Looking for something a little spooky? Make this Halloween frightfully fun with 25% off horror titles from Fireside Games. In Dead Panic, you’ll search your cabin for items and weapons to hold off the zombies and sprint to the van to escape. Take too many bites, though, and you’ll join the undead against your fellow teammates.
Or vie to become The Village Crone by sending out familiars to gather resources for spells you’ll cast on unsuspecting villagers and complete your Witch’s Schemes. Either way, you’ll have a hauntingly good time!
Witches aren’t just for Halloween anymore! Find out why YOU should be playing The Village Crone through recommendations from gamers like you in this Review Roundup for our newest game (released September 30).
Dave Banks at Geek Dad flatters us with his comments on the components and gameplay quality, “I really appreciate Fireside’s devotion to quality, both in gameplay and components. Everything looks and feels top-notch, making for a great gaming experience… …I think Fireside is great at coming up with little twists that affect gameplay positively…”
“The game is easy to learn and play, but offers enough depth to keep players interested,” according to Mike N. over at Nerds of a Feather in his recap of the best games at GenCon.
Caylie Sadin from Nerdy But Flirty fell in love with The Village Crone when she first saw it at GenCon 2015, “The game is really fun to play, the art is beautiful, and the theme is awesome.”
She really likes the thematic use of spell-casting in this one: “One of the mechanics that makes the game super enjoyable is that every time you cast a spell, you have to say the incantation too. It helps players get into the spirit of the game.”
The Domestic Geek echoes Nerdy but Flirty with her praise, “I can’t get enough of this game.” You can watch Brittany’s Unboxing Video and her Video Review over on her blog or YouTube channel.
Jeremiah from Theology of Gaming enjoys the thinking aspects of the game:
“The interaction is great, the board is constantly shifting, and there’s a lot of guessing who’s doing what and trying to block them, or at least trying to stop other players from moving the pieces you need out of the ares in which you need them. You’re right, it is very much puzzle-like. And I like that a lot!”
The praise for this game is summed up nicely by Ryan Morgenegg over at Deseret News, “The Village Crone has a great theme and beautiful components.”
There you have it, folks! The Village Crone is a worker placement, resource management game with a puzzle-like quality and continually shifting landscape. Learn more about The Village Croneon our information page and pick up a copy at your Friendly Local Game Store today!
Well, that was a whirlwind tour! Thirteen stops in 25 days across 6 states! No wonder we’re tired.
The leaves are changing colors and there is a distinct chill in the air. It must be the approach of autumn and the time of Witches. It’s also the 12th stop on our Something Wicked Tour as we visit Crossroad Games in Standish, Maine!
This was a quick visit on our tour as we setup The Village Crone and spent some time chatting with Lacey and Chuck about the game business while waiting for some players to finish up another game.
Pretty soon it was game on and our players wasted no time in getting down to the business of scoring schemes. Familiars were flying and Villagers were changing to frogs and back into humans faster than you could say “Eye of Newt”!
The next game was just as fun, with the Forge filling up with frogs and some quick scoring at the end that took everyone by surprise.
We stuck around to sign some games and visit with fans, then it was time to hit the road.
It was a dark and stormy night… The 13th store visit on the 13th of October. Coincidence? We think not! But we couldn’t think of a better way to wrap up our Something Wicked Tour here in New England!
We made our way to Diversions Puzzles & Games in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and met up with the Events Coordinator, Ian, who let us have our pick of tables in their very cool play space downstairs.
Diversions is another one of those “Tardis-esque” game stores that has a really small front window, but once you get inside it just keeps going to reveal a massive amount of clean, open space filled with well-organized games, clearly displayed and more puzzles than we’ve ever seen in one spot. The downstairs play space is really big and made for a really great place to run our last demos of the tour.
We had barely set up the game when the first group gathered around and before you could say “Broomstick” we had a 6-player game up and running. As more gamers flocked to see what was happening it became clear we needed to spread the fun, so we set up a second game and ran another group through that.
Once the first game ended we had just enough time to catch our breath and take some photos before we got our third group started. This turned into a huge battle with players getting caught in a defensive battle of trying to use Protection to stop the other players from completing their schemes. It may seem like it works on paper, but it’s a losing strategy and sure enough, both players ran out of ingredients and couldn’t recover. But minutes after finishing the game, there was nothing but discussion of new strategies and “next time” plans being made.
We’ve had a lot of fun crisscrossing New England, catching some of spooky sights, playing games with so many people, and getting to see more of the Friendly Local Game Stores that keep board gaming accessible and fun. Thanks for joining us on our journey. We hope you’ve had fun following along. Now make sure you pick up your own copy of The Village Crone and bring fun home!
Riding with ghosts, witnessing history, and exploring the paranormal… just a few of the objectives Justin and Anne-Marie had to complete to score the first seven points of the Something Wicked Tour meta game. Let’s take a look at the Schemes they were following and whether they accomplished them or not!
1 Point: Ride with the Damned – take the Trolley of the Doomed (Boston, MA) – COMPLETED
Our first scheme “Ride with the Damned” took us on a dark and spooky ride through historic Boston. We visited Copp’s Hill burying ground, saw the home of the last victim of the Boston Strangler, spent some time with the occupants of the Granary Burying Ground and more. The city is crawling with ghosts and we survived our encounter to score our first Witch’s Scheme!
Copps Hill Tombstone: This 3 part tombstone is a sad marker of 3 untimely deaths. George Worthylake’s tombstone is on the left, his wife’s on the right and their young daughter’s in the middle. The three were drowned while returning to Boston Lighthouse at Beacon Island where George was keeper. Strangely enough, George’s replacement was found drowned days after taking up the position, giving rise to the legend that the lighthouse was cursed. To this day, a phantom lightkeeper can be seen shining his lantern on the island and climbing the lighthouse stairs. Locals believe it to be George Worthylake, which means this is a photo of the grave of an actual ghost!
Franklin Grave: Wow, the actual grave of Benjamin Franklin! . . . is in Philadelphia. This monument is where his parents are born.
Paul Revere grave and memorial
Paul Revere Grave: The large marker in the center is a monument to the famous rider. The tiny tombstone on the bottom right is where he is actually buried.
2 Points: Pay Respects to the Accused – visit the Salem Witch Museum & Memorial (Salem, MA) – COMPLETED
What witch focused tour would be complete without a visit to Salem, MA? We took some time to absorb the history and tragedy of the Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692.
The Witch Trial Memorial is a somber place to remember what happened here. It’s a simple, but touching memorial with stone benches bearing the names of those who were hanged for witchcraft.
Actual quotes from the accused are carved into the stone threshold of the memorial.
A plaque at the memorial recaps the trials and lists the names of all the hanged victims.
The Salem Witch Museum has a retelling of the events that surrounded the hysteria of the trials as well as a look at witches through history.
On a lighter note, there is a cool statue of Samantha Stevens from Bewitched in the middle of town. Anne-Marie loved this show growing up and later episodes were actually filmed in Salem.
What’s the Score?
At this point Anne-Marie and Justin have scored 3 points total towards the 13 they need by the end of the Something Wicked tour in October. We’ll be sharing their first 3-point scheme soon, so stay tuned!
Have you visited any of these places? Tell us about your experiences in the comments!
Over the weekend Anne-Marie and Justin made the first two store visits for the Something Wicked Tour.
We have started this tour in Boston and the surrounding boroughs and our first stop was at Knight Moves Cafe in Brookline, MA. Knight Moves is a game cafe that focuses on providing a friendly hangout for gamers (both new and veteran) to have a snack, a drink, and a good time playing games together.
We arrived early and the shop was relatively quiet. That would change as the night went on when it was standing room only and we got in several games of The Village Crone and earned some new fans for the game
The owner, Devon, was very helpful and kept directing gamers to our tables as well as serving delicious drinks and snacks all night long.
Their demo library is made of multiple bookcases that are literally overflowing with games. If you want to try out a game in the Brookline area, this is the place to do it!
While they don’t sell games at Knight Moves Cafe, they do work with Eureka Puzzles & Games, a game store down the street, to promote gaming in the Brookline area.
On Sunday evening they ventured to the Harvard University area to visit Pandemonium Books & Games in Cambridge.
We played with all the local board game night attendees, squeezing in 4 games over the night.
The first game of the night had a tremendous finish with one player scoring all three of his Witches Schemes on his last turn in an amazing combination of spellcasting!
Unfortunately we lost the video for this event, so we only have a few photos we grabbed while we were there. Must have been some of those ghosts we met earlier on the Trolley Tour!
We met some local gamers and showed them what it takes to become The Village Crone. They were pretty good at being witches as it turns out since Justin got trounced soundly!
Up next is our visit to Sarge’s Comics in New London, CT on Friday (6–10pm) and then we will be visiting the legendary New York store of the Compleat Strategist this Saturday from 1pm to 5pm!
What witch could succeed without the assistance of her Familiar breed? In The Village Crone, you command your Familiars to assist you in the completion of your Witch’s Schemes.
Each witch has their own set of Familiar tokens that represent their animal minions. The choices you have are cats, bats, rats, snakes, spiders, and crows. If you have a personal affinity towards a particular animal it may bring you luck!
You will get 5 tokens displaying your Familiar’s likeness, you will place 3 of them on the board at the beginning of the game. In order to put the other two in play, you must use the Conjuring Spell.
The Familiars are placed on the board in various locations around the Village for several strategic purposes.
A vital function of your Familiars is harvesting of Ingredients you need to cast Spells. During the Harvest Ingredients phase of a round, you will receive two Ingredient cards for each Familiar you have in a given location. For instance, if you have one Familiar at the Lord’s Manor, you will receive two Silver. If you have two Familiars at the Farm, you will receive four Soil (two for each Familiar).
You may also want to move your Familiars around using your Movement Phase if you need to change the Ingredients you have been gathering to cast different Spells. This strategy will depend upon the Spells required to complete your Witch’s Schemes.
There are spells that require a Familiar to be present in a location to affect that space, such as Summoning or Switching.
An overcrowding of Familiars can occur, triggering a Scatter effect and kicking Familiars out of a specific location. For more details on Scattering, check your rule book page 3.
Whether you prefer cat-like reflexes, a bird’s eye view, or the creepy-crawly vibe of an eight-legged friend, your Familiars will be a most valued resource as you vie to be The Village Crone!
Each player in The Village Crone will choose a Book of Spells at the beginning of the game. You will use this as a privacy screen to keep your Schemes away from the prying eyes of the other witches and it acts as a handy reference guide for the Spells you will be casting and some of the rules for gameplay.
The book you choose determines which Familiar becomes yours to command. The image of your Familiar is displayed on the outside facing portion of your Book of Spells so the other witches know whose Familiars are whose.
Inside the Book of Spells you will find a handy chart of the Spells you will be casting. The chart includes a description of what the Spell does, the Ingredients required to cast it, and the Incantation you must say to give power to your spell. You may also choose to make up your own incantations, which can lead to some really funny moments in the game!
There is also a reference guide for Order of Play when you are first learning to play the game or have new players joining you, and a helpful reminder list for some of the rules you will want to keep in mind without having to look them up in the rule book once you get going.
