Category: Board Games Reviews

Moon-Bots Review

I first played this game designed by Franz Coudrec and illustrated beautifully by Sylvain Aublin at EGX where I was asked to demonstrate it.

And I loved it so much I walked ground to Firestorm Cards and bought it then and there.

The Jist

The grand annual Moon-Bots tournament sees the galaxy’s most gifted scientists gathering on the moon to build robots to fight one another, upgrading them as they go.

The last robot standing wins the game and you start off with a basic robot which has one attack, and one dice.

The first phase of the game is a card drafting phase in which you salvage parts to make your robot better, these components costing you either 2 energy, 1 energy or being free. This is important and energy is also your robots life, some particularly good components like re-rolls and extra dice cost you an additional energy.

The market place is a grid of six cards in two rows, with the cost rising depending on how high in the grid it is, if a card below another one is picked, the cards above it move down and get cheaper.

There are certain cards which you have no idea what they do, these are never allowed to be feee so if they drop onto the lowest level of the grid they disappear, but these can be really good, like allowing you to scour through the deck to find an upgrade you want for free, or indeed some of them cause you problems.

The parts you salvage are added to your robot, and the art matches up with the robot on the player boards, and enhances your combat ability. Some upgrades, such as extra dice or defences go to the top and side of your player board.

The second phase is the role of your dice, and this is very much like Machi Koro in that your rolls determine what actions you take. Initially the robot will either punch on a roll of 1 or fire a missile on a roll of 6, but as you add more dice you get more possible things you can do, such as a leg which does a rocket attack on a 2, 3 or 4.

You can then attack the player on your right, or your left only, or split the attacks between them and damage their energy levels, once one of the players next to you is eliminated you can then attack the player next to them as if they were next to you.

Components

The box gives you a bunch of upgrade cards, four dice in each player colour, four energy markers and four player boards.

The cards are on a fairly average card stock, nowt to write home about but they do the job well, the player boards are double layers so that the upgrades slot in and fit rather nicely where they should be, and the artwork all matches up perfectly.

The dice are nice and chunky and use Arabic numerals instead of pips, which actually fits the game rather well art wise.

Look

I love the artwork and that drew me in fairly early on, it’s cute and I knew right away that would get Megan and Lindsay to want to play it.

What’s Good

I really enjoy the game and it can be played in around 15-30 minutes, and gives you a good game experience whilst not taking too long.

Lindsay picked it up in a couple of terms without needing to read too much of the instructions, and she did rather well.

Simple, yet lots of fun.

What’s Bad

It’s easy for two players to hang up on the player between them to eliminate them from the game early on, so here is hoping your group is fair and nice.

The instructions aren’t the best however, they just don’t feel the best written.

Final Score

This game is cute, it has a similar vibe to King of Tokyo and a lot of Machi Koro, it’s a very enjoyable little game.

Have to give this 7 out of 10.


I will not lie I have looked at other reviews to get an idea of how to write this, I am no pro, but there is a possibility that I may have been influenced by reading them and some stuff may have filtered through to this review.

If you do spot anything that could be seen as heavily influenced by what someone else has said, let me know and I will be sure to credit and link them.

Game Details
NameMoon-Bots (2019)
ComplexityLight [1.43]
BGG Rank [User Rating]10341 [6.48]
Player Count2-4
Designer(s)Franz Couderc
Artists(s)Sylvain Aublin
Publisher(s)Blue Orange (EU)
Mechanism(s)Auction: Dutch, Open Drafting and Player Elimination

One Night Ultimate Werewolf Review

This is a version of Werewolf in which everything happens over a single night, if you are unfamiliar with Werewolf, then I guess I had better explain it!

Werewolf was originally called Mafia and was created by a Russian dude, Dmitry Davidoff in the late 1980s. In it people are assigned a role in secret and the game them works in two phases, the night phase in which people carry out their roles in secret, and a day phase in which people attempt to root out the werewolves in their midst.

In normal Werewolf, to win, the Villagers must rid the village of all evil doers, whilst the Werewolves must reach parity with the villagers.

There are lots of different roles which can change up how the game works, for example Tanners, whose win conditions is to be killed.

This version was originally designed as One Night Werewolf by Akihisa Okui and further developed by Ted Alspach and is published by Bézier Games.

The Jist

So in One Night Ultimate Werewolf, it strips it right down and does everything in one night phase and one day phase, with the villagers needing to kill a werewolf and the werewolves needing to kill a villager.

You are randomly given a card, which has 1 of 12 different roles on it, but what I am going to do here is tell you about the roles used for a standard 3 player starter game.

In this you will create a deck of 2 Werewolves, 1 Seer, 1 Robber, 1 Troublemaker and 1 Villager, you then hand a card out to each player, who looks at it, and then places it face down on the table. The remaining three cards are placed in the centre of the table.

Players then close their eyes, and an announcer reads out what happens, but you won’t need an extra player for that, as Bézier Games have developed an app which does it all for you.

The Werewolves will then wake up and look for each other, they then close their eyes and the Seer wakes up and can either look at a players card, or two of the centre cards, they then close their eyes.

The Robber then wakes up and can then exchange their role with another players role and view the card, they then close their eyes. At this point the Troublemaker wakes up, and then exchanges cards between two players.

Then everyone wakes up and you try and figure out between you, who are the Werewolves and therefore who should die.

There are other roles, for example the Drunk who wakes up and swaps their card for one of the centre cards, but doesn’t look at their new role.

You have five minutes to debate between yourselves who are the Werewolves and who must die, after which you all point at the player you wish to kill after a countdown.

Components

In the box you get 16 cards for the various roles, plus 16 chits for each role along with a rule book.

The cards and chits are punchboard as opposed to simple game cards, and so are very durable, we have had our copy since not long after publication five years ago, and it’s seen a lot of play, sure now some of the cards are showing a little wear and tear, but they still hold up pretty well.

The App obviously isn’t in the box, but I can’t mention components without talking about it, it’s great and means that your group doesn’t need an extra person to be the announcer which means everyone can play, and that is brilliant. You load it up, select what roles you are using and set it away, simple but brilliant.

And all of this fits in a super small box so it’s highly portable.

Look

The art is really fun, it’s not as serious as other Werewolf games and is in a cartoon style by Gus Batt, great artwork and suits the more simplistic, fun version of Werewolf this is.

What’s Good

I love this game, it’s a real favourite of mine, I love a good hidden identity game and this really ticks a lot of boxes for me.

It really gets your heart beating and the way you have to navigate the social dynamics of whatever group you are with adds a new twist to every game.

It’s wonderful to see a group think they have secured victory, only to have it snatched away from them by a sneaky werewolf who convinced them that they were an innocent villager.

What’s Bad

Werewolf had a lot of different roles for it, if you put a gun to my head and made me say something bad about this game, it would be that in order to get a bigger Werewolf experience, you need to add expansions, I mean I personally think Daybreak is an essential.

Final Score

I love this game, it’s one I can pull out again and again and again.

I love to play a full game of Werewolf, but this comes pretty close to that.

I give this game a solid 7.5 out of 10


I will not lie I have looked at other reviews to get an idea of how to write this, I am no pro, but there is a possibility that I may have been influenced by reading them and some stuff may have filtered through to this review.

If you do spot anything that could be seen as heavily influenced by what someone else has said, let me know and I will be sure to credit and link them.

Game Details
NameOne Night Ultimate Werewolf (2014)
Accessibility ReportMeeple Like Us
ComplexityLight [1.37]
BGG Rank [User Rating]596 [7.06]
Player Count (recommended)3-10 (4-10)
Designer(s)Ted Alspach and Akihisa Okui
Artists(s)Gus Batts
Publisher(s)Bézier Games, Games7Days, HaKubia, Lacerta, Outland, Playfun Games, Popcorn Games, Ravensburger, Rawstone, Reflexshop, Siam Board Games, UBO CnC, Viravi Edicions and White Goblin Games
Mechanism(s)Hidden Roles, Role Playing, Roles with Asymmetric Information, Traitor Game, Variable Player Powers and Voting

Catch The Moon Review

So I think I am going to try and write a review for every game in my collection, so what better way to start than with a game that isn’t actually in my collection!!!

The copy we played with actually belongs to Megan’s mum, we played it at the UK Games Expo earlier this year and upon describing it to her, Jane insisted we bring her back a copy, which we duly did.

The Jist

Catch the Moon is a dexterity game by Fabien Riffaud and Juan Rodriguez in which you start with a nice plastic base, into which two sets of straight ladders are inserted. You will be using these as a basis to stack other Dalí inspired ladders

You then roll a custom D6 which will produce one of three results, either you need to have your ladder touching two and only two other ladders, or one and only other ladder, and the third result is that your ladder be the highest in the structure.

Simply enough, but if you fail then you revive a teardrop token, any ladders which fall, you remove from the game, and the player that caused them to fall gets a teardrop.

The game ends when the last teardrop is taken or you run out of ladders. If the last teardrop was taken, the player that got it, is immediately eliminated, and the winner is the player with the fewest teardrops remaining.

This is a bit hash, I have had no teardrops, then gotten the last one and been eliminated, allowing Lindsay with two teardrops to win. But when checking around for other reviews, particularly Tom Vasel review from the Dice Tower, I have to agree, it’s only a short game, so it’s not like you put hours into something only to lose to a silly rule.

Components

The plastic base is great sturdy and just what you want, the dice is lovely and warm feeling, but the ladders do feel a bit flimsy.

But I would counter that same thought, because whilst not being the most solid material, they need to be light so they can stack easily, so I would say they are right for the game.

Look

There really isn’t much in the way of artwork, the cover of the box is beautifully illustrated by Emmanuel Malin, but other than that and the instructions, there isn’t a lot to really talk about.

What’s Good

To be honest, I love this game, it’s simple and what you get at the end is a unique piece, almost like a work of art.

What’s Bad

The elimination of the last player to take a teardrop isn’t great, but honestly, that’s kinda clutching at straws to look for a fault.

Final Score

I feel confident in giving this game a solid 7 out of 10, I want to give this an 8, but it still leaves me wanting something with more meat, but then I do prefer more in depth games.

That said, this will not be a bad addition to anyone’s game collection, and it’s going on my buy list!

Game Details
NameCatch the Moon (2017)
ComplexityLight [1.00]
BGG Rank [User Rating]2618 [6.76]
Player Count (recommended)2-6 (2-4)
Designer(s)Fabien Riffaud and Juan Rodriguez
Artists(s)Emmanuel Malin
Publisher(s)Bombyx, Asmodee, Asterion Press, Hobby Japan and KOSMOS
Mechanism(s)Dice Rolling and Stacking and Balancing

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