Friday Night Gaming: Neuroshima Hex!, Gloom

January 30, 2009
This installment is later than usual because BoardGameGeek was down and I had a bunch of character-creation stuff for other games I was trying to get done.

This week, we began by splitting into two groups of 3 to play two different games. This allowed us to play a couple of games that don't handle 6 players. While Ian, Robert, and Zach played Monsters Menace America, Brian, Merwin, and I played...

Neuroshima Hex!
This tile-laying game has a post-apocalyptic military theme, but it would have worked just as well with a fantasy theme (and if was produced by Fantasy Flight Games, I sure it would have been). There are no dice, combat is completely deterministic, and the only randomness is the order of the tiles draws. While the timing of tile draws can be critical to victory or defeat, strategy and tactics will favor the more skilled player.

There is ample opportunity for analysis paralysis. First, you draw 3 tiles and choose which one to discard. Then you have to place one tile. On an empty board, there are 19 spaces and 6 possible orientations on the board. And then you have to place the second tile (or keep it or discard it, which only only happened a few times). As the board fills, your placement options decrease, but the interactions between tiles increases. Tiles can have various abilities, most of which only work on 1-3 different sides, so facing is very important. Powers include:

• Melee attack against adjacent hexes
  
• Ranged attacks that follow a straight line until it hits the first target
  
• Nets that immobilize adjacent tiles so they can't move or attack
  
• Armor that reduces damage
  
• Additional toughness, allowing them to take additional hits (most tiles can only take 1 hit before dying)
  
• Power boosts to adjacent allied tiles
  

Normally tiles are immobile, but there are a few mobile units and there are also Move action tiles that you can draw. Eventually, someone plays a Battle action tile (or the board fills) and sets off a series of "this tile kills that tile, and this other tile kills that other one" determinations based on the initiative score of each tile. Initiative is a very important factor to consider when placing tiles, since your tile may die before it can act. Once all the dead tiles are removed, the board slowly gets filled again. Each player has a home base which is killed after 20 hits. The player with the healthiest home base after all the tiles have been used wins.

With 3 players, it was a free-for-all battle. With his very tough and armored units, Brian developed a very strong position and took the lead until Merwin and I sacrificed units to break through his defensive line. Eventually, I was able to set up my heaviest attacks behind my home base for cover (my home base also gave them additional attacks) and did some massive damage to Brian for a couple of turns. As the game came to a close, I had a clear lead. They did a good job of boxing me in, but my final draws were all Move action tiles, and I was wiggle free and win.

Brian chastised us for thinking too much since this was the first game. But I really feel that I need to think hard to just get up to his level, so was taking my time. When I had my sights on him, he chose to move cover in front of his base rather than move his base out of the line of fire, which was a mistake on his part (he said and I agree) and probably cost him the win. I'm sure if he wasn't so concerned with keeping the game quick, he would have won.

We played another half-game while the others finished their game. When we quit, Merwin had a very superior position and was the favorite to win.

I'd definitely play the game again, though it is doubtful when this 2-4 player game will fit our schedule. I certainly appreciate the design. In some ways, it reminds me of Nexus Ops since you simply have to accept that units will die and realize that you'll get more. And sometimes you just want to start a losing fight so that the board clears a bit and opens up other options (this is not a factor in Nexus Ops).

Gloom
Both Ian and I had expressed interest in this, so Merwin begrudgingly brought this out along with the first two expansion Gloom: Unhappy Homes and Gloom: Unwelcome Guests so that we could accommodate all six of us.

While Merwin had played before, it had been several years ago and he remembered little of the game, except that the cards are incredibly difficult to read. And boy was he right. When we play Bang!, we never have players getting out of their chairs and walking over to another player to read the cards face-up in front of them. Hell, I had a hard time reading the cards in front of me. Not only is the print small with poor color contrast, but is also in a funky thematic font.

The rules of the supplements failed to explain how to actually add their special cards and rules to the base game. The game itself was very lackluster. I saw very little strategic play beyond "play bad cards on other people, play good cards on me, and hope no one can stop you" with few opportunities for clever card combinations and thoughtful tactics. With 6 of us, it dragged and dragged. Yes, there was some humor in the cards themselves, but that wore out quickly. The game ends when a player has 5 dead family members. We finally gave up when we had only 2 or 3 dead each.

Gloom has an interesting theme and novel cards, but it pretty gloomy to play.