Saturday Board Gaming: Fantasy Flight Game's "Relic" and "Eldritch Horror"

The Sanctioned Psycher got tainted by the warp.  Hordes of flies surround him, but it's not all bad as can be seen on the card description.

Relic is a game produced by Minnesota's own Fantasy Flight Games.  It is set in the dark future space fantasy universe of Warhammer 40,000.  Those who have played Games Workshop's (or FFG's) Talisman will be very familiar with the style of play and mechanics Relic has to offer.  It is essentially a re-skinning of the Talisman game put into space.

The art of the board and cards is fantastic.  It really captures the foreboding apocalyptic doom of 40K.  Space is grim and lonely, the ships are menacing, and the planets look hostile. The only complaint I have is that a lot of the art is a bit small, so it seems to make things look busy.  FFG has provided some great miniatures for the player's pieces.  They are busts of some of the iconic characters that populate the 40K setting.

The Ogryn and Imperial Guardsman explore space trying to complete missions while facing off against the dark forces and abominations found in space.

There are some nice differences that set Relic apart from Talisman.  One thing I do like about the game is the mission cards.  Completing a number of missions gives players a "Relic" that help's him in his quest to achieve the game objective, which changes depending on the scenario card.  The mission cards give a little bit more focus to what you are doing rather then the random gathering of resources that one does in Talisman.

Players also find and can buy various sci fi equipment cards to assist them in their quest such as:  bolters and weapons, med kits, armor & ect.  This equipment comes in handy when facing the baddies of the 40k universe:  eldar, tyranids, corrupted imperials, and various enemies corrupted by the warp.

The Ogryn falls and becomes corrupted by the dread corruption of chaos.

Certain cards have the effect of applying a mutation to the character.  The warp's corruption is dangerous, and if you get too may chaos cards you character is removed from play...and you have to bring a new one in.  During our game 2 characters were lost this way.  A new character is then selected and brought in.  The player does retain some equipment and cards from the previous character, so he's not starting from scratch.

The Psycher makes his way through dangerous space towards the objective.  The Relic he has found during his travels protects him against, and helps him recover from mutation inflicted by the warp.

The Sanctioned Psycher seizes the objective:  the lost ancient ship of a Saint.  Victory!

Like Talisman, getting to the objective first does not end the game.  The first player uses the objective's power to attack and degrade his opponents.  The Psycher got to it first in our game.  We figured it would take a minimum of 13 turns to eliminate the other players, so we decided to call it and move onto...

ELDRITCH HORROR!

Grant bought business card holders to help organize the myriad of cards FFG puts in their games.

Fantasy Flight Games has quite a stable of H.P. Lovecraft "Cthulhu" horror story inspired board and card games.  In Eldritch Horror players take on the roles of investigators of the supernatural.  They are on a mission across the globe to prevent evil forces from taking over the world.

Like many of the other FFG Cthulhu inspired games Eldritch Horror is co-operative.  The players are all on the same side, and the enemy forces actions and reactions are handled through game mechanics.  

The character card:  abilities on the bottom indicate the number of dice used for a skill check.

A variety of items are needed to face off against Yog-Sothoth.

Players move to different locales around the world to gather clues, face monsters, and seal rifts gates through which evil forces are spreading.

There are a number of different enemies one can face in Eldritch Horror.  They have a variety of powers that change up the game and add to the re-playability of Eldritch Horror.  We faced Yog-Sothoth in an epic battle to save mankind but ultimately came up short.

Sorry world...