Review: Castaways (boardgame)

When you think of Castaways, I want you to think of Arkham Horror.  It's cooperative, it's meant to be challenging, and the number of pieces is plain crazy.  The biggest difference is the co-op; there is a single game winner!  Of the castaways that escape the island (if indeed any of you escape the island), the one with the most 'story points' hoarded is named the actual winner, but you could have used those story points to reroll any bad dice roll; thus, if you have one jerk among your nominal board game group, it could be a very tedious night of not-actually-cooperative play.  Interestingly, this makes it somewhat more of a realistic 'marooned on a desert island' situation, don't you think?

If you don't know Arkham Horror, let me just say that there are a lot of pieces to this game.  Some that you might not even use.  The setup is long (not as long as Arkham Horror) but the variety of outcomes more resembles Betrayal at the House on the Hill, because of the 100+ different plot cards that are randomly summoned throughout the game.  And though I'm referencing several dark-genre games, let me be clear that this game is 100% island castaway adventure themed.  No otherworldly portals or demonic creatures to eat your sanity.

Your commodity to burn is energy.  Energy to attempt campfires, energy to build shelters, energy to explore the island wilderness.  All players choose what they want to do (or attempt to do) by placing their tokens on the board in the appropriate slots.  Energy is paid, and off we go: to forage for food, salvage some of the shipwreck, or just get miserably lost in the jungle.  All things have a consequence, and many decisions have to be made, either individually or as a group.

I think this game isn't for everyone, obviously.  A lot of folks who checked it out over the GGC weekend took one disdainful look and said "too many rules".  But, like Arkham Horror, it runs fairly smoothly once you establish what goes where.  And Rob may not like how it's not quite 'co-operative' since there is a competitive aspect.  I think I like that, too.  It dispels the "do whatever the veteran says to do" quality that ruins games like Pandemic and Arkham Horror.  I have yet to play it with a real troll, though, and my opinion could easily change.  For right now, at least, Castaways is inheriting the best qualities from Betrayal at the House on the Hill and Arkham Horror in a more positive setting, and keeping the balance between teamwork and every-man-for-himself.

BQBL: Where Are They Now Special!

Here we go, yellow highlights for out of the league, green highlights for moved to another team.

Rob's Team:

• Broncos
• Timothy Richard Tebow was traded to the Jets as their backup, made more headlines there by jogging shirtless in the rain than the starting QB did for actually playing real games.  He was let go after the 2012 season and after a brief stint trying out for the Patriots, is no longer in the league.
• But the Broncos got Peyton Manning so that's the most negative BQBL points ever.
• Raiders
• Jason Campbell was moved to Chicago, and then to the Browns, where he seems to have been beaten for the starting job by Brandon Wheeden, and then again beaten for the job when Wheeden went down by Brian Hoyer.  Yikes. 
• The Raiders are playing Pryor, which seems promising.
• Carson Palmer moved to Arizona, where I think he's still starting.
• Colts
• Curtis Painter is now backing up the other Manning in New York
• The Colts drafted Andrew Luck, so that's also a bad BQBL bet
• Dolphins
• Matt Moore appears to still be on the Dolphins, but the starting job now belongs to Ryan Tannehill

Alison's Team:

• Cowboys
• Tony's still Tony.  Threw for 500 yards last Sunday and then lost the game with a pick within the last two minutes.  Overall, that's going to be negative BQBL points, but it continues to hurt.
• Eagles
• Vince Young played for her?  Oh, man.  He is so out of the league now.  I miss Vince.
• Michael Vick is still around.  Still playing questionably and getting hurt. 
• Browns
• Remarkably this year, the Browns are doing okay with Wheedon and Hoyer?  Not sure how that's happening
• Colt McCoy got picked up by San Francisco as a back up
• Lions
• Matt Stafford is still their QB.  Still trucking along up there.

Xian's Team:

• Texans
• Matt Schaub was a freaking hero for the previous season, and quickly a pariah early in this season.  
• Matt Leinart is out of the league.
• Steelers
• Ben did fine last season, but is somehow stinking up the place so far this year...
• Ravens
• Ravens actually won the superbowl and gave Joe Flacco a huge new contract, but they haven't been doing too hot so far this year either...  BQBL needs points (like I said when we were playing) for getting a fat contract and then disappointing. 
• Seahawks
• Whaddya know, Tavaris Jackson is still on the Seahawks team, but he's been obscured by Russell Wilson's coolness, I guess.  His photo reflects how unhappy he is about this.

Nan's Team:

• Panthers
• Cam Newton is no longer the hot stuff.  Not sure how he's scoring in BQBL points, but we don't hear much out of the Panthers these days. 
• Jaguars
• Would you believe they are STILL fielding Blaine Gabbert?  He's still crushing the triple-digit BQBL scores, too!  I checked the website where they tally these things, and they worship him like a god.
• Luke McCown is backing up in New Orleans
• Chiefs
• Tyler Palko seems to be out of the league
• The Chiefs did a major remodel and got new QB and coach and seem to be doing alright, for once.
• Buccaneers
• Josh Freeman is the reason I thought to do a special on where they are now.  He's finally had it in Orlando and their differences caused the team to abruptly let him go mid-season, for which there should be huge BQBL points.  The Vikings just picked him up.

My Team:

• Redskins
• Surprise, surprise, Rex Grossman is still lurking as a backup in Washington D.C.! 
• The Redskins moved up in the draft last year to take RG3, and he's been hit or miss, I feel. 
• Bills
• At least they cut Fitzpatrick, but he's shown back up in a backup role in Tennessee.  Still sporting that horrible caveman beard.  And terrible QB play.
• The Bills have a new rookie QB who is already hurt, so likely they are a good team for BQBL this year.
• 49ers
• I picked them because I don't have confidence in Alex Smith, who was traded to St. Louis.  As it turns out, Game Manager is pretty safe stuff in BQBL, so he's not a good pick in either city.
• Colin Kaepernick is coached by Harbaugh, BQBL numbers are still low there.
• Bengals
• Bengals still aren't winning, but Andy Dalton doesn't look like he's scoring high BQBL points still.