[pritchke]

It has been awhile since I have been on this site has I don't tend to play PC games very much anymore. The only PC games on my machine right now are the BG trilogy and the Knights of the old Republic RPGs. I may have kept NWN on but lost all my keys when I moved. Play some Wii titles but mainly entertain myself with board games these days.

Here are a few of my favourites from my collection.

1. Cyclades
2. Defenders of the Realm
3. Cosmic Encounters
4. Zombies!!!
5. Citadels

Anyone else play board games.

Defenders of the Realm is a cooperative game based in a fantasy setting and is my most played board game due to the fact it can be played solo. The goal is to defeat 4 generals of the dark lord whose armies (demons, undead, orcs, dragonkin) are marching on Monarch City. There is only one way to win but several ways to lose. In this game you can choose to be a paladin, cleric, rogue, ranger, wizard, sorceress, dwarf, or eagle rider. The artwork is by Larry Elmore and many of you may be familiar with since most of you may have created a NPC for Baldur's Gate using his artwork at some point. The game plays by heroes having special abilities, and a number of action points to use that also count as there hit points. With the action points they can perform various task.

There are three decks of cards in the game.
1. Hero cards are used for special movement, fighting generals, healing the land and creating gates/portals to move around easier.

2. Quest cards are just that quest that the hero can do to get equipment, or better save the realm. A hero takes on one quest and gets another upon completion.

3. Darkness spreads - The meat of the game. This deck controls the general movement and the minion placement throughout the game.

All I can say is the game is fantastic, and if you get a chance to play try it. You may want to try it first as it is kind of pricey.

To this game I have added the following expansions.

1. Barbarian hero
2. The dragon expansion, which makes the game even better. This expansion adds 3 dragon generals that may also be used as agents of the dark lord, reward cards, global effects, 4 new minions (imps, zealots, fire elementals, dragon mages), fire tokens, a point system, blessings, and I am sure I have left some things.
3. Hero Expansion #1 - This expansion adds 4 new characters. Chaos Wizard, Assassin, Adventurer, Captain of the guard and a new miniature for the paladin. The paladin now looks like he is riding a warhorse and not a miniature pony.

The game says for 13 and up. But I have played it with my six year old and we had a blast, and he learned some important basic skills.