Two Short Fun Games

I have played some shorter games lately that I have been enjoying. They both have similar elements to them.

The first one is called Battle Brothers and is a mercenary game where you wander a map with a crew who have their own stories. The combat is brutal and often unforgiving and death is permanent. The game is still in alpha but if you need a quick fantasy brutal combat fix this gave gives it.

The second game is called Curious Expedition. In this game you lead an expedition for treasures. It is some combo of FTL, Seven Cities of Gold and a text based game. It is also in alpha and perma death is here as well.

Both games have an element of exploration and gaining items. In Battle Brothers it is gaining equipment to stay alive. In Curious Expedition is it gaining artifacts to give to a museum for fame or selling on the market for money to fund your next expedition.

There is not a lot of depth to them yet as they are still early games but to me they show a lot of potential for a quick fix game. Neither takes a great deal of investment and have the fun is dieing.

Seven Cities of Gold there is a name that takes me back...

The 1800s/steampunk setting for Curious Expedition is pretty appealing since I'm actually reading some Jules Verne lately. Battle Brothers reminds be of Final Fantasy: Tactics which used to one of my favorite Playstation games.

The trailers for both them look really good. I think we are hitting a renaissance of smaller independents games these days.

Tell us a story from each game!

With Curious Expedition I was playing a game as Charles Darwin and had successfully completed 3 expeditions. I was on my way to completing number 4 and I had all kinds of goodies that I was looking forward to trading in (dinosaur bones, drums, etc...) but my compass kept leading in circles around gorillas and panthers. My team began to loose sanity as we began to starve. My solider tried killing my translator and things began to go down hill from there. The translator ran off taking valuable supplies with her. A few days later the solider also ran off with more supplies. Eventually Charles was wandering around in circles starving when finally we spotted it...our nemesis...a magnetic mountain. We had been circling it the whole time. Charles died of starvation wandering blinding through the grasslands.

With Battle Brothers most games end when a band of young orcs attacks the party and brutally smashes in everyone's skulls with crude weapons. I do have one game on easy level where I have successfully equipped a group of people (I can't remember their backgrounds right now). The combat is quite enjoyable. It is simple but adds nice tactics to it that make it interesting. Weapons and perks change what "moves" a character can do. Have spear men to push attackers back while pikes hit them from a distance or axe men to break shields, or whatever combo works. It is simple but tactical combat with a strong element of brutality...no one is safe. I like it.

Wow - that first group of Bandits made short work of my crew! A brief flurry of chopping and clubbing and then darkness.... Where's the emoticon for a decapitated head (of a grave-digger who just wanted to earn a little spending cash by moonlighting as a mercenary)?

It took me a few decapitations to get the hang of what was going on. Some thongs that I found important were use initiative to wait and let them make first move in the first round. Second thing is metal amour is worth it. A good character is worth it mentalling up. Other than that it is getting use to what weapins do what. Using spear men to auto attack anyone who comes into range is helpful. It keeps the enemy back. I like having a few guys with good shields to make shield walls to take a hit and also use their shield to protect others. A good ranged weapons guy helps a lot too but until they are good they can sometimes be a burden...giving them a secondary melee weapon to use in a pinch is a big help too.