Card game: Smash Up

Smash Up is a hilarious game for 2 to 4 players. The main feature of the game is that each player's powers are assigned at random based on a combination of two factions that have varying strengths (and a few weaknesses). Unfortunately, there are some balancing issues, and some combinations of factions are quite weak in comparison, but usually everyone can have a stab at winning.
Aim of the game is to reach 15 or more victory points. The players compete for bases by spawning minions and using actions. Victory points are assigned in ranking order to the players with the strongest force (in form of minions and enhancing effects) on the base. Unless someone interferes with that ...

The Smash Up box in all its glory. 

Also nice is that one can each of the extensions of the base game as 2v2 games. We have not tried that option yet, but it should make for some very quick and action-packed games.
We tried to play with more than 4 players once, but it turned out that there is a reason for the player limit: The turns were too long to keep everyone invested in the game, and the table became too messy with all the bases. It was nearly impossible to follow the game and see who had which minions on which base.

The contents of the box, holding three sets of rules (the same rules each time, really), 16 factions, and 2 sets of bases (some were duplicated for unknown reasons). Oh, and there are some victory point counters, but a piece of paper works quite well as an alternative.

Setting

Pure craziness. Fight the Pirate-Cthulu Worshippers with your Alien-Plants while keeping an eye on the Dinosaur-Robots.

Timing

If I can remember correctly, we needed a 3/4 hour for a 4 player game, and considerably longer a 6 player game, which we cancelled in the end because it was taking too long. Well, house rules can suck.

Space Requirements

Each player has a deck, a discard pile, and a hand, but the bases and the cards surrounding them will easily take up a medium-sized table for a 4 player game.

Conclusion

Go wreck them with whatever faction combination you get!

Smash Up on Board Game Geeks. And Awesome Level 9000. And of course the Obligatory Cthulu Set.

Review: Logitech k400

It is meant to be used later on on my Raspberry Pi, if I can ever get my hands on one. For that I would like to have a second small keyboard with a tiny receiver so that I might be spared even more clutter on and next to my desk. Also, I need something else to do but only thesis revisions. Oh, and a wireless keyboard with a trackpad should work nicely with a TV-connected computer.

The k400 in all its beauty.

The good

• A few multimedia keys on top of the keyboard (mute, volume up, volume down, and a 'home' button to open a browser window).
• It worked without problem once the drivers were recognised and installed. It might have helped that the Logitech SetPoint software had already been installed on my home PC. The keyboard was also recognised at once on my work CrapBook.
• The keys work quite well once you're used to their size and their position.
• It takes normal AA batteries, and two of those babies were included. This opens the possibility for using rechargeable AA batteries.

The k400 from underneath with the battery compartment cover removed.

The bad

• The touchpad could be a bit more responsive and sensitive to fine manipulation. As these things go, I would guess that it is about 5 years behind in development of touchpads.
• The arrow keys are in a very bad position. It was quite easy for me to hit both up arrow and the shift key at the same time and then delete the marked line when hitting the letter that was meant to be capitalised. 



The badly positioned arrow and right shift keys.

• The enter key is a bit narrow for my taste.

The weird

• There is a 'left mouse click' button on the top left side of the keyboard. I don't know yet how useful that would be, given the full touchpad on the right side of the keyboard with single tap recognition and a left click button.

The weird 'left click' button on the top left.

• Instead of using only the tiny unified receiver one is supposed to use and additional bridge between that receiver and a desktop PC. I don't know why, but that makes the whole receiver larger than a standard Logitech one. And it worked fine without that connector on my desktop at home. Maybe it is meant for signal amplification when the receiver is connected at the back of a PC tower underneath a desk, but I used it on the USB dock on top of my desk.

The actual nano receiver on the left, the connector for PCs on the right.

[Update]

There is one thing I am missing: The touchpad does not support multi-touch gestures. The minimum I would like to have would be that a two-finger-tap would do a right click, but unfortunately I have to use the button. I personally got very used to a touchpad doing exactly that. Hell, even my ancient Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop did that!