Luke's Board Game Addiction: Review #1 Smash Up

  Now there are plenty of board games out there that require quite a bit of explanation (Arkham Horror is a good example) and then there are those that are a bit simpler (Munchkin, Chez Geek). Smash Up falls into the category of easier games to explain which is quite nice when you just want a quick game with a few friends to share some laughs.

   Here are the rules for Smash Up. On your turn, you may play an action and a minion on a base, then draw two cards. Each card of course does it's own things but that's as simple as following the instructions on the cards. Now minions have a value known as power (notice the number in the top left corner):

 

  And bases have two categories of numbers on them. Threshold (the number in the top left) and points rewarded (the three large numbers) 

  Once the total power of the minions equals or goes over the threshold the base blows up (even if minions get moved from there before it does so). When it does whoever has the most power on there gets the first place score (the 5 and 4 in the examples), whoever has the next highest gets the second (3, and 2) and so on. First player to 15 points wins.
  Now the thing that makes this game really fun is where you're getting these cards from. There are 8 armies (plus 4 in the new expansion) and you choose two of them at the start of the game. Each army has it's own strategies to it and so they all develop very interesting synergies.
    Forces to choose from:

• Aliens- Good at abducting cards and moving players minions
• Bear Calvary- Excellent at killing things and forcing them off of bases
• Dinosaurs- Big and beefy with a lot of power
• Ghosts- Cards start getting better as you have fewer cards in your hand
• Killer Plants- Minions get stronger as they stay out
• Ninjas- Strike out of nowhere and excellent at killing minions
• Pirates- Extreme mobile army
• Robots- Good at bringing out tons of little minions
• Steampunks- They like to play tons of special abilities on bases themselves
• Trickster- Tons of odd effects that can be very detrimental towards enemy players, hard to pin down.
• Wizards- Excellent at getting extra cards drawn and extra actions
• Zombies- Don't expect them to stay in the discard pile
  
  
  

  The more I've played this recently the more I've fallen in love with it. Everyone has picked up on it so fast and there is a lot of smiling and swearing for most games. Of my most recent purchases I'm extremely happy with this one.

Highlights of the game:
-Ease to learn
-Replayability (all of those combos, so little time)
-Rather humorous, so many tropes and references
-Does not take too long to play leaving room for some heavier hitting board games as well. (Something to warm up with before an hour game of Settlers or Smallworld).

I give this game 5/6 pips.





So it's my first review and it's 5:50 am. There a lot of things I'll do later on to make these more interesting and I'll definitely revise them more but I really just wanted to get a post up on the blog. I have pleeeeenty more board games to review so I'll try and make them funnier and a bit more enjoyable but I hope you at least found the game kind of interesting.