Review: Loch Ness Board Game

I was given the opportunity to review Loch Ness by Rio Grande Games. I would like to mention that the photos for this post were taken by Ryan Mitchell from The Tiny Life. Please stop by and check out his blog.

Type: new release, Set collecting
Number of players: 2-5
Age of players: 8+
Length: 30-45 minutes
Languages Available: English
Suggested Retail: $34.95
Release Date: December
Status: In Print

Game Description:

For decades reporters from the around the world have been on the
hunt for the Loch Ness monster. But lately reports of sightings of Nessie
have been increasing.
Such reports naturally have drawn such reporters as the attractive
Belinda Viewing from New York, the half-Belgian Claude McMirror, the
clever Filosa Sharp, as well as her Londoner competitor Jack Nesstee,
and even Nils the Blitzen from Denmark to the Loch. Equipped with
the most modern equipment and techniques, these daring reporters have
traveled to Scotland, in order to capture the elusive Nessie on film for
their newspapers.
But the 5 will experience some surprises...

So the basis of this game is that the players are a bunch of photographers trying to take pictures of the Loch Ness monster. At the beginning of each round, the first 3 players choose a card from their hand. Each card has a number on it - that number is how far Nessie moves around the Loch. If you are one of the 3 players choosing cards, you know what you're number is, but you don't know what number anyone else put down. If you're not one of the first 3 players that round you have no idea what numbers were placed down. Then each player gets the opportunity to move their cameras, making educated guesses based on the number on their card, or a card that they got to look at with their special ability, or just a shot in the dark if they didn't see any cards at all. Once everyone has moved their cameras, the cards are flipped and Nessie moves around the lake.

If Nessie stopped in front of one of your cameras, you then get picture cards. The picture cards have 3 different sections of Nessie on them - head, trunk, or tail. If you can get all 3 photos of Nessie, you can get more points. Play continues like this until Nessie has moved a total of 65 spaces. Then points are added up and a winner is declared.

At first this game seemed a little silly, but by the time we were done, we all ended up really enjoying it. The game play was fast and easy to learn, and the special abilities evened out the play if you were not one of the people laying down cards that round.

Overall I found Loch Ness by Rio Grande Games. to be pretty fun. I think we all ended up liking it, but it is not a favorite - yet. We'll need to play it some more to get it into the favorite category, and I think everyone will be more than willing to play it again.

Review: Nile deLuxor Edition Card Game

I was recently given the opportunity to review Nile deLuxor Card Game by Minion Games.

Nile deLuxor is an stand alone replacement plus expansion to NILE, a set collection game with a euro-style feel. There are 5 suits each representing a resource type in Egypt. There are also specialty cards showing multiple resource types. Players draft cards into their hands and play them following simple rules. At the beginning of every turn a flood card is drawn showing one or more resource type. That resource type is harvested by the player currently growing it.

Contains 2 new crop cards (for easier play with 5-6 players), 1 new resource card, 3 Monument cards, and 3 turn counter cards. This is an Expansion of Nile.



NOTICE: If you own the previous version of NILE we are offering a special $10 discount coupon for deLuxor if you send us your UPC symbol off the box or an image of it ripped off the box. This offer will be made available though your local game store as well, so please contact them!

I love that this game was so beautifully made! Just look at how pretty the cards are:

I am a member of several gaming groups here in the Charlotte are, and an Admin for 1 group, so I brought this game along to teach to all my gaming friends. This game was very easy to teach, even when I had never played it!

In Nile DeLuxor, you are a farmer in ancient Egypt. The Nile is the life-giving river which allows you to harvest your crops. You have to plant your crops - there are seven different crops (Papyrus, Wheat, Lettuce, Castor, Flax, Grape, and Onion) and harvest whatever the Nile says is the next harvestable crop. But you can't plant what just flooded, nor can you plant something if the other players have more of that crop already planted than you can plant. So, what if you can't plant anything? Well, then you can speculate on the next crop that will be flooded. Speculation cards have 2 different crops on them, and if one of the crops you speculated on comes up for harvest on the next turn, your speculation has successful and you get more cards. Seems easy, right? Well, it is - but watch out for the Plague of Locusts - that'll ruin whatever the largest field is.

So while this seems like a peaceful little farming game, it is a game of screw your neighbor and hope your crop comes up before they can screw you. Oh, and a little gambling that your speculation cards will come up successful.

Overall, I would have to say that this is a very easy game to learn, for pretty much any age, and it was a lot of fun. My gaming friends and I really enjoyed it, and now it is one of the games that the others now go, "Oh, can we play that?" as they pull it out of my pile of games.

This would also be a good game for kids (it's ages 8+) because it will help them learn math skills (Do I have enough papyrus in my hand to beat dad's 3 papyrus?), logic and decision making skills, reading, strategy, and resource management.

All in all, I highly recommend Nile deLuxor Card Game by Minion Games.