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Saturday, April 4, 2015

Wooden Cow Transport (木牛流马)

Posted by Sino-Games Customer Service On 4:16 PM 4 comments
This post is long overdue, supposed to have been done when I wrote the update post on the Starter 2014 界限突破. Truth is, I got carried away with wanting to put up as much information I could find on this amazing invention but life happened and I put it away. Anyway, will be putting some more overdue updates on the game so enjoy!

Description:
When is a cow or horse not an animal?

When its a Wooden Cow Transport! (This is my name for it)

That's right, when its the Chinese name for a mechanical device used in the 3 Kingdoms! But don't let its usage in a game fool you, this seems to be an actual equipment devised by Zhuge Liang 诸葛亮 and his wife Huang Yue Ying 黄月英. In fact, in the newer editions of the Huang Yue Ying card, there is actually a picture of this device behind her! Talk about linking and learning mandarin history with a game. :-)

This device is basically a transport tool that helps with transporting supplies to and from destinations. So you basically put stuff in it and move it along.

But this is no ordinary transport vehicle, it has a special feature in that if enemies try to steal it, the Wooden Cow Transport will destroy all the items inside! Woah cool stuff yo. What's mine is mine and if not...its gone!

Card Description:
Once a turn during your card playing phase, you may place one card from your hand facedown below this card which is in your equipment area. If you do so, you may transport this card together with the card placed below it to another character's equipment area. You may utilize the card below as via normal "use"(使用) or "play" (打出)

p.s I think most of you would find it a bit strange that I differentiated the two ways of utilizing the card. But obviously there is a reason. Read on below.

Abilities and Usage:
I scoured 桌游志 magazines and found this piece of writeup summarizing key guidelines that are understood from the game makers.

1) When you play this card, it belongs to the fifth spot in the equipment area.

2) The card below is called "supply" (粮). The "supply" has an "out of the game" status and hence cannot be affected by abilities that try to destroy or steal it. (顺/拆)

3) If you do not place a card below it (during card playing phase), then you cannot send this card away.

4a) "Use" of the "supply" refers to normal card usage as per following the card's abilities.

4b) "Play" refers to when you need to play ATTACK or DODGE when Barbarians , Duel , Raining Arrows are being played.

4c) So what can't you do with the card? Basically its what doesn't constitute the above 2: When the card abilities indicate "pass to" (交给) or "discard" (弃置)or "place into the equipment area" (置入装备区) or "compare" (拼点)

5) The only person who can look at the supply card is whomever has the device and card in their area.

6) Supply can be used to fulfill requirements for cards and abilities, but only if its a definite requirement for the card. Its a little difficult to explain so an example is in order. You can use it for eg. Serpant Halberd ability or Zhuge Liang's Scient (看破)ability. You cannot use it for Xun You's (旬攸) Contrivance ability.

7a) When Wooden Cow Transport moves to another equipment area, the supply follows below it
7b) When Wooden Cow Transport moves to other areas i.e the hand or to the discard pile, the supply will be moved to the discard pile directly.

Some thoughts:
This card brings a lot of change to the way the game can be played, basically by opening an additional vehicle (pun intended) to move cards around, and new strategies to use it. There's actually more to its usage but I think it might be more fun for you guys to discover them yourself. 杀!

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

As most of you ardent fans would know, the update on the standard edition 2013 was not that big. There were amendments to Liu Bei (刘备),Huang Yue Ying (黄月英) and Diao Chan (貂蝉) as well as 2 new faction-less heroes Yuan Shu (袁术) and Hua Xiong (华雄) and the rest was basically the same.
Awesomeness inside!

However for the new 2014 edition, I'm happy to report it is quite a bit of awesomeness packed inside.

For starters, I'm loathe to even call it the 2014 edition because it actually has a new name tagged to it. Its called 界限突破, which means 'Breaking Boundaries". I guess Yoka really put in some effort for this update.



1. Heroes
Get ready for this. Not 5, not 10, not 15, but a whopping 21 heroes are either amended or added for this update.

The general idea is that quite a few of the Standard Edition heroes seem to be weaker as compared to the expansion packs, and that some are untouchables. Meaning they are dead weight with no practical use. So the idea is to make all heroes viable. See here for a list of heroes update.

2. New Card, New Category
The expansion packs add on new cards like more armor, more weapons, more horses. This update introduced a new card. But not just any card, because it heralds a new category of cards, called 宝物 or "Treasure Cards"

Treasure cards are played just like an equipment. And there aren't any further rules on them...yet. But the significance of having a new category of cards means there are new mechanisms that the game will build on over time.

New Card
This new card is called 木牛流马, literally translated as "wooden cow, moving horse" and the card is interesting because it functions as a transport tool and you can "transport" cards to another player with this.

Check this out for a more in-depth write-up on the ability.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

San Guo Sha English Blog and e-shop remains in operation

Posted by Sino-Games Customer Service On 6:08 PM 39 comments
Dear Readers,

The original owner of the blog, Ricky, has moved on to his other commitments in family etc and I will be taking over this blog, as well as the e-shop at www.sino-games.com. I'd like to thank Ricky again on behalf of all the readers that has benefitted from his experience and effort to share the many stories that he has and to grow the community.

We have plans to continue to grow the community and if you have any ideas/suggestions, we would like to hear them.

As for those who have sent queries and/or posted orders, we seek your understanding as we sort out the logistics and get answers for you.

If you have any other queries, the mailbox is always open at sinogames@gmail.com. We look forward to your continued support and hope to hear from you soon. ;p

Thank you
Larry and Friends

Friday, April 12, 2013

Skateboard 滑板 (huá bǎn)

Posted by Ricky Chua On 10:19 AM 2 comments

Card description:
I never got the hang of this! Despite it being brainlessly easy to learn, i never got my head around being comfortable on a skateboard! Maybe that explains why I was never really cool growing up! I got a lot of respect for kids who can do all sorts of insane tricks on a skateboard, simply because I know i can't do what they can do!

Rollerskates 旱冰鞋 (hàn bīng xié)

Posted by Ricky Chua On 10:10 AM No comments

Card description:
In the era where ABBA dominated the radio and John Travolta was actually desirable, rollerskates were the bomb. Credits to whoever invented rollerskates, as it really did give millions around the world a fantastic new form of entertainment.

In fact, it's probably not an exaggeration to say that a whole generation of children were born because their parents met each other having fun on skates.

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