Game: Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond

Thread: Re: How dose the new version compaire with the old

ljw74us — 2008-06-08T15:38:16+00:00

Take a look at my review:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/28969

Thread: How dose the new version compaire with the old

Ed123play — 2008-06-08T12:05:07+00:00

I see that "Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond" got only got 56 cards and the new version the "Totally Renamed SpyGame" got 112 cards.

How dose the incresed card nummbers change the game?

Is it worth it for me to buy the new edition?

Ed

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swuyau — 2008-05-25T05:42:45+00:00

Card

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swuyau — 2008-05-25T05:41:34+00:00

Card

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mjtuell — 2007-12-14T07:28:29+00:00

These fancy color coded sleeves probably indicate that I should have my license to buy "cheapass" games revoked.

Thread: Re: How do you win?

aquilaprime — 2007-11-16T03:01:26+00:00

You win (usually) by playing spies into your own lair, because you know the values of both. Destroying other's lairs keeps anyone from getting an advantage - it can be difficult to rebuild, especially once the deck is drawn down...also I tend to use low-level spies to forceably reveal someone elses lair...try pulling a spy/bomb from the player on your right and play it on the left player's lair...the game is alot more fun if you have a group who isnt too conservative...

Thread: James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game

seawolf — 2007-10-17T18:27:07+00:00

James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game
From: Cheapass Games
Reviewed by: Ron McClung
James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game is a new Card Game from Cheapass Games.

James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game is a simple game of spies and evil villains and blowing up their lairs. You as the player are the evil villain. You have spies to use against your evil villain opponents and a lair that you secretly build. Previously called Before I Kill You,....oh wait, can not say that anymore, "cease and desists" tend to do that ... this game is a hilarious little game. It has lots of player interaction, replayability and friendship-breaking backstabbing.

From the page # 1:
“When you've trapped the secret agent in your lair, don't drag things out.”

There are 4 types of cards with two types of card-backs. Spies and bombs have a purple-colored back. These are intermixed with lair cards and doubler/taunt cards, which have a more black/blue back. The entire deck is shuffled together and each player is given 5 cards (6 for groups of 2 or 3 players).

The basic goal of the game is to build points by capturing enemy agents. You do this by having a large valued lair that is hard to blow up. Players send out spies to destroy lairs. A player can play a spy card (or bomb card) from anywhere - his own hand, other players hand, or the top of the deck. The only catch with playing a spy (or bomb) from anywhere other than your own hand is that you do not know if its going to be a bomb or a spy. If a bomb is drawn, it blows up the lair regardless of value. However, if a spy is drawn, it may blow up the lair or get captured (see details below).

If the value of the spy is greater than the lair value, the lair is blown up and the spy escapes (out of play). If the value of the spy is smaller than the total value of your lair, then the spy is captured. There are two ways to gain points from a spy - kill or taunt. Kill means you get the value of the spy as points and he is discarded. Instead of a kill, the player can attempt a taunt. The taunt is accomplished through a doubler card (which doubles the points if successful), but it can be countered by a doubler card of the same type (defined by a letter in the corner) player by the other player. In the case of a foiled taunt, the spy escapes and he blows up the lair.

If a player thinks that an opponent has a lair that is entirely too powerful, then that player can send in a team. A team is a group of spy cards played as one on an opponents lair. If successful, the lair is blown up like a normal spy.

The winner is the first player to get 33 points worth of spies.

The game has interesting dynamic. You can play all the spies you want from your own hand to start with but to gain more points, you will need to draw them from other sources. There is a lot of player interaction, with players pulling cards from other players' hands, playing teams against each other, or countering taunts. It is a fun, fast-paced game that does not take a lot of time.

In conclusion, I like this game and would recommend it as a casual, fun, and family-friendly game. It is a nice looking game with good art and, in general, is an easy game to play.

For more details on Cheapass Games and their new Card Game “James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game” check them out at their website http://www.cheapass.com, and at all of your local game stores.

James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game
From: Cheapass Games
Type of Game: Card Game
Written by: James Ernest
Art by: Cheyenne Wright
Number of Pages: 1 page rulebook
Game Components Included: 112 cards, rules page
Retail Price: $ $14.95 (US)
Number of Players: 3-6
Player Ages: 12+
Play Time: 45+
Website: www.cheapass.com

Reviewed by: Ron McClung

Thread: Short Review for Short People (Approx. Aged 7-12)

jollypirate — 2007-08-05T14:31:07+00:00

I had played this once years ago...and yawned. An okay game.

Played it last night with one other adult and a few kids: two 7 year olds and one 12 year old. (This is still the old "Bond" version, without bombs)

The rules, which have you trying to build your lair and then try to destroy other people's with spies, were quick enough for everyone to pick up on. We did miss the rule that you were allowed to send Spies into your own lair for a part of the first game. Also, we had to remind the younger kids that they could send spies from other people's hands or from the top of the deck at others, but over all even the first game played very smoothly.

The game's humor appealed to both the kids and adults, but I think it's a great game for kids to play because it helps them get over the "anger" of having someone screw you over. Since with 5 players, chances are your lair is going to get blown by next turn, you get used to a little bit of the fun of the "meaness" of games. We played with mandatory explosion noises when someone destroyed your lair, which made it a little more fun, and a little less of a punishment. These were not ideal TV commercial children we were playing with. they were very real, and only Harry (the 12 year old) refused at one point to make the explosion noise.

The taunting for more points, and the randomness of sending unknown spies after your opponents lairs was a lot of fun for me too.

Ka-boom, Mr. Bond, ka-boom.

Thread: Re: Best 2 out of .... er .... 2

ced1106 — 2007-05-15T23:37:19+00:00

Yep.

I avoid playing this as a two-player game. IIRC, With more players, there's a higher chance someone will have your doubler card.

But additionally, if all you do is play the companion doubler card, or blow up other player's lairs by pulling spies out of other player's hands, the game's kinda "blah" too.

The game gets "interesting" when you *let* someone else play a doubler, so you can *save* the companion doubler to jack up your score.

Of course, the last time I tried *that*, it was a two-player game, and the eleven year old kid playing against me won, 96 points to *zero*.

EDIT: I hear the Director's Cut makes the game more enjoyable, but haven't played it yet.

aka. Washu! ^O^

Thread: Best 2 out of .... er .... 2

DrCoffee — 2007-05-15T15:54:10+00:00

As my wife and I waited for the pizza dough to rise for our dinner last night we figured we could fit in a quick game. Although I was thinking of Lost Cities, she suggested a rematch of Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond (which I had taught her just the day before).

We were playing with the original version, the one printed on square pieces of green and yellow cardstock that came in an envelope. The only modification to the rules we made was playing until there were no possible moves remaining instead of to 30 points. (We did this because the first game had been incredibly close, 36-30, and it didn't quite seem fair that one of us would win simply by reaching 30 while the other person could still take a turn).

I dealt, and we both received spies. I could tell I was in trouble immediately with 3 spies (8,5,3 points) and 3 small lair cards (1,1,2). Emily drew first and put down a 4 point lair and then placed a 4 point spy in it. She doubled it once, then again, then again. She was successful, of course, because I didn't have any doublers to twart her effort. So the score started out Emily 32, Jeff 0. If we had been playing by the rules, the game would have been over right there before I had even had a turn.

We probably should have stopped there.

The game went on with me trying to establish a lair and her throwing spies into it. She eventually "let" me score a 6 point spy and a 2 pointer. I watched helplessly as she killed off a spy for 24 points.

At one point, she said "This is a lot different than the first time."
"Yes, and not in a good way." I replied.

I noticed that the theme had worn thin after the first playing. Where the first time we were laughing at "Spy" Dr. Lucky and reading each of the cards in a comical voice, now it was more, "Do you have an A? G? C?"

Final

Emily 64
Jeff 8

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avantman42 — 2007-03-20T14:46:18+00:00

Renamed edition box

Thread: Re: Playing Lairs Face-Up

Cokecan — 2006-08-01T15:24:56+00:00

I found this game unplayable with lairs played face up. It degenerated into "who can smash the most lairs as quickly as possible". Very low scoring contests.

With lairs face down, I found it way more fun.

Thread: Re: Playing Lairs Face-Up

Espo — 2006-03-27T13:26:07+00:00

So if the spy is not big enough to destroy the lair do you have to reveal it?

I thought that when a spy entered a lair they would reveal it and future additions were played face down.

Thread: Re: I don't get it

oldmanrivah — 2006-03-16T17:37:07+00:00

Salt-Man Z wrote:
Yeah, this one fell flat with our group, too. Not sure why this game got the "Deluxe" treatment.

Probably the lawsuit...

Thread: Re: I don't get it

AllenDoum — 2006-03-16T17:33:00+00:00

Great theme, but lousy game play. My experience has always been the same as yours, that lairs are just to hard to keep around. I don't know if the rerelease changed that or not.

The theme makes you want it to work.

Thread: Re: I don't get it

Salt-Man Z — 2006-03-16T15:56:30+00:00

Yeah, this one fell flat with our group, too. Not sure why this game got the "Deluxe" treatment.

Thread: I don't get it

nyhotep — 2006-03-16T15:47:51+00:00

This is the only cheapass game I really don't like - the game play just seems wrong.

People have mentioned this before, but it's just too easy to blow up lairs, and there is no reason for not destroying your opponents lairs immediately. Specifically, you only score for capturing spies, which you can only do with a lair. If everyone keeps blowing up your lair cards as soon as you play them, you can never score. Why would you not want to blow up your enemies and stop them scoring?

The only way round this I can see would be a minimum lair size (2 or 3 cards) before anyone can attack that lair.

Thread: Re: Playing Lairs Face-Up

beri — 2005-12-28T08:06:00+00:00

It just seems like this is a simple enough game that I'd want to add more guesswork and strategy, not less!

Thread: Re: Playing Lairs Face-Up

kuhrusty — 2005-12-28T06:09:05+00:00

Hmm, for me the major choice of the game is whether or not to foil someone's taunt (blowing up their lair) when you're holding the match for the taunt they just played. If you choose not to, then you know you're holding a taunt which can't be foiled later, but you run the risk that they're about to lay down more taunts and greatly increase their score.

I have the older version; I don't see how face-down lairs would be an improvement, as showing off your lair is the whole reason to become an evil genius in the first place. And it seems like you've already got the guess-what-size-an-opponent's-lair-is factor when playing spies from other players' hands: either way, you're trying to guess whether spy A will be big enough to blow up lair B.

Thread: Re: Playing Lairs Face-Up

beri — 2005-12-27T11:12:14+00:00

Huh...if you take out the factor of guessing what the size of your opponent's Lair is, you take out the major choice of the game. That's always the more strategic factor for us...whether or not someone has a matching Doubler is simply the luck of the draw.

Thread: Playing Lairs Face-Up

mksnyder — 2005-12-27T08:16:57+00:00

When "Before I Kill You Mr. Bond" first came out, the rules specified that lairs and their additions were played face-up. My family enjoyed both announcing lair construction as well as taunting the spies.

Lairs did not provide suspense in gameplay; taunts did. There were only two taunts for each letter, hence taunts were much more likely to be successful, as it was easier to corner both taunts and guarantee success in blowing up a lair.

The "Better Edition" introduced the improvement of playing the lairs and their additions face-down, so that attacking another's lair is risky and two "bomb" cards so that coopting another's spies into one's fully fitted out lair is risky.

Unfortunately, that takes all the fun out of the building of the lairs.

My family now plays with the "Renamed Spy Game" set with half of the "lair" cards removed and the bombs removed and we play with the lairs face-up. In other words, the old rules with the new componants.

It is not as strategically (tactically? I always get those mixed up) satisfying, but it meets our needs for a sociable and funny game.

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not2fear — 2005-11-21T22:14:45+00:00

Size Comparison

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not2fear — 2005-11-21T22:14:38+00:00

bomb and card backs - close up

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not2fear — 2005-11-21T22:14:37+00:00

Terrible Taunts- Part 1

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not2fear — 2005-11-21T22:14:36+00:00

Fiendish Fixtures- Part 1

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not2fear — 2005-11-21T22:14:35+00:00

Sneaky Spies Part 1/2

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not2fear — 2005-11-21T22:14:33+00:00

Better Edition- Box back

Thread: Cease and Desist, Mr. Bond: A Review of James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game

Marlowe_PI — 2005-08-19T21:58:21+00:00

James Bond had a stunning array of gadgetry at his disposal throughout the course of 20 (official) films--the garrote Rolex, the Aston-Martin DB5, the wrist launcher, the submersible Lotus...and yet, Bond's greatest weapon was never shown on film, the most feared item in his entire arsenal...

His attorneys.

Cheapass Games' humorous card game was originally named "Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond," until the legal representatives of Mr. Bond's owners (Danjaq, S.A. and the Broccolis) sent a "Before I Sue You, Cheapass Games" letter which brought the Bond appropriation to a screeching halt.

Ah, well. Rumor has it that the creators were aware of the possibility of receiving a "cease-and-desist" when they designed the game, and so smoothly re-released it as the rather-arch "James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game." Lawyers. Gotta love 'em.

Anyway, all references to Bond or any other properties of Danjaq have been removed, and replaced by "Mister Spy", where appropriate. What's left is a light, humorous card game that plays out in about 20-30 minutes.

Gameplay
The players take the role of evil geniuses beset by master spies and prone to debilitatingly stupid lapses in judgment, much like their movie counterparts. Players take turns building lairs and letting spies loose in them. If the spies are captured, they score points, which can be multiplied at the risk of another player foiling you, cancelling your score, and destroying your lair. First player to 33 points wins.

The deck consists of four different types of cards:
* Lairs. Lairs are the foundation of your evil empire. Each contains a certain point value, corresponding to the general evilness of the lair (heh).
* Spies. The yin to your evil yang. Each spy also has a certain point value, which represents the threat he or she represents to your nefarious schemes. The spy cards use a separate card back design from the Lairs.
* Bombs. These use the Spy card back. Bombs instantly destroy Lairs.
* Taunts. Letter-coded A through I, the Taunt cards are used once you've captured a spy to increase his value. Taunts share the Lair card backs.

Each player starts with five cards. The player to the dealer's left starts first, drawing two cards from the deck. Each turn, players may do the following:

* Play a Lair, face down. The Lair stays out, and has no gameplay effect until someone--either you or an opponent--plays a spy or spies on it. Until revealed, the Lair is assumed to have a value of 4. Lair values are cumulative, so a 4 Lair played with a 2 Lair gives you a total Lair value of 6.

AND/OR

* Play a Spy on his own Lair or an opponent's Lair. The spy can come from the player's own hand, or he can do a blind-pick from one of his opponent's hands, or the top of the deck. If any of your Lair cards are face down, turn them face up. If the spy's value is equal to or less than the total value of the Lair, you capture the Spy and have the option of Taunting him (see below). If the spy's value exceeds the value of the lair, however, he destroys your Lair; all your Lair cards and the Spy are discarded. If you draw a Spy card from an opponent's hand, or the deck, and it turns out to be a Bomb, it instantly destroys your Lair. Discard the played Lair cards and the bomb.

When you play Spies from your own hand on an opponent's lair, the value of the Spies must exceed the actual or assumed value of the opponent's Lair (i.e., if there's a 3 Lair revealed, and an unrevealed Lair, the Spy's value must be higher than 3+4=7). Again, if your team's total value exceeds the actual value of the Lair, you destroy it and discard the Lair and the Spies. If not, your opponent captures your spies.

* Scoring/Taunting. Once a Spy has been captured, you have the option of scoring him immediately, in which case, keep him off to the side. However, if you have any Taunts in your hand, you may want to risk using them to double his score. Each time you play one, however, an opponent can foil your plans by playing a Taunt card with the identical letter-code, allowing the Spy to escape and destroy your Lair, meaning you score nothing for him. Otherwise, the Spy's value doubles. You can keep doing this until you decide to stop or someone foils you. The only restriction is, you can't play Taunts with the same letter-code on the same Spy.

First player to 33 wins.

Analysis and Impressions
The game is light enough to play several sessions between rounds of Arkham Horror. The humor is unlikely to survive more than a dozen or so plays, since a lot of it relies upon unfamiliarity with the cards, but, for our first game, we laughed like idiots. Every act of blinkered stupidity by a Bond villain is played out here in clever detail, from allowing the spy to use "this ordinary-looking fountain pen" to sign a statement of surrender, to leaving the Spy in the hands of several amusing, but inept henchmen.

Gameplay lends itself to a few basic strategies--mine was to hoard Taunt cards and use them only when another player attempted to taunt a captured Spy, until I reached a point where I was sure all cards of a certain letter had been accounted for, and then, use the remainder on my own captured Spies. I wound up with five captured Spies at the end, but the last one accounted for 24 of the 44 points I finished with.

This game is pretty draw-dependent for eventual success, as Lair draws are vital to victory, whereas you can pick up Spies from just about anywhere, if you can shoulder the risk. The deck is heavily weighted towards Lairs, though, so it would take some pretty bad luck to get blanked for a significant period of time.

Learning Curve
Easy. 5 minutes tops.

Replayability
As above, once you know all the cards, the humor level is bound to drop accordingly, but you can fix that by finding newbies and trotting out your best Blofeld voice for them. Also, this is not a game of great strategic depth, so you may find it only suitable for occasional filler play before you feel you've exhausted its possibilities.

Components
The cards--the only component--are nicely drawn, and appear sturdy enough for repeated play.

Final Verdict
Light, diverting entertainment with potentially limited life, made worthwhile by a hilarious premise.

Thread: 3P Game From Hell

sbszine — 2005-05-23T06:35:08+00:00

On Sunday Neibi and I had a games day with Leigh. I brought along two new Cheapass games: James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game (hereafter referred to as Spy Game for the sake of brevity), and Kill Doctor Lucky. We didn't end up playing Dr Lucky due to time constraints, but we did manage to fit in four or five rounds of Spy Game.

None of us had ever played before, so I tried to stumble through a round by reading the rules as we played. This didn't work at all, and Leigh was rules lawyering me before I reached the end of paragraph two! In order to keep the peace, I handed her the rules to peruse at her leisure and began drinking booze as quickly as possible in the hope of restoring my good mood. Heed my wisdom, Spy Game purchasers, and play a few solitaire rounds at home before introducing this game.

Once we were all familiar with the rules, Leigh dealt some cards and we got the game underway. Actually, now that I think of it, we didn't get the game underway at all. Instead, we paused the game to complain about the depictions of women in the card art: busty and with skimpy outfits.

I am a pretty P.C. guy, right? I'm a vegan, I vote for the Greens, and I think Ian MacKaye is a swell chap. Right. But even to someone as cravenly P.C. as myself, it's clear that this game is a parody of the James Bond movies, and a fairly mild one at that. Faith Carnegie of the Spy Game isn't half as smutty as Pussy Galore of the silver screen.

Anyway, we eventually got to the game, and by this time the mood around the table was grim. As the basis of the game is the humourous flavour text on the cards, we didn't have a very good time at first. Towards the end of the first round Leigh hit upon the idea of sending spies into the lairs of her opponents, and in the next round I got my frustration out by repetitiously destroying her lair.

After a couple of rounds we felt better, and in the last round I think we even had a good time. But I don't know if I'll ever play it again... anyone want to trade?

Thread: User Review

TheAegis — 2005-05-11T00:01:26+00:00

"Before I kill you, Mr. State, allow me to introduce my latest diabolical invention, disguised as a humorous card game!" And so goes The Totally Renamed Spy Game. You are an evil genius, bent on world domination, and the only thing standing between you and being a guest on Oprah is 37 spies who want to invade your evil lair and destroy it, along with your Gigantic Ball of String.
The game is fairly simple to pick up, and takes no more than five minutes to learn. Into your lair you play cards that make your hidden fortress more powerful, such as Clown Cars, Radar Jamming Reflectors, and Batteries of Monks. Spies have different point costs, so you must build lairs more powerful than the spies. If their number is higher when they attack, your base is destroyed, and all of it's contents discarded. If they are weaker, however, the fun begins.
You can of course, immediately kill the spy, gaining the amount of points that he is worth. On the other hand, when was the last time that a villain ever did that in a movie? Instead, you can choose to play doublers, which have entertaining writing on them, such as "Before I kill you, Mister Spy, I shall leave you to rot in this dungeon wearing nothing but your ordinary-looking watch". When you play these cards, the points you could potentially gain by killing the spy are doubled. However, each card has three other cards in the deck that share the same letter in the top corner, and if another player plays that, you've been foiled by the hero, and he escapes. You can continue playing doublers on captured heroes until you are out, and must kill the spy, or until another player stops you, causing you to lose everything.
All in all, The Totally Renamed Spy Game is a highly entertaining game, perfect for the Evil Overlord in all of us.

M.

Thread: Re:How do you win?

ljw74us — 2005-05-02T17:54:04+00:00

Gislef (#485727),

From my review (posted here):

"You get points by capturing a spy in your lair. A spy is captured if the lair total is greater than the spy's value. You can kill him right away and get his points, or start playing doubler cards to taunt the spy and double his point value. A doubler card can be foiled, however, by someone playing the same letter doubler card in response to your taunt. The spy then escapes and blows up your lair.

If your first taunt succeeds, you can kill the spy for the doubled value OR play another doubler card, further increasing the spy's value. The second doubler card played can't match the previous one. If this is not foiled you can play another, and so on. Doublers cannot be repeated on the same spy during your turn and a doubler already played and NOT foiled, cannot be foiled later when a different doubler is played."

Thread: Re:How do you win?

Rulemonger — 2005-05-02T17:22:57+00:00

Gislef (#485727),

You can attack your own lair. Once you get a string enough lair, you just throw weak spies at it to gain points.

So then, other players should throw strong spies at your lair before you can build it up.

Thread: How do you win?

Gislef — 2005-05-02T17:13:27+00:00

Maybe we're missing something, but how do you win? Better yet, why do you win?

Here's our problem. It doesn't seem like taking offensive action gets you any points. You don't get any points for destroying a lair. You only get points if your opponent fails to successfully attack you (by your capturing and killing his spies).

So...what's the incentive to go after an opponent's lair? You don't get any points for it (ummm, right?). In fact, the only way your opponent can get points is if you attack him.

So the optimal way to keep an opponent from winning is...never attack him. You never attack, he never gets any points. Problem is, he thinks the same way...

So, are we missing something here? It seems like blowing up a Lair should be worth points, but there's nothing in either version of the rules (Before I Kill... or Totally Renamed...) to indicate that. So do you just attack so you can give your opponent points and amuse yourself with the taunt cards?

Thread: Session Report

n0dsw0rth — 2005-03-28T16:35:15+00:00

We played this last night with 6 people. Randy cheated as often as he could. Quite annoying. He will be punished.

Anyways, we played 2 rounds of the game. First round, we went through the entire deck of cards and the highest score was about 8. Apparently, we had been too aggressive in killing off anyone else's lair the first round and the game wasn't very fun. Had it not been for all the Dr. Evvvvilll impersonations (HOT Mag-uh-muh! FRICKIN SHARKS WITH LASERS is that so hard?) we wouldn't have played another round.

We did though, and the second round turned out to be much more competitive. I ended up winning with 36 points, with the next two trailing close at about 25.

All in all, a very fun night. I'm looking forward to playing this game again.

Thread: Re:No Rules?

n0dsw0rth — 2005-02-03T03:01:28+00:00

pusherman42 (#75926),
You can download a pdf of the rules at
http://www.cheapass.com/products/pdf/SpyGameRules.pdf

-nod

Thread: Re:Renamed and Re-released

daw65 — 2005-01-12T07:04:18+00:00

ljw74us (#70618),
Well, hmm. I don't think I have the "better" version. It doesn't say "better", and there are no bombs. I think I have the second edition, because the rules note: "You may notice slight changes from the first edition of ..." Still, I think I'd need more mods than would be worth it. I'll probably just shelve this puppy. Oh well.

Thread: Re:No Rules?

pusherman42 — 2005-01-08T19:21:04+00:00

Teleolurian (#72672),
i havn't found any, but if you still need them i can type them up for you. maybe for some gold since i'm new to this site and don't have any yet.

Thread: No Rules?

Teleolurian — 2004-12-23T23:44:26+00:00

My version came with no rules, are there any available online?

Thread: Re:Renamed and Re-released

ljw74us — 2004-12-13T16:11:12+00:00

mevans444 (#70367),

In my review, I listed the changes needed to use the "Better Edition" to play. Here is the appropriate section:

For you people without the new edition, you would need to have 2 editions of the "better edition" to match the number of cards in the color release. You would also have to alter one of the "8" value spies to be a "9".

You still play to a value of 33.

Thread: Re:Renamed and Re-released

mevans444 — 2004-12-11T18:10:53+00:00

daw65 (#60997),

You know what, since I also have the original game, you just prompted me into buying the new version at my local Game store/Game club next Monday. Give me a few days, and I'll let you know.

Thread: User Review

ljw74us — 2004-11-05T19:49:36+00:00

Review of the "Totally Renamed Spy Game":

This is the color reissue of "Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond". The card stock and packaging has been upgraded. If you are familiar with the other color cardgame releases from James Ernest's Games, then you know what these cards are like. 112 coatred, color cards in a standard doublewide tuck box.The rules themselves are similar to the "Better Edition" rules for Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond with some reformatting and some additional wording (For instance, it now says you can play "one Spy or Bomb Card" when before it said you can play "one spy card". The end result is the same, however, since later in the rules is says that Bomb cards are just like Spy cards (and have the same backs). The main differences are that you draw 2 cards from the deck each turn, instead of one, and, when playing a team of spies, they MUST be large enough to succeed in blowing up the lair.

Every player is dealt 5 cards to start (6 with 2 or 3 players). On your turn you:

1) draw 2 cards

2) may play 1 lair card face-down. The lair size is equal to the total value of lair cards you have put down.

3) may play 1 spy (or bomb) card from anywhere into anyone's lair. You are also allowed to team up spies from your hand to play into someone else's lair, to blow it up. In this case, if a lair card is facedown, you are to assume it is a 4 for the purposes of the team value.

You get points by capturing a spy in your lair. A spy is captured if the lair total is greater than the spy's value. You can kill him right away and get his points, or start playing doubler cards to taunt the spy and double his point value. A doubler card can be foiled, however, by someone playing the same letter doubler card in response to your taunt. The spy then escapes and blows up your lair.

If your first taunt succeeds, you can kill the spy for the doubled value OR play another doubler card, further increasing the spy's value. The second doubler card played can't match the previous one. If this is not foiled you can play another, and so on. Doublers cannot be repeated on the same spy during your turn and a doubler already played and NOT foiled, cannot be foiled later when a different doubler is played.

The game still goes to 33 points.

I find I enjoy this game as a light filler with 3 or more people (preferrably four or five). The differences between the "better edition" and this are the drawing of 2 cards per turn and the team spy rule that says to assume all face down lair cards are 4 for team value purposes, because a team MUST be large enough to blow up the lair it is played on. In the "better edition" a valid strategy was to play doublers only when you had both, since there were only 2 of each. Now that there are 4, it makes this a bit harder, which is a good thing in my opinion. The game seems to move along better with the increased number of cards. Getting to 33 also seems to be more likely.

For you people without the new edition, you would need to have 2 editions of the "better edition" to match the number of cards in the color release. You would also have to alter one of the "8" value spies to be a "9".

You still play to a value of 33.

Thread: Re:Renamed and Re-released

daw65 — 2004-10-21T20:37:57+00:00

Debate (#60467),
Do you (or anyone else, for that matter) have an idea what the tweaks were? Could I, owning the original, play with the new rules?

Thread: Renamed and Re-released

Debate — 2004-10-19T04:06:07+00:00

Due to copyright problems with a well known spy franchise 'Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond' was withdrawn from production in 2000. Cheapass re-released the game in late 2004 under the name 'James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game' with some tweaks to the game mechanics and better production values.

Thread: Re:Session Report

BilboAtBagEnd — 2004-10-14T10:57:30+00:00

Don Quixote (#59412),

Cheapass can still print the game---just using a different title. And they are planning to just that. See www.cheapass.com for more details.

Thread: Session Report

Don Quixote — 2004-10-13T16:02:45+00:00

It was a little after 9:00 at this point and it was clear that with work in the morning we weren't going to have time to play anything else, but as I was passing the game table I did notice that I had my copy of "Before I Kill You Mister Bond" sitting there.

Brian had never played and we managed to talk him into playing a few games.

For those of you who haven't tasted the joys of "B.I.K.Y.M.B", you have no idea what you are missing. Well, I don't know that you are missing much more than an opportunity to talk in your best Dr. Evil voice, and make spy jokes, but man, what a vehicle for a fun ride.

The basic premise of the game is this: You build your secret lair and then capture spies. Your lair contains all the goodness that someone of your evil nature would require: A moist bar, a lemon aide stand, a hall of magnets, and many other wonders. Each part of your lair has a point value. The higher the total value, the tougher the spy you can capture.

But we warned, other evil geniuses can send spies into your lair to destroy it. As an added point bonus before you kill your spy you can taunt your spy with a doubler (which doubles his point total).

All and all it's a great time doing absolutely nothing other than taunting and killing spies and blowing up lairs. We played two quick games with no one really winning the first one and Tim scoring the most points in the second one with a lair of enormous size (insert your own joke here).

Sadly this game is no longer made as the evil folks of Bond, Inc made the guys at Cheap Ass Games to stop making it since they violated copyright issues, so in form of protest Jon and I are going to make a new version called, "Before I Kill You Mister Powers" and distribute it to the whole world.

Thread: Re:User Review

ced1106 — 2004-04-22T20:05:13+00:00

Weston's comment about gameplay is accurate -- but only describes one style of gameplay. The fun part of the game begins when you risk **not** playing doublers, and saving your lair cards and spys, so that you are guaranteed that you will capture a spy, and your doubler will succeed. A "beer and pretzel" game, in which you have to play "a certain way" is indeed flawed, yet many strategy games also have to be played "a certain way" to be enjoyed.

Thread: Session Report

MarkEJohnson — 2003-09-08T13:01:59+00:00

Doug is on a quest to have this game challenge TVB favorites Settlers and Air Baron for playing frequency. And you know what? In 1998 this little near-mindless game is leading! (Which reminds me that I still need to do TVB's 1997 report...) Well, anyway, two more games were played last time, by Doug, Paul, Sterling, and Kevin.

Doug: “The Bond 'games' (to be generous with the term) were a hoot, as always. I had an easy victory in the first game, but Sterling won the second using a awesome lair consisting of The Creepy Woods on Peril Island, leading to the Hall of Magnets staffed with the Loyal Henchlings tending the Thermal Facisimile of Doom. Or something like that. “

Thread: new rule

krystrandya — 2002-11-10T18:50:15+00:00

Play the lair cards face down in order that you build your lair. This way when your layer is blown, the other players can see which cards you played and when, but gives more mystery to the play.

Thread: User Review

tfrogger27 — 2002-08-03T16:31:32+00:00

Note: The text of this review refers to the "Better" edition.

Quick facts:
2-6 players
Card Game
Boxed
Additonal supplies needed: score pad

"Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond," is a fun and funny card game from the same Cheapasses who brought you "Kill Dr. Lucky." Unfortunately, due to threats from a certain motion picture company, "Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond" is no longer being produced by Cheapass, so if you find a copy, BUY IT!

In this game, you play a supervillan who probably wants to take over the world. You will build up your secret lair using such elements as a "Clone Factory" or a "Lemonade Stand," and then invite spies into it which you can either kill outright or taunt for more points.

The cards are of good quality, and the rules are simple and easy to understand.

At the beginning of your turn, you draw a card. Then you can build onto your secret lair by playing a lair card face down in front of you. Each lair card has a different value, and your lair is worth the total value of all of your lair cards.

After that, you may choose to play a spy into someone's lair. The backs of the spy cards are different than the backs of regular cards, because spies like "Mr. Bond" are so incredibly obvious. This means that you can take a spy from an opponent's hand and play it into your lair, or take a spy from the top of the deck and play it into your opponent's lair, and so on. You can also play teams of spies into a lair, which are all dealt with as one spy (but their values are added up.)

There is a risk involved with playing spy cards from somewhere other than your own hand: two of the cards are bombs, and will automatically destroy the lair they are played in.

Once a spy is played into a lair, the owner of the lair turns over all of his or her lair cards, revealing the value of the lair. If the value of the lair is greater than or equal to the the value of the spy, the spy has been captured. If not, the spy escapes, the lair is blown up, and the player has to build a new lair from scratch.

When a spy is captured, the real fun begins. The supervillan can choose to simply kill the spy outright, earning a modest ammount of points, or the supervillan can taunt the spy by using a doubler card. If the supervillan chooses to taunt the spy, he or she reads the taunt on the doubler card. Example: "Do I look fat in this dress?" Here you can understand what is so fun about this game.

There is a risk in taunting a spy. Each doubler card has a letter on it, and there are 2 of each letter. Thus, if your opponent has the same letter as the doubler card which you are using, your opponent may play his or her doubler card and foil your attempt. Thus, the spy escapes and your lair is blown up.

The first player to reach 33 points wins the game. Games take about 20 minutes.

The great thing about this game is that it's fun for children and adults alike. Everybody has seen the James Bond movies, or something like them, so this is a game that everybody can relate to. And it's really fun to do impressions of supervillans as you read the ridiculous taunt cards.

All in all, "Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond" has enough strategy to make it interesting and more than enough humor to make it worth playing again and again. Definitely a good buy, if you can find it.

Thread: User Review

delta1119 — 2002-08-02T20:19:29+00:00

Ah, the world of super-spies and the super-villains that are so incapable of killing them. In this parody, each player represents a super-villain who is out to capture a spy in his lair and kill him. It plays on the bit of formula where the bad guy explains his evil, weird way of killing the spy and then leaves him, allowing the great escape, rather than just putting a bullet in him.

There are 18 each of 3 types of cards: Lair Improvements, ranging in value from 1 to 4; Spies, ranging in value from 2 to 8 (and includes Dr. Lucky as a value 4 spy); and Doublers - 1 pair each of cards lettered from A to I. The Spy cards are yellow and the others are green, but all are put into a single deck. Each player begins with 5 cards (6 if playing 2 or 3 players).

A player's turn:
1) Draw a card (until deck runs out)
2) May play 1 Lair card
3a) May play a Spy from anywhere (other player's hand, top of deck or your own hand) into anyone's Lair
OR
3b) Play a team of spies from your hand into another player's Lair.

When a Spy is played into a Lair, compare the Lair's value (sum of cards played) to the Spy's value(s). If the Spy is higher, the Lair is destroyed as the Spy escapes (discard the Lair and Spy cards). Otherwise the Spy is captured and the Lair's owner may either kill or taunt the Spy. Killing him simply means you score points for the value of the Spy. Taunting means playing one of the Doubler cards from your hand and reading it. Here's where the parody comes in. An example:

"Before I kill you, Dr. Lucky, I shall leave you to rot in this dungeon wearing nothing but your ordinary-looking watch."

If another player plays the other Doubler card with the same letter as the one you played, The taunt fails. In this case, the Spy escapes, destroying your Lair in the process. If not, you again choose whether to kill or taunt the Spy, only now he's worth double his face value. So a couple of taunts in a row can turn even a 2 point spy into an 8 pointer.

That's the whole of the game. What happens in reality is that Lairs never get built big enough to hold a Spy worth having. The Spies range from 2 to 8, but Lairs are only from 1 to 4. As soon as you get a couple of Lair cards played, another player is going to send in spies to blow it up. Without a Lair you can't capture spies, so you can't score points. We tried playing with face-down lair cards and with multiple lair cards per turn, but it was always the same result. As soon as a player's lair was too large, spies were sent in to blow it up. This makes for a rather boring game overall, though different play styles would certainly have a different experience.

The only way we ever saw any decent scoring was if a player had one or morw pairs of Doublers in his hand. Then he'd know that no one could stop those taunts and could safely capture a small spy and taunt him once or twice to make him worth more. But of course, that mean that player ran away with the game as likely no one else had the same scoring opporuntity.

The premise is fun and the cards have some humor value, but the gameplay just isn't there. If you want to ham it up and still have a game to play, try Deadwood or Kill Dr. Lucky. There are better Cheapass games out there than this one.

Thread: User Review

Thedalek — 2002-08-02T03:15:33+00:00

An entertaining offering from James Ernest in the form of a Spy Movie spoof. Each of the players is a mad scientist (or some other kind of person who could have the word "diabolical" applied to them) who is bent on world domination (or some such plot). The game isn't about world domination, however. You see, whenever anyone persues such ventures, they invariably attract the attention of internationally renowned super-spies. The game is about killing these spies, and taunting them as much as you possibly can.

Some of the cards represent componants of your lair, such as a cavern of woe, or a wet bar. These have various values, roughly representing the strength they add to your lair. During the game, spies are played against you, also of various values. If they have a higher value than the total strength of your lair, they live and destroy the lair (as spies are wont to do on their way out). If they have a lower value, however, they are captured, and you can either kill them straight away, which scores their face value, or taunt them, which doubles their value.

The key to the game comes in the taunting. There are two of each value taunt card, and the other taunt card can be used to counter the first one (thus destroying a lair and depriving a foe of points). Play conservatively and you get slaughtered. Play agressively, and no one scores points.

Overall, the game is very enjoyable, but does suffer rather badly from luck. All too often, players will go all game either without a lair, or a spy.

7/10

PS: Be sure to get the "Better" edition (denoted on the packaging). This includes updated rules that fix some of the luck problems and some new cards which help as well.

Thread: General Comment

BoardGameGeek — 2002-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

I thought this was a really fun game, and the first game that attracted me to Cheapass Games.
Unfortunately it went out of print this year due to copyright/trademark type issues - we'll miss you Mr. Bond!

Thread: Session Report

BoardGameGeek — 2001-11-24T07:10:51+00:00

OK - Not Just Stampers aren't afraid to be the first group to admit to playing this simple and only mildly amusing Cheapass game.

This game needs to be played, as do many of the Cheapass games, with great theatricality - role playing the parts and reading the text on the cards aloud for all to hear. This can cause a few problem when you play, as we do, in the public area of an Irish theme pub. nevertheless that didn't stop our intrepid heroes.....

Tony and James II played a two hander whilst waiting for the rest of us to arrive. Then four of us played it whilst waitng for the last person to arrive.

First time up, James II won with a final turn play worth 32 points to thrash Tony. In the second game no one had scored any points until the very last play when James II managed to get one spy down and none of the rest of us could eliminate him. Two wins in a row - could it be that James II isn't an accountant but the real James B...d?