Ladies and gentlemen, this 2016, let’s level up…..in terms of board games!
Last December 2015, we shared some exciting board games with you that ‘newbie’ players can play at Dyce N Dyne, and as we have already entered a brand new year, we would love to introduce you to a set of board games that are ‘tougher’ and can help you ‘level up’ your game.
“How are they tougher?”, you might ask. Well, the board games that we will be sharing with you bring a whole lot more to the table: more intense mind games, harder points computations, more complex mechanics, more cards, longer gameplays, and themes that need you to bring out your darker side…. There’s no need to worry, though, as Dyce N Dyne’s GROs – Game Relations Officers – will be readily there to teach and assist you. 🙂
Move over, Dixit, Cards Against Humanity, and Tapple. Here are 5 board games at Dyce N Dyne that you can play this New Year to level up your game!
Level Up Your Game at Dyce N Dyne: 5 Tougher Board Games To Play This New Year!
5. King of Tokyo
OVERVIEW
In this battle that lets you be the ‘king’ of one of the most visited cities during the recent holidays – in a board game setting, at least – you play against monsters, gargantuan robots, and titanic aliens who are all trying to destroy Tokyo. The thing is, you will each have to bring out your inner catastrophic versions to overtake Tokyo by crushing each other and determining the last monster standing: the King of Tokyo. The question is: will it be you?
RECOMMENDED NO. OF PLAYERS: 2-6 players
AVERAGE PLAYTHROUGH TIME: 40 minutes-1 hour
SETUP
The Board – Tokyo City and Tokyo Bay are the two areas on the board with Tokyo City being the primary area for occupation between the two, if there is a choice. Also, there are three other symbols in the bottom left corner of the board. The first symbol states that you receive one Victory Point (VP) anytime you enter Tokyo, the second one indicates you receive two every time you begin your turn in Tokyo, and the third one states you cannot heal yourself while in Tokyo.
The Monster’s Scoring Boards – There are six available monsters to choose from: The King, Giga Zaur, Alienoid, Cyber Bunny, Kraken, and Meka Dragon. Each scoring board has two windows – one for the health gauge and the other for the Victory Point (VP) gauge.
These are the five monsters we chose. I chose the Kraken because.. #ReleaseTheKraken
The Monster’s Scoring Board
The Dice – There are 6 black dice and 2 green dice (only usable through special cards) for you to roll to score points with, damage opponents, heal themselves or receive Energy Cubes to buy cards that give you special abilities during the game.
The following are the sides of the dice:
Victory Points [1]s [2]s and [3]s – If a player ends his turn with three of any number showing on the dice, he receives the face value of that number in VP. Each additional match he rolls grants him only one extra VP per additional match. . For an instance, if a player rolls five [1]’s, he then would get a total of 3 VP: one point for the three matching [1]’s, and two points for the other two matching [1]’s. That player can now adjust his score on the card accordingly, and add 3 VP.
Attack – [ATTACK] is represented by an image of a claw. In a nutshell, you can use this to ‘hurt’ and eventually ‘kill’ an opponent. If you’re inside Tokyo, you damage all monsters outside of it. On the other hand, any monster outside of Tokyo that rolls an attack will only damage the monster/s inside Tokyo. One [attack] inflicts one damage, and players must adjust their score cards to show these changes when the damage is dealt. A health gauge that hits 0 as a result of attacks or special card abilities leads to the monster’s elimination from the game.
Heal– If you’re a monster outside of Tokyo, this is the side of the dice (represented by a heart) that you would want if you’re constantly being attacked by the monster inside (as monsters inside Tokyo cannot heal themselves and cannot use Heal). Any player outside Tokyo heals for 1 point of life for each [HEAL] that is rolled.
Energy- [ENERGY] are used to buy special cards (placed atop the board) that give your monster permanent or temporary special abilities throughout the game. These abilities can range from being granted an additional dice, a body armor for defense, a nova death ray for attack, and more. In short, these cards can be very helpful in obtaining a desired roll, damaging other monsters and enhancing your monster’s survivability.
Cards- Each card has a cost shown at the top-left corner of the card. It shows the number of Energy Cubes a player must use in order to buy the card. The description at the bottom part states the card effect, and above it will either sow the word “Keep” or “Discard.” A “Keep” would mean that the card could be used throughout the whole game, unless stated contrarily. “Discard”, meanwhile, would mean it is for one-time use only. Three cards will always be present and face-up atop the board and they could be replaced with three new ones by paying two [ENERGY] cubes.
HOW TO WIN
To win, one must either destroy Tokyo by accumulating 20 victory points, or be the only surviving monster to be the KING OF TOKYO!
GAMEPLAY
After picking the monster of your choice out of the six, life points are set to 10 and victory points to 0. To begin the battle royal, there will be a preliminary rolling wherein the player who rolls the most [ATTACK] goes first, and then the regular play can begin.
In the regular play, each player gets to roll all 6 black dice at once at each turn, which show the following six symbols: 1, 2, or 3 VP, Energy, Heal and Attack. If you are not in favor of the initial roll results (e.g. having six [1]s when you actually wanted four [2]s and two [ATTACK] ), you may keep some dice and re-roll (up to a maximum of 2 re-rolls) the rest to obtain the desired result. Roll results can be tailored to having more [1]s [2]s or [3]s, getting an [ATTACK] to enter Tokyo or attack a player inside Tokyo, or having an [ENERGY] to purchase cards throughout the game, depending on a player’s strategy. Now, if you are the first player and end a turn with having an [ATTACK], you get to enter Tokyo first (by positioning in Tokyo City) and consequently earn 1 VP for entering Tokyo and extra 2VP for entering Tokyo at the beginning of your turn (and life does not get easier as soon as you enter Tokyo but, anyway…)
On the other hand, the common way to earn VP is by rolling three-of-a-kind of these numbers- [1]s [2]s or [3]s- which will give you the face value of that number in VP (as explained in the Setup).
Here are some examples of roll results and the corresponding VP points produced:
Four [2]s, one [ATTACK], and one [ENERGY] = total of 3VP
Five [3]s, and one [HEAL] = total of 5VP
Six [1]s = total of 4VP
Two [2]s, Two [1]s, Two [3s] = No VP since there was no three-of-a-kind
Again, one way to win it all is by being the first one to reach 20 VP so you’d better call on the Gods of Dice to give you the best possible combinations.
Another monster can join the first monster that entered Tokyo (through Tokyo City) by positioning itself at Tokyo Bay, the second area in Tokyo. The monsters inside Tokyo will then be subjected to a team-up by those outside of it – as what actually happened with my friends – as everybody outside will try to steal Tokyo away from the ones inside by damaging them until they die or voluntarily leave to avoid death/elimination from the game. Again, monsters inside Tokyo cannot heal themselves, so they must decide whether to stay inside and run out of health or exchange positions with the attacking player. Monsters outside of Tokyo can damage each monster inside Tokyo by rolling at least one [ATTACK]. If, for an instance, the monster in Tokyo City leaves after being attacked, the monster that attacked him must take the former’s place in Tokyo City. Moreover, cards can also be bought using [ENERGY] to be used for eliminating other monsters apart from using [ATTACK] or strengthening their defense.
Just like in wrestling, King of Tokyo can give you a four-on-one handicap strategy, a two-on-two tag team match, a triple threat match, or a fatal four way, but in the end, it is still a one-versus-all affair. To reach victory faster, you simply have to get the right cubes, get the right cards, and kill your friends who are in monster form – just a reminder hahaha.
While playing, we munched on some popular Dyce N Dyne dishes!
Codenames Pulled Beef BBQ Burger
Nachos Against Humanity
A large-sized Cheesecake Milk Tea
EXPERIENCE
Since we played five consecutive board games that day, King of Tokyo served as a nice ‘warm-up’ game since it was fairly quick, light-hearted, and easier to grasp compared to the other board games we played. It also delivers a unique brand of fun as you are personifed by weird creatures reminiscent of Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network characters, and you use the unpredictability of a dice to determine your monster’s destiny. It’s nice to ‘talk’ to the dice and tell them what you want to come out (and look insane at the same time). Lastly, one would also appreciate how interactive King of Tokyo is in a way that your strategy is heavily influenced by other players’ actions.
“I see that your Meka Dragon in Tokyo City is down to three health? Ah, ‘gotta get ’em all claws to finally kill that Meka ***** Dragon.”
“Emeged, pinagtutulungan nilang patayin si Kraken baby ko… Kailangan ko ng hearts sa next roll pls 🙁 ”
Read on for more games!
