inexpensive (base game is less than $20) so it won’t hurt your wallet. We highly recommend you pick up a copy of Love Letter no matter what variation.

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Building the Lego Star Wars Snowspeeder

Patrick from ZiaComics.com unboxes the Exclusive Lego Star Wars Snowspeeder item #75144. This Lego set has 1,703 pieces and is for ages 14+. It took about 3 days of building after work to complete. There are some cool features like opening canopy and dial down flaps in the back (as seen in the video). This was a very fun build and we recommend it to anyone, especially Star Wars fans.

Product Details from Lego

Collect a true Star Wars classic: the T-47 Snowspeeder. This LEGO® interpretation of the iconic airspeeder that fans will remember from Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back has all the details you’d expect, including opening airbrakes, rotating rear gun, and an opening cockpit with space for the included Rebel Snowspeeder Pilot and Rebel Snowspeeder Gunner minifigures. This model also comes with a display stand and fact plaque, so it can take pride of place in any LEGO Star Wars collection.

Includes 2 minifigures: a Rebel Snowspeeder Pilot and a Rebel Snowspeeder Gunner.

Features intricate, authentic detailing, opening airbrakes, rotating rear gun and an opening cockpit with space for the 2 included minifigures.
Attach the Snowspeeder to the stand with fact plaque to display it.
Impress your friends with this amazing recreation of a classic Star Wars Snowspeeder.

Includes 2 blaster pistols.

Accessory elements include electrobinoculars, a Snowspeeder Pilot helmet and a Snowspeeder Gunner helmet.

Snowspeeder on display stand measures over 8” (21cm) high, 15” (39cm) long and 11” (29cm) wide, and over 4” (11cm) high without stand.

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Danny from ZiaComics.com teaches us how to play the game Veggie Garden from publisher Quick Simple Fun. This is a game for 2-4 players age 14+ and takes 20-30 minutes to play.

Official Description of Veggie Garden from Quick Simple Fun:

Plant like the best, or lose like the rest!
Veggie Garden is a fun and fast-paced game for 2-4 players, all of which are trying to grow the most vegetables in the shortest amount of time. But it won’t be easy — other players will be fighting for space in the garden, along with the pesky Groundhog and mischievous Bunny popping up at every turn! So get your green thumbs ready and dive in to Veggie Garden!

What’s in the Box?

Over 100 High-Quality Components!

Put on Your Gardening Gloves!

The Community Garden is open for business, and it’s up to you to fill it up with delicious vegetables and make sure they grow healthy and big!

In Veggie Garden, players will compete against each other to cultivate the community garden and make it the best it can be.

Can you use your green thumb to come out ahead of the other gardeners? Find out in Veggie Garden!

Flex Your Green Thumb

In Veggie Garden, every play you make will affect the makeup of the community garden, and your final score. Each Veggie has its own unique effect on the game, so plan your moves carefully and change the garden so it benefits you the most at the end of the game.

Pick Your Vegetables

At the beginning of each player’s turn, they will select one of the veggie cards from the harvest to add to their hand. When a veggie card is drafted, the player who drafted it will carry out the action associated with that veggie. For Example: Selecting a Carrot card from the harvest will allow a player to swap the Bunny with another fence post tile, which could drastically change how scoring plays out!

Cultivate Your Hand

Drafting veggie cards does more than just change the garden. When players draft their veggie cards, they are also attempting to craft a hand that can score the most points at the end of the game. It’s a balancing act between picking from the veggies available in the harvest and planning for what each veggie will be worth. Can you find the golden ratio and cultivate the best hand?

A Bountiful Harvest

Once each player has 8 veggie cards in hand, the game moves into scoring. Players will reveal their hands and go to count up how much each veggie is worth by looking at the final state of the garden. The fence posts around the edges of the garden will help you tally the total value of the veggies in your hand, and the player with the highest score will be crowned the gardening champion!

Plant with the Best, or Lose Like the Rest!

Veggie Garden promises to be fun for the whole family! So get your green thumbs ready and dive in to Veggie Garden today!

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DC Comics has been getting a lot of criticism lately about their major motion pictures.  People were saying Marvel had the secret formula for successful superhero movies and DC just couldn’t quite get it completely right.  The Wonder Woman movie will put all that chatter to rest.

The Wonder Woman (Diana Prince) movie gives us her origin story.  This works because her origin hasn’t been played out ad nauseam in previous movies.

We get to see where Diana gets her combat training, god-like powers, and her god-forged weapons.  We see the innocence and purity of the character as well.  Gal Gadot really knocked it out of the park portraying Wonder Woman.

The pacing for movie was so good it didn’t seem like over 2 hours passed from beginning to end.  There were enough action sequences to keep the adrenaline junkies happy, enough humor to keep the laughers happy, and enough story to tie them both together.

Wonder Woman is the DC Comics movie we’ve been waiting for.  We’re hoping DC can build on the success of this movie and make Justice League a huge hit.

We want to thank Alamo Drafthouse El Paso for allowing us to do our review in their lobby.  We also want to thank Raywork Productions for filming & editing the video.

Please tell us what you thought about the movie.  Did Gal Gadot make a convincing Wonder Woman? Did Chris Pine do good as Steve Trevor?  Did DC Comics finally make a movie to rival the Marvel films?  Let us know!

Talk Nerdy to Me

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Danny from ZiaComics.com teaches us how to play Hero Realms

Hero Realms from White Wizard Games is a fantasy-themed deck-building game. It is an adaptation of the award-winning Star Realms game. Hero Realms is for 1-4 players and takes about 20 minutes to play. It plays best with 2 players. The game includes basic rules for two-player games, along with rules for multiplayer formats such as Free-For-All, Hunter, and Hydra.

Each player starts the game with an identical 10 card personal deck. Players share an 80 card market deck. Five cards from the Marketplace deck are revealed to create Market Row. Each turn players will play cards from their hand. Weapon cards are used for combat and Gold cards are used to purchase items from the Market Row. When a card is removed from Market Row it is replaced with a card from the Marketplace deck. When your personal deck runs out of cards simply shuffle your discard pile into your new deck. The goal in Hero Realms is to reduce your opponent’s life to zero.

Multiple expansions are available for Hero Realms that allow players to start as a particular character (Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Thief, Wizard, or Dragon at the time of this video). Players may fight cooperatively against a Boss, fight Boss decks against one another, or compete in a campaign mode that has you gain experience to work through different levels of missions.

If you want a deck building game that is inexpensive (approximately $20), easy to learn, fun, and doesn’t require you to constantly purchase booster packs then give Hero Realms a try.

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Danny from ZiaComics.com teaches us how to play the Ghosts Love Candy from Steve Jackson Games

In Ghosts Love Candy you will play as one of six ghosts. There are six kids all dressed up for Trick or Treat in the neighborhood (playing field). Every round a piece of candy is given to each kid. Since you are a candy loving ghost, you scare the kids and take their candy.

Be careful, each kid has special abilities that can be triggered. These abilities can greatly affect the outcome. You must also be careful not to scare any kid so much they run away (When the total ghost points exceed the bravery level of the kid). If you are the last ghost played on a kid that runs away you take that kid into your scoring as negative points.

You will receive points for the candy you take. Since every ghosts likes different types of candy you will receive a randomized candy score card that is kept secret from other players. Candy Corn might be worth 5 points to you, but only 2 points to another player.

Ghosts Love Candy is for 3-6 players, plays over 8 rounds, and is easy to learn. Kids will love the artwork, cute theme, and easy game-play. Adults will enjoy these things also, but will appreciate the strategy that can be used by implementing the abilities on the kid cards. Ghosts Love Candy is scheduled to be on the shelves in your favorite Local Game Store (Zia Comics) in May 2017.

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Free Comic Book Day has outgrown the confines of Zia Comics. Instead of making the event smaller, we decided on the opposite. We are making the event bigger, adding more guests, and doing more cool stuff.

Remember back in the first paragraph where we said FCBD has outgrown our store capacity? We searched high and low to find a suitable venue to host this event. We found our location at the Mesilla Valley Mall.

Zia Comics Free Comic Book Day will be held just inside the mall entrance from the movie theater. The same location where they do pics with the Easter Bunny and Santa.

No more waiting in line to come inside the store and pick out your free comics (Fire Marshal code). This bigger space allows us to have LOTS more guest artists as well. We are bringing in 2 of the current artists working on DC Comics Titans title. We are also bringing in a load of local comic book talent. We will also have cosplayers, games, and Dave & Buster’s will be giving away cool swag.

Remember if you come in costume you can’t wear a mask walking around the mall. You will be allowed to wear your mask in the Zia Comics FCBD area only.

Here is our guest list so far:

DC Comics artist Brett Booth (Backlash, Flash, Titans) will be in attendance. He will be available for custom sketches and will be selling signed prints of his work.

DC Comics artis Norm Rapmund (Teen Titans, Flash, Titans) will be in attendance. He will also be available for custom sketches and will be selling signed prints of his work.

Artist Jaime Carrillo will be doing custom sketches, selling signed prints of his work, and selling copies of his books.

Artist Ben Jones will be doing custom sketches, selling signed prints of his work, and selling copies of his self published comic, Asgard.

Artist Juan Muro will be doing custom sketches and selling signed prints of his work.

Artist Daniel Campos (Marvel & DC) will be doing custom sketches and selling signed prints of his work.

Artist Andy Perez will be doing custom sketches and selling signed prints of his work.

Ray Ramos is the creator of El Valiente, Hell’s Pass, and El Paso’s Book of the Dead: A Guide to Surviving the Zombie Holocaust.

Cosplayer Ginny Di will be in attendance in costume. She will be selling signed prints of her cosplay photos.

Cosplayer Christina Dark will be in attendance in costume. She will be selling signed prints of her cosplay photos.

The Vhe’rang Clan of Mandalorian Mercs Star Wars costuming group will be in attendance.

Military Gamer Supply will have their Artemis Spaceship Bridge simulator set up as well as other various games.

Dave and Busters of El Paso will be in attendance with lots of cool freebies and goodies.

We will have a limited number of the FCBD 2017 Funko POP! Marvel: Iron Fist PREVIEWS Exclusive Vinyl Figure (White Costume Version). This item has been allocated and quantities are limited.

And of course, FREE COMICS! (while supplies last). For a list of what comics will be given away visit http://www.freecomicbookday.com/catalog

Mark the day on your calendar. This is one you won’t want to miss.

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This week Danny & Trevor go over their top five lists of Gateway Games. There is some debate as to what qualifies a game to be in this category. The generally accepted definition is:

Gateway Game: A game with simple rules that are easy to teach non-gamers in order to attract new players into board gaming as a hobby.

Gateway Game usually have the following qualities:

Simple (so you can explain the rules to them quickly).

Fun (fun games will attract repeat plays).

Short (short hits can be played again, misses gives you time to play something else).

Basically any easy to teach and play game that is quick and fun can be considered a Gateway Game. The term is akin to the “Gateway Drug” definition. They are games that give players an easy entry into the world of board gaming.

Hopefully you this video has helped you discover a game you’d like to try or show to a friend. As always… Keep playing games!

https://youtu.be/22kSi9A_ZZs

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Top 5 Dice Games

In this episode, Trevor and Danny give you their Top 5 list of Dice Games. There is much debate as to what constitutes a dice game. The common definitions are below. There will be some argument to these classifications I’m sure.

1. Pure dice games which include only dice and maybe some scoring or resource markers. Part of the appeal of such a game is the tactile experience of rolling.

2. Hybrid dice games which include dice as an important aspect, where dice are used in a key game mechanism as more than just a randomizer.

3. Board games that happen to have dice as a randomizer. The influence of the dice is isolated to resolving a particular kind of action, Outside of that action, it doesn’t matter that dice were used.

For this list Trevor and Danny consider games that fall into category #1 and 2. Dice must be an important factor in the game. Hopefully this video will help you make an informed decision about trying out one of the games mentioned.

As always, keep playing games!

https://youtu.be/F1DUGI_RxJ0

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