Geeking Out – Living La Vida Lockdown
So I’m stuck in the house with 3 kids. How’s lockdown treating you?
Luckily, I have two very geek-enabled older spawn, and they’re always to keen to try something new. But of course, if you’re stuck inside, how do you get stuff? Well, we have a family/geek friendly prize bundle up for grabs!
Yes, not only have we pulled out a couple of our favourite stay at home classics, we’re giving you a chance to win them! Have a look at bottom of this very post for details of how to enter.
I’m not going to rattle on at length about all these games – there are more in-depth reviews linked – but here’s our quick recommendations and giveaways:
First up, it’s the Galaxy’s Greatest sport: Dreadball. Yes, our awesome chums at Mantic Games are going to give one of you a copy of the 2nd Edition Starter Set: two teams, rules and all the tokens you can eat.
Dreadball is our absolute go-to game (when we’re not playing Hellboy, because we’re a Mantic household). With around 30 different teams of sci-fi sports mayhem to choose from, there’s something genuinely to suit everyone. Just to be clear, I am NOT a sports fan but I adore this game.
DREADBALL REVIEW: CLICK HERE
With two older kids, ultimate (multiplayer) is our preferred version (don’t worry, you get the multiplayer board too), but all Dreadball is good. It’s fast, chaotic and ridiculously fun with a hugely supportive fan community (Dreadball Fanatics on Facebook).
Now I’ve talked a LOT about my love of Transformers TCG here on BCP – it meets all my gaming criteria (kid-friendly, intuitive, and above all fun). With the 5th expansion coming soon (introducing Headmasters and more!), now’s a great time to get into the game/ If you nip over to our friends at Magic Madhouse with the link below you can snag yourself a lockdown bargain on a Starter Deck for a measely £3 (searching the site for a starter set won’t bring this up)
TRANSFORMERS TCG REVIEW: CLICK HERE
If that’s not enough for you, we’ll send you some extra cards and promos from the excellent folk at Hasbro to keep you going too!
If you prefer something that takes up less space, or of a more historical bent, how about Spearhead 1943? A simple, self-contained card game from Collins Epic Wargames, who are likewise providing us with a set of goodies, you can reenact the Eastern Front in glorious, pocket-sized form.
Simple mechanics allow you to build up ranks of infantry, supported by tanks and artillery from behind. Smash through the enemy line and bring victory to your motherland! Portable, quick games are always a winner, and whilst we’re not going anywhere anytime soon.
But some of us just want to reuse, recycle and reinvent what we’ve got in the house – and that’s what Hot Wheels are for. There’s a range of great Car Combat games out there, from the free, crunchy Autokill! to the lighter, albeit more expensive Gaslands.
GASLANDS REVIEW: CLICK HERE
AUTOKILL CORE RULES: CLICK HERE
Grab a handful of any old toy cars, and you’re off! Now admittedly you might want to stick some weapons on them, and that’s where excellent folk such as Dice Mechanic Games come in. Need to get those toys ready for the post-apocalypse? No worries, they’ve got you covered with wheels and weapons galore, and everything in between!
We don’t claim to know everything here at Geeking Out though, so let us know in the comments what your other lockdown favourites are!
In the meantime, here’s a few more suggestions:
- Exploding Kittens – Anarchic uno-type card game for 2-4 players (Imploding Kittens takes it to 5-6, Streaking Kittens adds new mechanics). Available in Family or NSFW versions ;) (LINK)
- Hellboy – Mantic’s other huge hit here at Chez Geeking Out, a co-operative boardgame with lashings of Lovercraftian comic combat and mystery (LINK) (REVIEW)
- Batman: Back to Gotham – Knight Model’s BMG gets a 3rd ed revision with its new game-in-a-box. I’ve just started playing through the “Welcome to Funland” campaign with the kids and so far, so Gotham! Full breakdown of that coming soon (LINK) (REVIEW)
- Pandemic: Contagion – the family-friendly companion game to the popular “Save the world” boardgame, where this time YOU are the plague trying to wipe out humanity (LINK)
As always, if you’re looking for a bargain, head over to our friends Element Games, using code SAM4132 to earn DOUBLE store credit!
So that’s some suggestions from us – let us know in the comments here (or on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) what you recommend.
COMPETITION TIME!
To enter our giveaway with a chance to nab yourself a 2nd Edition Dreadball Starter Set from Mantic Games, some Transformers TCG cards (and promos!) from Hasbro, a Spearhead 1943 Eastern Front set from the folks at Collins Epic Wargames and goodie bundle from Dice Mechanic Games, all you have to do is comment below with your own lockdown gaming recommendation. That’s it! Simple, right?
Winner will be announced in a couple of weeks (all things being well), so until next time, stay safe and keep Geeking Out!
The Writer of this piece was: Sam Graven
Article Archive: Geeking Out
You can follow Sam on Twitter
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My son and I have been playing Battle Masters quite a bit. When my wife wants to play as well we’ve been binging on Five Tribes, the more we play it the deeper our gameplay becomes.
I found myself playing Time of the Daleks in a solo variant a fair bit. Walking Dead All Out War is a good one too, decent solo campaign and good quality minis.
I would love to play more games in Lockdown but my family don’t want to.
Cards against humanity to see how depraved your lockdown buddy is. The other winner is munchkin. This is the game that just keeps giving
RPGs over Discord have been keeping me sane and in touch with friends I don’t get to see now. One of them is running a Savage Worlds sci-fi game, while I run a MASKS game – I always dread being the GM, as I haven’t had much practice and don’t feel particularly confident, but people claim to be enjoying the game – and I even managed to lift the spirit of one of the players who was feeling quite low today – my greatest accomplishment as a GM so far!
So far I managed to get hold of godtear good game . Gaslands is amazing .
Also managed to get on the beta testing for gangs of the underworld love the setting and a really fun skirmish game
After PATMOCON, I picked up a copy of ‘Rangers of Shadow Deep.’ This is a miniatures game built for solo slicing and steal thing. J McCullough already had a nice design with Frostgrave, but Rangers amps up the narrative. Again with his “miniature agnostic” endorsement, my games are seeing a lot of pieces from a Dungeon Saga collection getting repurposed.
Exploding Kittens is great, but right up there is Unstable Unicorns and any variety of Flux or Munchkin. All are simple enough for most age groups (My 7-year-old is a real stinker at Unstable unicorns) and can accommodate larger families. :)
Got to love gaslands the fact that you can design and build your own vehicles is the main attraction fun for all ages
Dead Zone by Mantic is a great skirmish game or for more players Camel Up is a great camel racing game. Kakerlaken Poker or one night ultimate werewolf are great card games that play very differently
Can’t stop playing Car Wars and Gaslands
Mainly playing Talisman
Dreadball is a staple in our house. The Missus and I play between catching up on our TV shows. Recently expanded our collection with Xtreme and a few more teams too!
Definitely pandemic for us. We’ve mostly been playing that and codename duel. Sushi go when we’re feeling competative.
Going to give pandemic contagion a look. Thanks!
I’ve just finished building a huge number of Dreadball figures and sorting my Hellboy but we’re actually playing Hey, That’s My Fish and Outer Rim (both FFG.)
Hey that’s my fish has been a previous top pick here. Masses of fun, and finally back in print!
Dreadball 2.0 definitely, but also the Walking Dead : All Out War by Mantic aswell. Can do many scenarios solo, that’s good fun too.
TWD is a great game, although if anything I like Here’s Negan from them even more :)
Found that deadzone has kept everyone happy
I’m all about them cubes!
So…having an 8yr old stuck in the house has meant we have played a LOT of My Little Pony monopoly and Frozen II snakes and ladders recently!! I’m really looking forward to getting my dice rolling for the excellent Gaslands:Refueled from Osprey again and have been talking my friends round to play Dredd. My recommendation is to get on to Roll20 and join the Gaslands group..awesome stuff!
Dredd is an outstanding game also. I’m making up some road boards for it out of leftover plywood at the moment!