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Apart from having a licence to gorge on the sweet stuff for 4 days straight, another bonus of the extra long bank holiday weekend is the chance to get your teeth into something meatier. And we’re not talking about some weird chocolate spread and bacon sarnie combo (although to be fair they do sound good!).
No, we’re talking about games you sit and savour. Ones you don’t have to steam through in one session. So settle into your favourite chair, grab your Easter eggies, and get ready for our bloggers here at Zatu to tempt your tastebuds with 5 excellent choices for a marathon gaming session!
Gloomhaven: Jaws Of The Lion - Rob Wright
So, we’ve got a few days when there’s nothing to do but celebrate chocmas, aka Easter, and eat said chocolate. I might get chance to get in some serious gaming. And what could be more serious than Gloomhaven? Only I’m playing Twilight Imperium on Monday, so that writes off the rest of the week. Hmm, but funsize Gloomhaven, aka Jaws of the Lion should do the trick nicely!
Based on Gloomhaven, Jaws is a trimmed-down version of the gargantuan legacy-style rpg-strategy. It has all the character development, strategy and story-telling of its big brother but comes in a box that is a fraction of the original’s size and plays in a lot less time. It also has all the maps and game set ups in a book – you open it up to the relevant pages and boom! Your map’s ready. There’s also a supplemental book for the larger maps, so you can still get some epic battlefields to play with.
The playable characters are very well balanced and have their own strengths, be it melee, ranged, tanking or support. To get the best gaming experience you really need all four on the board – I mean why wouldn’t you? – so you do need to get four dedicated friends to take these four ne’er do wells on a voyage of discovery.
This is, however, a trimmed down campaign game so it should be easier to persuade your time-impoverished friends to commit to getting it done in three days. Or maybe not. Regardless, you should be able to get through a good chunk in a limited time.
The other good thing about Jaws is that it is a lot cheaper that Gloomhaven and gives you a good demo of what the full game will play like without having to drop a hod-load of cash. Besides, if all four of you like it, surely you could go four-ways on it? I mean… only fair…
Pandemic Legacy - Fred Cronin
It’s been just over a decade since Risk Legacy burst onto the scene, establishing the campaign genre for the first time. Since then, the category has grown significantly, and has produced some of the best known and most highly regarded games in the industry. The most celebrated of these is Gloomhaven, a truly immense game which has sat comfortably at the top of the BGG rankings since its publication in 2017.
However, before this colossal creation came Pandemic Legacy. Since the first Pandemic Legacy was released in 2015 there have been two more: Season 2 and Season 0. The first follows the much-loved Pandemic formula of curing disease and saving cities, but with the added challenge of an evolving ruleset. Throughout the 12 games, players open locked packages and discover stickers detailing new actions or restrictions.
This gives each decision a whole new sense of permeance, as whole cities could be lost if you don’t think ahead. Whereas Season 1 was relatively true to the Pandemic formula, Season 2 was far more radical. This release was focused more on rebuilding than prevention and is set for the future following the fallout from a global pandemic.
Season 0 was one of my favourite games, and I believe it represents the peak of the franchise. Unlike the others, the story is set during the Cold War. Instead of disease cubes, players will be mopping up rogue Soviet agents. The story and components were so juicy in this I was blown away, and there were so many surprises it felt like I was getting twice as much game as I expected.
The whole Pandemic Legacy franchise has been superb and there really wasn’t a dull moment across the trilogy. I only wish I could go back in time and play them all again from scratch!
Adventure Games: The Grand Hotel Abaddon - Favouritefoe
Not having many saga length games in our collection (life is dramatic enough most of the time!), it occurred to me that it isn’t always the campaign formula that necessitates taking play slow and steady. Indeed, whenever we play an escape room type game, we rarely complete it from start to finish in one session. And Phil Walker Harding’s Adventure Games: The Grand Hotel Abaddon published by KOSMOS is a great example.
In this co-operative, family friendly game, you follow a story, encounter characters, follow clues, and solve the mystery. But, unlike the KOSMOS Exit series, you’re not under any strict deadlines. You can explore the game space, going back and forwards down different decision paths. And this is great because there’s more than one way to crack the case. And that means plenty of time for Easter eggie hunts in between table sessions!
Indeed, if you are like me, I find coming back to the table with fresh eyes (and a tummy full of refined sugar!) can actually help inspire problem solving. It can sweep away the stall and kickstart progress like, well, a middle-aged woman hyped up on too much chocolate!
Another great thing about Adventure Games: The Grand Hotel Abaddon is that is mainly card based (and easy to operate) but you also get to build out more room boards which increases the places to explore. And this lets you move around, talk to characters and combine actions and locations. It also has an accompanying helper app that also acts as a guide/walkthrough.
And, unlike many games, you need to interact with the non-player characters (NPCs) in order to succeed and this feels fresh in the genre. The artwork is also fun – it has a retro vibe that helps to keep the theme alive. The ghost story in Abaddon isn’t scary enough to keep you up at night but leaving a clue hanging there waiting to be solved just might!
Sleeping Gods - Callum Price
Lazy weekend? Fancy a boat ride and enjoy the ebb and flow of the tide? How about fighting some alien and mythical beings, journeying across distant lands and hunting down ancient artefacts to awaken unspeakable gods? Sounds like the perfect bank holiday.
Luckily for you, Sleeping Gods provides all of this and more. It’s a cooperative adventure “storybook/atlas” game for 1-4 players that run a campaign of over 20 hours of playtime.
Sleeping Gods is a game that’s wholly driven by the players within the set in-game boundaries. They choose where to adventure, how to go about their quest and how to interact with the folk they meet. As for the story… Captain Odessa and her crew of the Manticore are inexplicably taken to a far world and given a great quest: awaken the Sleeping Gods. From here you are then given a wide range of freedom in terms of how to do this.
Players take equal amounts of characters from the available crew, with Odessa being a shared one, and then begin making waves across these alien lands. You’ll encounter monsters, strange creatures, impossible structures and unearthly sights. All whilst maintaining the ship, the crew and the unfortunate events that may occur… It makes for a stunning narrative that unfolds as you play.
The main thing to know about Sleeping Gods is the depth. Like the oceans the game is set on, it’s vast, deep and often perilous and dark. Where players choose to go, what to engage with and how to tackle problems is all guided by the logbook – a tome of no end of adventurous notes!
This handy guide gives players contextual explanations as to what happens when they visit the different places and interact with the colourful folk. The game entirely takes place in an atlas and players move their ship to the locations they wish to travel to in order to explore. Beyond this player will acquire cards to represent the items at their disposal and the available quests to engage with.
“But how is this a campaign game!?” I hear you call to me from a distant shore… well the game is very much pick up and put down. You can store active cards from quests and items in a separate area of the tuck box and can pick them up another time. There’s also a journey log to make notes on for crewmates who are suffering afflictions and the stock in the ship’s hold. Or, as we do, you can leave it out and come back to it later. Each session lasts as long as you
want and the game is meant to be player over several sessions. It’d be a real marathon to try and complete the game in one sitting! And even if you do, there is no way you’d encounter every quest, item and mishap available in this novel of a game. It’s got so much depth!
Charterstone - Tom Harrod
There was a lot of excitement in 2017 when Stonemaier Games announced Charterstone. A campaign game by Jamey Stegmaier? The brains behind colossal hits Scythe and Viticulture? Boardgame geeks across the world rubbed their hands with glee…
Charterstone is a city-building, worker placement, 12-session legacy game. Your accomplishments get tallied across the game’s span, determining the ultimate winner. Due to the nature of players placing stickers on the board throughout, no two games of Charterstone will ever be alike!
The first of the twelve games is a simple affair. It’s designed to teach you the game in an organic, drip-fed fashion, rather than having to read a huge rulebook first. A system of secret Index cards guides you through. Many are stickers, which become permanent rules to stick into the rulebook. Players gain more mystery Index cards into their hands by ‘unlocking’ crates. In no time at all, you’ll have a modular board, with plenty of fascinating options that evolve game-to-game!
The setting is the Kingdom of Greengully, where up to six players compete to impress the Forever King. Each player controls one-sixth of the board which is their ‘charter’. This is like their own segment of a communal village. Charters begin with five blank spaces (a sixth standard space grants one of six resources.) The centre of the board, The Commons, has five locations you can visit straight away. These are simple-enough worker placement spots. You visit one by sending a worker there, paying the cost on the left, and getting the benefit on the right.
Like other Euro-style games, you can complete objectives for points. The real delight, though, comes in the village building. Constructing Buildings – placing stickers! – into your Charter is so exciting. Buildings are all unique worker placement spots. Plus, every time you unlock a crate there’s a sense of anticipation as you reveal more goodies from the Index box…
I can’t tell you too much more due to spoilers. But what I can say is that like other legacy-style games, consistency is key with Charterstone. You’ll want to find a core group to play this with and to play it on a regular basis. Nothing kills a legacy game like large gaps between sessions. Games can last between 45-90 minutes each, so on a rainy weekend you could – and I have! – play through quite a few of those 12 games in one session…