We play games both fast and slow in our group, so we like to make sure
we’ve got a mix of both at any given time.
The problem is that with a fast game, you often don’t get the same level
of satisfaction that you do when you’re playing a long game, but that’s often
countered by being able to play several games in the same amount of time.
So in the first of todays reviews, we’re going to take a look at the
fast game for last night.
Alarm
In Alarm, you play criminals who are on the run for committing some unspecified
crime. The deck consists of different
cards that are drawn to represent what’s resources are being thrown into the
hunt. Play is simple and consists of
each player in turn drawing cards one at a time and then assigning them to the
players around the table until they have drawn one card for each player. As a player draws the card, they decide which
player (including themselves) to assign the card to. There are bonuses as well as negatives to the
cards being drawn, for example, a Bone will negate a Dog card, a key will
negate a lock and a pair of bolt cutters will negate a chain.
The final of the cards is money, and although
too much money will result in you landing in jail, there is a second part of
the game when the group is down to two players that we’ll come to shortly in
which money is essential.
Any of the following combinations of cards in front of them will send a
player to jail.
Every players has a get out of jail free card that they can flip once
and once only. This card has the effect
of negating whatever card was last played on them, but nothing else. As a result, they will still be vulnerable to
the same card being played on them again, but it will keep them out of jail for
the moment, As evidenced below.
When all the players except two are eliminated, the game shifts gear
and in addition to playing the cards that they draw every turn, every players
turn starts by removing one of their money cards. If they have no money cards, they go to jail.
It’s fast, from the point at which we started playing to the end of the
first game was four minutes (with three players), there’s nothing to remember
as far as the cards go, each player gets a reference card that shows them the
combinations that will send them to jail and everything else is explained on
the cards as they are drawn. There are
cards that cause shuffling of cards from one player to the next and cards that
can allow you to take cards from other players without them being able to do
anything about it.
It’s a very simple
game, learn in two minutes, play in five, it plays well, and can be played a
number of times without the game becoming stale.
Recommended
