Post by zerodemon on Jul 14, 2011 5:46:12 GMT -5
Killer Bunnies Conquest is everything you love about Quest for the Magic Carrot done better. I open with this statement because, after much thought and a small amount of initial disappointment, I have come to the conclusion that I love this game more that I loved the Quest starter, which was a lot.
First off, the production quality is a fair amount higher. By this, I mean the card art, standard of packaging and quality of the reading materials is much better. The box the game comes in has space for all of the original quest cards including the chocolate booster and Kinder Bunnies and if you exclude Kinder Bunnies, you can even fit Conquest Blue and yellow decks in there with your quest cards. It's what we've all wanted all along, so it's nice somebody is listening. Part of me wants to get a hold of a second copy of the game just for the storage (as much as that is a massively inelegant solution.)
The game is very well re-imagined but it is worth noticing that this is EXACTLY what Killer Bunnies Conquest is. It is by no means a new game. This is Killer Bunnies Quest as it always was, but with the benefit of years of experience.
This experience manifests itself in the following ways. CTA have finally come up with a good Yellow P-Card in lemon squeezie, pretty much every card has a practical use in game (though I still object to cards that cancel one other card as their only use, like Shell Repel does) and there is a new and interesting store; Mordens Metal Exchange.
This is Conquest's biggest triumph. Mordens has played a big role in every lone game of Conquest I have played in the last week or so. The wheeling and dealing that comes with having an open stock market improves the game a lot, and makes you feel much more that you are in control of your finances. Investment in metals always pays off to some extent and, with 9 of the 151 draw cards being metals, there are plenty of these resources floating around. Hopefully, with further expansions, they will increase the number of metal cards to the same tune as here (3 for every 50 draw cards) to ensure that metal cards don't become rarer.
In fact, this is the only area where Conquest falls down. Mixing Conquest in with the rest of the Quest line pretty much disqualifies Mordens as a concept, so the much vaunted combining of the two games relegates Conquest to a very samey expansion deck, albeit one that brings a bit more balance back to the convoluted and at time over-complicated system that later quest boosters bought in to the game. Adding 25 bunnies to the draw pile, much like Kinder Bunnies did, ensures a nice hefty supply of bunnies, but beyond that, there is little reason to mix it in.
Here is my recommendation. If you want to play a nice, extended game of Killer Bunnies, include the following in your deck.
Killer Bunnies Quest Blue, Yellow, Red, Purple, Orange, Chocolate
Kinder Bunnies Blue, Yellow
Killer Bunnies Conquest Blue, Yellow
This makes for a nice, uncomplicated, 42 carrot game of Killer Bunnies which uses all the best of the early Quest booster decks (pawns, red bunnies, Rooneys) and none of the weirdy beardy, slightly unnecessary stuff (like ranks, zodiac and mysterious place cards.) I find these games best for larger group play, as the game doesn't get slowed down so much by the raft of extra cards people get to play.
In summation, Conquest is an excellent stand alone game. It improves on the original Quest blue starter by quite an amount, due to some nice, original card ideas and the inclusion of the stock exchange mechanic. True, as a booster to quest, it falls short of being revolutionary, but it feels unfair to judge it on this basis. This is Killer Bunnies Quest V.2 and I am excited to see where it goes.
Card Art - 8/10 (not as good as Jupiter or Odyssey but a vast improvement over older Quest cards.)
Gameplay - 9/10 (this would be perfect but for my aforementioned dislike of specific cancellation cards.)
New Ideas - 7/10 (stirs the stagnant water of Quest well enough to be passable, but the addition of Mordens is a revelation that Quest was missing all along.)
Replay Factor - 10/10 (The best and most catchy iteration of the game yet.)
Validity as a Booster - 5/10 (Once more boosters are released for this, I'm sure it will become more valid.
Final Score - 8/10
While it is no Journey to Jupiter (the best in the KB line in my opinion) this game is an order of magnitude greater than it's predecessor. I would recommend it to anyone.
First off, the production quality is a fair amount higher. By this, I mean the card art, standard of packaging and quality of the reading materials is much better. The box the game comes in has space for all of the original quest cards including the chocolate booster and Kinder Bunnies and if you exclude Kinder Bunnies, you can even fit Conquest Blue and yellow decks in there with your quest cards. It's what we've all wanted all along, so it's nice somebody is listening. Part of me wants to get a hold of a second copy of the game just for the storage (as much as that is a massively inelegant solution.)
The game is very well re-imagined but it is worth noticing that this is EXACTLY what Killer Bunnies Conquest is. It is by no means a new game. This is Killer Bunnies Quest as it always was, but with the benefit of years of experience.
This experience manifests itself in the following ways. CTA have finally come up with a good Yellow P-Card in lemon squeezie, pretty much every card has a practical use in game (though I still object to cards that cancel one other card as their only use, like Shell Repel does) and there is a new and interesting store; Mordens Metal Exchange.
This is Conquest's biggest triumph. Mordens has played a big role in every lone game of Conquest I have played in the last week or so. The wheeling and dealing that comes with having an open stock market improves the game a lot, and makes you feel much more that you are in control of your finances. Investment in metals always pays off to some extent and, with 9 of the 151 draw cards being metals, there are plenty of these resources floating around. Hopefully, with further expansions, they will increase the number of metal cards to the same tune as here (3 for every 50 draw cards) to ensure that metal cards don't become rarer.
In fact, this is the only area where Conquest falls down. Mixing Conquest in with the rest of the Quest line pretty much disqualifies Mordens as a concept, so the much vaunted combining of the two games relegates Conquest to a very samey expansion deck, albeit one that brings a bit more balance back to the convoluted and at time over-complicated system that later quest boosters bought in to the game. Adding 25 bunnies to the draw pile, much like Kinder Bunnies did, ensures a nice hefty supply of bunnies, but beyond that, there is little reason to mix it in.
Here is my recommendation. If you want to play a nice, extended game of Killer Bunnies, include the following in your deck.
Killer Bunnies Quest Blue, Yellow, Red, Purple, Orange, Chocolate
Kinder Bunnies Blue, Yellow
Killer Bunnies Conquest Blue, Yellow
This makes for a nice, uncomplicated, 42 carrot game of Killer Bunnies which uses all the best of the early Quest booster decks (pawns, red bunnies, Rooneys) and none of the weirdy beardy, slightly unnecessary stuff (like ranks, zodiac and mysterious place cards.) I find these games best for larger group play, as the game doesn't get slowed down so much by the raft of extra cards people get to play.
In summation, Conquest is an excellent stand alone game. It improves on the original Quest blue starter by quite an amount, due to some nice, original card ideas and the inclusion of the stock exchange mechanic. True, as a booster to quest, it falls short of being revolutionary, but it feels unfair to judge it on this basis. This is Killer Bunnies Quest V.2 and I am excited to see where it goes.
Card Art - 8/10 (not as good as Jupiter or Odyssey but a vast improvement over older Quest cards.)
Gameplay - 9/10 (this would be perfect but for my aforementioned dislike of specific cancellation cards.)
New Ideas - 7/10 (stirs the stagnant water of Quest well enough to be passable, but the addition of Mordens is a revelation that Quest was missing all along.)
Replay Factor - 10/10 (The best and most catchy iteration of the game yet.)
Validity as a Booster - 5/10 (Once more boosters are released for this, I'm sure it will become more valid.
Final Score - 8/10
While it is no Journey to Jupiter (the best in the KB line in my opinion) this game is an order of magnitude greater than it's predecessor. I would recommend it to anyone.
