When you’re Canadian, an avid sports fan, and a board gamer, and an offering hits the table that checks all three boxes, you expect to be pleased.
Hockey Hardware, as the name implies, is about hockey, and it comes from Canadian designer Billy Morrison and publisher Face-Off Games. So we were pretty psyched about this one as we cracked open the box.
The game does some things very well.
To start, it drops players, two to four, into a fairly detailed hockey simulation without requiring them to be rabid hockey fans. That means learning the rules isn’t too overwhelming. Although let’s be honest, given the obvious theme, this isn’t a game that will attract many non-hockey fans.
Of course, in Canada, that still represents a rather large slice of the population.
At the start of the game, you take on the role of a hockey player. You’ll begin as either a forward on Line 2 or a defenceman on Pair 2 in either the East or West Conference.
On your turn, you collect as many hockey stats as possible by rolling dice, avoiding adversity, and strategically playing game cards. The cards represent different hockey actions that can help you get ahead or push your opponents back.
While there is a level of strategy in deciding which card to play and when, the dice rolling and card elements combine to make this feel like a somewhat random experience, though one could argue that a game played on ice is inherently unpredictable.
The more hockey stats you collect, the more likely you are to earn trophy cards. Players compete for 11 trophy cards over 15 rounds, divided into three periods with two intermissions in a full game schedule.
The player with the most trophy cards at the end earns the Champion’s Cup and wins the game.
Everything functions smoothly, and there are no gameplay hiccups or mechanical issues.
Yet Hockey Hardware, perhaps because it tries so hard to incorporate so many details of hockey into the experience, didn’t quite have The Meeple Guilders at the table as excited as we had hoped.
There’s no glaring flaw, in fact, no real flaw at all — but the overall excitement level was just a little more subdued than expected.
About Author
Calvin Daniels is a Saskatchewan-born, self-taught journalist. He is currently Editor of Yorkton This Week, with 35-years in the newspaper business.
Hockey Hardware
When you’re Canadian, an avid sports fan, and a board gamer, and an offering hits the table that checks all three boxes, you expect to be pleased.
Hockey Hardware, as the name implies, is about hockey, and it comes from Canadian designer Billy Morrison and publisher Face-Off Games. So we were pretty psyched about this one as we cracked open the box.
The game does some things very well.
To start, it drops players, two to four, into a fairly detailed hockey simulation without requiring them to be rabid hockey fans. That means learning the rules isn’t too overwhelming. Although let’s be honest, given the obvious theme, this isn’t a game that will attract many non-hockey fans.
Of course, in Canada, that still represents a rather large slice of the population.
At the start of the game, you take on the role of a hockey player. You’ll begin as either a forward on Line 2 or a defenceman on Pair 2 in either the East or West Conference.
On your turn, you collect as many hockey stats as possible by rolling dice, avoiding adversity, and strategically playing game cards. The cards represent different hockey actions that can help you get ahead or push your opponents back.
While there is a level of strategy in deciding which card to play and when, the dice rolling and card elements combine to make this feel like a somewhat random experience, though one could argue that a game played on ice is inherently unpredictable.
The more hockey stats you collect, the more likely you are to earn trophy cards. Players compete for 11 trophy cards over 15 rounds, divided into three periods with two intermissions in a full game schedule.
The player with the most trophy cards at the end earns the Champion’s Cup and wins the game.
Everything functions smoothly, and there are no gameplay hiccups or mechanical issues.
Yet Hockey Hardware, perhaps because it tries so hard to incorporate so many details of hockey into the experience, didn’t quite have The Meeple Guilders at the table as excited as we had hoped.
There’s no glaring flaw, in fact, no real flaw at all — but the overall excitement level was just a little more subdued than expected.
About Author
Calvin Daniels
Calvin Daniels is a Saskatchewan-born, self-taught journalist. He is currently Editor of Yorkton This Week, with 35-years in the newspaper business.
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