Game: Midevil II - Castle Chaos

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hejhenrik — 2007-05-13T17:20:52+00:00

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hejhenrik — 2007-05-13T17:20:23+00:00

Thread: MedEvil and MedEvil II: A Review

GreatAtuin — 2007-04-18T16:09:54+00:00

MedEvil and MedEvil II: A Review

Bits: Not bad, but not as cool as ZOMBIES!!! There are 6 types of “figure” bits: white skeletons, red skeletons, blue skeletons, black skeletons, grey life tokens, player tokens. I would recommend some paint or other system for making player and life token pieces look different. The red PLAYER pawn is easy to mistake for a red SKELETON, the same is true for the blue PLAYER and the grey LIFE TOKEN is hard to distinguish from the white skeletons. The tiles themselves are well done, as are the cards.

Play: The game can be slow if you are using the standard movement rules. Plenty of movement rule variants are available, if you like. The combat is random, but controllable. (I hear you, “What!? That makes no sense!” Bear with me) Skeletons are destroyed by a roll on 4 or better on a 6-sided die*. When a skeleton is destroyed it is placed in front of the player who destroyed it. The skeleton is then available to be “spent” in future combats to improve the player’s roll. Some skeletons are worth more than others (white worth 1, red worth 2, blue worth 3.) So while the basic mechanic is combat by dice, the player can spend their way to combat victory – which helps negate some bad rolls. Players also can use cards to improve combat, movement, or impede their rivals.

*Special black skeletons in MedEvil II require a 6 on a 6-sided die. They are worth no “spending points” for combat rolls.

Object of the Game: The object of the game is to retrieve the Necronomicon from the graveyard and return it to the point that you started at in the castle. OR Destroy 30 points worth of skeletons. If you achieve either of these goals, YOU WIN. In my experience the 30-point victory is more common, but that might just be a function of our style of play – not the game itself. The original game is much easier to win by bringing the book back (no black skeletons, usually a shorter distance to travel.)

High Points:

You can name your pawn Ash, if you like. “Shop smart, shop S-MART!”
Skeleton combat works well.
Cool weapon cards
Art is well done
Humor
“Screw your neighbor cards” are excellent – annoying, but not completely disastrous

Low Points:

Where’s the car? (Raimi fans out there – anywhere?)
Slow movement at times breaks up action
Unaltered bits make board confusing at times (minor concern only)
Biggest Concern: The game is too hard ‘going out’ and too easy ‘coming back.’ Without skeletons to spend on combat rolls, bad luck can cripple you early. This can really put you in the hole to someone with hot dice. Don’t even think about taking on the black skeletons without a substantial reserve of skeletons to spend.

After most of the skeletons are destroyed (especially the black skeletons), the game is too easy. (Less combat, plenty of skeletons for combat, you probably have a movement enhancer, weapons, etc.) Not only are there fewer skeletons, but also there are less in your way, specifically. You killed everything between the castle and the graveyard on your way out!

Overall: A fun game, which is better with 3-5 players than 2-3 players (makes 30 skeleton points harder to collect) I would strongly recommend it to fans of light-hearted horror/comedy. Expect, no demand, that everyone playing will “screw their neighbor” during the game. The game will lose too much if players are nice.

Thread: MidEvil and MidEvil II exspansion

GreatAtuin — 2007-04-17T15:16:46+00:00

MidEvil and MidEvil II – Session Report

This is a session report covering the first game of MidEvil between myself and Stacee, my wife. We purchased Castle Chaos along with the original game on the strength of the recommendations here on BGG. We did not change any of the rules – on purpose.

The game started with poor rolling on my part, allowing Stacee to open up a slight lead in distance traveled out of the castle. Luckily my skeleton movement rolls were strong and was able to beat her pawn back to start to help even the odds.

About 12 tiles into the game, the graveyard was turned over. It was placed about 6 tiles away from the drawbridge. The tiles leading to the graveyard were light in skeletons, but the spectre of the black skeletons was fearsome. A first I tried clearing the skeletons out of the way, hoping Stacee wouldn’t notice – that didn’t work. I quickly realized that I better pursue the other winning objective – skeleton points. I’ll admit that I was more than slightly scared of the black skeletons, especially given my bad luck with dice in every game.

Stacee noticed my change in focus, but misread my intentions. See saw the diversion into a skeleton filled building as an attempt to gain needed life tokens. See quickly followed suit – going after life tokens, not skeletons. She did begin to get curious when I moved a skeleton into my own square on three straight turns.

Finally I was close to the goal of 30 points, but Stacee was charging hard for the graveyard. She had seen me counting my skeletons and remembered about winning on points. She only had one chance. A quick sprint in and no real skeleton threat between the graveyard and the castle. I played (Explosives!) and gained 8 points from a lucky die roll (a six!) from a tile of 4 red skeletons.

We continued to play after I “won” to see how hard it would be to win “the other way.” Stacee ripped off 4’s, 5’s, and 6’s (like always) and completely demolished the graveyard gang (paying up rolls as needed, of course.) The game would have ended 6-7 turns after the actual ending, with no way of stopping my wife get back to the castle.

This session was very “shallow.” As it was our first play, we didn’t use many cards and our tile placement was poor. It took about 13 tiles for us to realize that they didn’t need to be “lined up” in perfect order (3 squares facing 3 squares) The game we played was focused with the skeleton combat, without getting into the “depth” of the game, weapons, “screw your neighbor” cards, etc.

The only thing that I wasn’t sure about was skeleton points. We only counted skeleton point in front of the player. If they “used” a skeleton, it no longer counted in the total for victory. It wasn’t real clear if that was what was intended, but it seemed right – the game could be too fast for two players just to kill 30 points worth of skeletons.

We’ll play again. Heck, I won – we’ll definitely play again. This time I will actually call the skeletons “skeletons” not “zombies” like I did through out the game and while trying to type this session report.

Thread: Re: Drawbridge faq

KerryB — 2007-01-25T11:19:22+00:00

The intention is that once you failed you can't roll again until the next turn. If you prefer to re-roll for each movement point, feel free. It's your game. Play the way you like.

Kerry Breitenstein
Twilight Creations, Inc.

Thread: Drawbridge faq

massimiliano.san — 2007-01-25T11:01:49+00:00

I am in front of the "up" bridge and i roll to see if it comes down.
The roll is failed.
Do I have to lose all my movement or can I try to roll for every "point" of mov I still have?
I assume I can't use humans to retry roll nor skeletons to raise the result.

I didn't find an answer in official FAQ.
I think the best way is to reroll for every mov point I have left until the bridge comes down.

Comments?

Thread: Re: Some cool new rules and a lot of wasted tiles

anubis9 — 2006-11-12T01:02:39+00:00

Technically, you need to use at least the drawbridge and the corner piece, since the new "goal" is the corner of the castle, BUT
if you wanted to keep the alter as the goal, you could leave out the castle entirely and still play with the other new tiles, skeletons and cards. You would just have to pull out the cards that specifically refer to the castle.

Side note:
I couldn't sell my Zombies!!! as I like zombies a lot more than skeletons.
Instead, I play my favorite zombie levels with MidEvil rules, substituting, zombie dogs and glow zombies for the red and blue skeletons.
Instead of looking for the Necronomicon, we pull one of the buildings at random, and determine that is where the helicopter pilot is (we use a life token from MidEveil to represent the pilot). We then play MidEvil style, where you have to get the pilot and then make it to the helipad, and other players can steal the pilot from you.
Now that Zombies 2.o has female zombies, you can even use them as the "black skeletons" and fill the helipad tile with those baddies!

This is my absolute favorite way to play. It requires buying a couple Bags 'O Zombies, but as a sucker for Zombies, that was a non-issue for me. Plus I like being able to just play the mall, military base, or university for a smaller, quicker game.

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Tegre — 2006-07-21T05:52:56+00:00

The contents (un)fresh out of the box!

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Tegre — 2006-07-21T05:52:24+00:00

3 Cards from Midevil II

Thread: Works wonders!

Jonathan Ward — 2006-06-20T15:22:10+00:00

This review will concentrate on what this expansion brings to the original 'Midevil' game and not necessarily on the contents and quality of components, et cetera. To start with the base game ‘Midevil’ was for our group a little disappointing. We were excited to hear Twilight Creations announcement that the Zombies!!! mechanic had been advanced and improved in their new Midevil game giving a more strategic slant to the game play. After several games the group’s enthusiasm began to wane. The game play felt flat with players accruing skeletons without difficulty. There were occasional spats but one could not get away from the overall feeling of ‘so what’. I feel that as a group we have had so much fun with Zombies!!! that any variant would inevitably be judged against this great game. So it was with Midevil and us. I believe to some extent our original criticisms of the game were fair enough but after playing the expansion we have revised our opinion markedly. It’s now back on the agenda and the dice are rolling.

To begin with the 12 castle tiles plus drawbridge tile built prior to the start of the game is a stroke of genius, well perhaps not genius in the sense of splitting the atom but within the confines of this game it certainly is. It was initially annoying as 12 tiles take up quite a chunk of space on the table. We were obliged to use the bigger table, which is hardly a criticism but did raise a few eyebrows at the time. So what’s the point of the castle? Well, this is our angle on it for what its worth. Previous games with the base set Midevil were lack lustre with pawn death a rarity and the end coming about too rapidly for our liking. Unlike Zombies!!! the map is pretty open with a variety of uncluttered routes to choose from. The Zombies!!! map compelled players to fight their way through crowded roads to reach a destination rather than skirt around trouble as in Midevil. The castle as mentioned is a ‘big’ space populated with a reasonable number of white skeletons and is the ultimate destination (and start destination) once the Necronomicon appears. It funnels the play via the doorways back to tight killing spaces where clever skeleton movement and card play can clog up the route with the lowest scoring skeletons causing considerable misery and resource wastage for the lead player. I will now always spend some of my ‘skeleton movement role’ each turn on getting skellies into the castle and its doorways for the end game (Note: most white skeletons are pretty much left unharmed in the courtyard at the start of the game as players vie to get across the drawbridge and get at the rich pickings outside. They are not useless and will come into their own at the end phase providing they’re moved into the castle). It also provides more opportunities for players in the rear to catch up and have a crack at the stealing the Necronomicon with the lead player tied up fighting through the castle skellies.

Another aspect of the castle, which we found exciting and was a marked improvement on the base game was how it changed the way the game gets into gear. With its large court yard and cackling skeletons it takes a number of turns before a player is across the drawbridge and out into the game space proper. By this time numerous tiles have been placed and skeletons positioned. Players have a considerable choice of destinations and packs of skeletons to battle or play cards on. In other words the area of play is broadened early on giving more opportunities for strategic thinking and play. When I left the castle the first time around it was like entering a hellish bizarre of stalls and taverns populated with a fearful number of spear chucking skeletons. It now feels very different to the original game. With this expansion you can quite easily find your pawn surrounded and forced to take desperate actions in order to survive. Pawn death is at last back with a vengeance, hurrah!

The extra tiles and event cards of course add more depth and ambience to the game. The Filth tile acts as a blocking tactic given the right circumstances. The Pit is ultimately card dependent but is a great laugh when you send one of your opponents ‘plop!’ into it. The windmills again when used correctly act as route blockers increasing the tension, strategy and curses of those who fall foul of them.

The six black skeletons for the graveyard tile are excellent too. They take a six to kill and are worthless in terms of points. They help to slow down the lead player and make him seriously contemplate his assault on the Graveyard tile and whether he is strong enough to succeed. Six appears at first a tough proposition but with the points value of your accrued skeleton pile its no too bad. Dice roles can be easily modified with skellies from your pool to destroy the black skeletons. The dilemma lies in the resource wastage this incurs. With one eye on your pool and one eye watching your back you have to judge just how many skeletons its worth losing as very shortly, Necronomicon in hand, you will be fighting your comrades and their accrued pools of skeletons!

Overall we believe this expansion has undoubtedly improved the base game making it a far more enjoyable, albeit fraught, experience. Welldone!

Thread: Re: Some cool new rules and a lot of wasted tiles

ScottE — 2006-06-16T08:47:52+00:00

Thanks for the good, solid review. I didn't even know this expansion existed until a few days ago when I stumbled across it on their website. I like this game better then the zombies games since it appears to have learned alot of lessons from that earlier design. After picking it up I sold off all my old Zombies games since I feel this is a better game. Of course now they are coming out with Zombies 2.0! Wonder if that will be more like this game.

I do have a question. If the castle seems like just a waste of space can you just roll in the cards, black zombies, & non-castle tiles and play it like the original? Or are cards and new tiles dependant on the castle to work?

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Lazy — 2006-04-27T14:16:34+00:00

Back Cover

Thread: Some cool new rules and a lot of wasted tiles

anubis9 — 2006-04-13T20:01:10+00:00

This first expansion to MidEvil is a lot different than the expansions previously created for its sister game—Zombies! And that’s either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the size of your table.

While all Zombies expansions require the core game for bits and figures, they are essentially mini-games that can be run independently from the core game’s city. That is not the case with Castle Chaos. MidEvil II is a true add-on game requiring everything from the core game.

The Castle:
With Castle Chaos, the altar really isn’t the place to bring the Necronomicon after all. Instead, you have to start the game and win (end) the game in a castle sparsely populated with 1-point skeletons. Unlike any other Zombies expansion, Castle Chaos is also pre-built. That’s right, you build the castle BEFORE you start the game, so there’s no random drawing of rooms! To me the castle doesn’t really add anything exciting to the game. It just gives me a bunch of extra tiles I have to run through before I can get into the meat of the game (searching for the grave yard). The only redeeming aspect of the castle is the drawbridge. To get in and out of the castle, you must make a die roll to see if you can lower the bridge. Then once you cross the bridge, you have to roll to see if it stays down or goes back up. In both cases, you have a 50/50 chance, and while it can slow you down or slow your pursuers, it really isn’t an addition I got very excited about— it just feels tedious.

Other Stuff:
Luckily, there is more to the expansion than the pre-built castle. There are also a couple of non-castle tiles worth playing, some new cards with new weapons and black skeletons.

The Tiles: The non-castle tiles add a lot more to the game than the castle itself. One of them is a tile of putrid mess that no player can move onto, and it works very well at creating a dead-end on a path another player may be blazing toward the graveyard.
The other enjoyable card is The Pit. When the pit comes into play, it’s basically an ordinary tile with a center square that can’t be moved into. It doesn’t reach it’s full potential until you draw the card that banishes a player into it. It’s a very effective way of putting a little distance between yourself and another player if it looks like they are about to beat you to the graveyard or steal your precious Necronomicon.

Black Skeletons: The skeletons are a great addition to the game that make the graveyard feel and play like it is the most important tile in the game. They are similar to the glow-in-the-dark zombies from Zombies! 2—only better. What makes them better? Well for starters, they’re tougher. You have to roll a 6 to kill them, and unlike the über-zombies in the military base, you HAVE to encounter them as they are all placed on the graveyard tile when it comes into play. This adds a new level of tension and strategy, as you have to decide if you want to face the big baddies or wait and let your buddy do it, hoping you can just steal the book once he has done all the dirty work.

New Rules:
The biggest rule variation from the first game concerns the alter tile. While the castle has stripped this tile of its game-winning ability, it has not left it powerless. Now when you step up to the altar, you have the ability to teleport to a tile just outside the castle walls. This requires your entire movement for the turn (like the ducts in Zombies 2), but gives you an additional pathway back to the castle, making it a little more difficult for players to steal the Necronomicon. If you can make it to the alter, your only a good drawbridge roll away from victory.

Overall impressions:
I liked this expansion and believe it is worth buying, but the castle itself is a very small part of what makes this set good. There must be some cost savings involved in producing a 16-card set (all zombies expansions are also 16-cards), because 8 of them serve no purpose at all. Since there are no life tokens on them, there is absolutely no need to run into any but one of the castle’s four corners, so a lot of the castle mostly just takes up space on your table. BUT, the non-castle tiles add some fun new twists, and the black skeletons pose a real threat (at least to your PVP bidding pool). So, on a whole, this is a set that adds a fair amount of variety to your basic MidEvil Experience.

If you’re a fan of MidEvil, this set just gives you more to love.

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zombiegod — 2006-01-26T06:17:03+00:00