The Best of Origins 2014 - Star Realms

This is the second review in my Best of Origins 2014 series.

I probably rolled a little too low on my initiative roll for this review. I'm guessing most people who read this blog have already heard of Star Realms and have been trying to find a copy for the last month since White Wizard Games can't keep up with demand.

Well this review is for the rest of you, so that you can also become one of the many gamers trying to get your hands on a copy of Star Realms, because it is that good.

Star Realms was my first purchase of Origins. My wife and I did one demo game and I had bought a copy of this excellent deck builder before we finished our first game. I had no idea at the time that I was buying one of a very limited second printing that had just been released that day.

If I had known it was going to be so hard to find I would have brought multiple copies back with me. 

August 16th - Brimstone Board Games Night - Featuring Ticket To Ride

The Windsor Gaming resource returns to Brimstone Games on Saturday August 16th as part of their twice monthly boardgame night which hits on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of every month. These events run from 5pm to 10pm and are open to all ages.

Brimstone is working to become Windsor's premier board game shop. They've got a great selection of the hottest games and tons of gaming space to play them. Not only that but all board games are currently 30% off!

Win a Board Game! 

Every Board Game Night at 8pm the store will draw 1 ticket and the winner will receive a free board game!

Players earn 1 ticket for playing games, limit of 1 ticket per night. Earn 1 ticket for purchasing a snack or drink, limit 1 ticket per night. Earn 1 ticket for bringing 1 or more board games for people to play. Earn 5 tickets for each board game purchased. First time players will receive 5 additional tickets.

You can find Brimstone at 3298 Walker Rd. Parking is available on the south side of the building and on the street around back. Note that Brimstone used to be located in McGregor. This is no longer the case, they moved into Windsor just over a year ago.

Featured Game: Ticket to Ride

The featured game this week is: Ticket to Ride from Days of Wonder.

Ticket to Ride is hugely popular and has pretty much replaced Settlers of Catan as the gateway game of choice for many gamers. It's quick to teach and easy to learn and has a very accessible theme.

In addition to the core game there have been a wide variety of new versions released each adding something new to the game. Europe ads tunnels, Marklin ads passengers and more.

We will be trying to feature as many different version of Ticket to Ride as possible at the event.

We are also very pleased to announce that the game you can win at this event is a copy of the amazing looking Ticket To Ride 10th Anniversary Edition!

I gave Fluxx another shot with the new Regular Show version

A couple weeks back I was contacted by Loony Labs about reviewing a new version of Fluxx they had coming out on July 25th called Regular Show Fluxx. I will fully admit I'm not a huge Fluxx fan but they called me 'qualified media personnel' and I was flattered. So I figured it was time I gave Fluxx another shot.

August 2nd - Brimstone Board Games Night - Featuring Deck Builders.

The Windsor Gaming resource returns to Brimstone Games on Saturday August 2nd as part of their twice monthly boardgame night which hits on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of every month. These events run from 5pm to 10pm and are open to all ages.

Brimstone is working to become Windsor's premier board game shop. They've got a great selection of the hottest games and tons of gaming space to play them. Not only that but all board games are currently 30% off!

Win a Board Game! 

Every Board Game Night at 8pm we will draw 1 ticket and the winner will receive a free board game!

Players will earn 1 ticket for playing a game, limit of 1 ticket per night. Earn 1 ticket for purchasing a snack or drink, limit 1 ticket per night. Earn 1 ticket for bringing 1 or more board games for people to play. Earn 5 tickets for each board game purchased. First time players will receive 5 additional tickets.

You can find Brimstone at 3298 Walker Rd. Parking is available on the south side of the building and on the street around back. Note that Brimstone used to be located in McGregor. This is no longer the case, they moved into Windsor just over a year ago.

Theme: Deck Builders

The theme for this event is Deck Building games. There were so many great ones to choose from that we couldn't pick just one game to feature.

These are all games where players start off with a basic set of cards in their hands and through play buy more cards to add to their deck.

There are a ton of great games out there that use this mechanic. Dominion is often credited as the first and one of the best. There's Ascension, Legendary, Trains, Star Realms, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings and the amazingly well named DC Deck Building Game.

Come out on Saturday August 2nd and we'll teach you to play some of these great games. The game give away of the day will also feature a deck building game as well (actual game TBD).

The best of Origins 2014 - Castles of Mad King Ludwig

I'm not sure how many of these blog posts I will actually do, but I wanted to do up at least a couple posts based on the awesome games I got to try while I was at Origins 2014 a couple weeks back. 

While there was an amazing amount of great gaming and I think I played more games in that one weekend than I did most of last year, these articles will be about the best of what I got to try.

I'm starting with the best of the best. Castles of Mad King Ludwig was the best new game I got to play at Origins. It's from Ted Alspach and released by Bezier Games, Inc. 

My favourite game from Ted is Suburbia and Castles of Mad King Ludwig is very similar to it. Actually I could see some people even saying that it's a re-theme of Suburbia.

July 19th - Brimstone Board Games Night - Featuring Quarriors!

The Windsor Gaming resource returns to Brimstone Games on Saturday July 19th as part of their twice monthly boardgame night which hits on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of every month. These events run from 5pm to 10pm and are open to all ages.

Brimstone is working to become Windsor's premier board game shop. They've got a great selection of the hottest games and tons of gaming space to play them. Not only that but all board games are currently 30% off!

Win a Board Game! 

Every Board Game Night at 8pm we will draw 1 ticket and the winner will receive a free board game!

Players will earn 1 ticket for playing a game, limit of 1 ticket per night. Earn 1 ticket for purchasing a snack or drink, limit 1 ticket per night. Earn 1 ticket for bringing 1 or more board games for people to play. Earn 5 tickets for each board game purchased. First time players will receive 5 additional tickets.

You can find Brimstone at 3298 Walker Rd. Parking is available on the south side of the building and on the street around back. Note that Brimstone used to be located in McGregor. This is no longer the case, they moved into Windsor just over a year ago.

Featured Game: Quarriors!

The featured game of the night will be Quarriors! By Mike Elliot and Eric M. Lang and released by Wizkids games.

Quarriors! is an interesting three-dimension twist on the very popular deck building mechanic. Instead of building a deck you are building a dice bag full of monsters and spells.

It's a fantasy themed game where each player is building up their forces in order to score more honour than their opponents. It's rather easy to learn but difficult to master.


We will be running demo games of Quarriors! and it's various expansions through out the event. In addition Brimstone will be giving away the latest stand alone expansion set Light Vs. Dark as part of their Win a Board Game event.

Games & Grub - July 18th

Friday July 18th we've got a Games & Grub event being held at The Green Bean's Windsor Star News Cafe. This all ages event runs from 6pm until 11pm.

The Windsor Star News Cafe is located at 300 Ouellette Ave, 3rd floor. This is the cafe that is part of the new Windsor Star located where the old downtown palace theater was.

The Green Bean Cafe has great food and offers bottomless coffee along with lots of other yummy things. The location is also licensed and offers some awesome beer from Walkerville Brewery as well as local Wines. Street parking is free after 6pm if you can find a spot and there are two parking garages in a very short walking distance if you can't.

We play a wide variety of games at these events. You will find card, dice and board games. We've even seen some miniature gamers bring their armies out. There's no theme to the event. Our last gaming event saw games of Cyclades, Merchants of Europa, Nothing Personal, Ticket to Ride, Go Goblins Go, Cash 'n Guns and more.

We encourage you to bring some games out, whether an old favourite or something new you want to try out. If you don't have anything to bring, that's cool too. There's always lots of variety and people are always happy to teach you the games they have brought.