This is one time you won’t mind being Cock Blocked
Kickstarter is a platform that helps makes dreams into reality. Sometimes, those dreams are runaway successes. Other times, not so much. But it is a platform that allows the chance, and that is something great.
Designer Thierry Demers had an idea for a game. Granted, it’s not a game for everyone, but no game is. Cards Against Humanity is a niche game not for everybody, and yet it is one of the most famous (infamous?) games from the last few years. Now, after a strange and challenging journey, Cock Block is set to follow in its heels.
What sort of people? Well, if you like games like Cards Against Humanity, that’s a good start. A dark sense of humour is required – if the title of the game turns you off, this isn’t a game for you. This is also a game specifically about scoring ‘chicks’ before the other ‘cocks’ do. This kind of objectification shouldn’t be encouraged. However, this isn’t a game for children. If you are mature enough to realise that objectification is wrong, you’re mature enough to realise the game is tongue in cheek dark humour.
So what is Cock Block?
So at its heart, Cock Block is a filler type game that focuses on Pick-up and Delivers. Literally 🙂 You try to get your Cock to the end of the Barn and pick up a Chick from the Friend Zone, then back out of the barn. During the game, you can use different powers to ‘Cock Block’ your opponents and try and gain the upper hand.
On your turn, you can play two actions, with choices dictated by the cards in your hand.
Your choices include:
Movement
Fairly self-explanatory, movement lets you move orthogonally around the board. Generally, you need a pair of cards to move one square. If your Cock features on the card though, you can move with only one card. There are some cards with +2 movement, that will allow you to jump opponents but not Cock Blocks.
Moving onto another players Cock starts a Cock Fight, which I will explain later.
Attacks and Counters
There are a few different forms of Attack cards.
The Rumor card allows you to move an opponent two squares, usually backwards. This also allows you to force opponents into Cock Fights. You can also play the Drack 2 Much card on another player, stopping them from playing a Movement +2 card until they can recover.
A Cock Block card puts an unpassable obstacle in front of another player. These are the most common forms of attack. Blocks include Jealous BFF, the Drink Spiller, and the Loud Friend.
These can also be countered with Counter Blocks. These counters allow you to move a matching Cock Block token one square in any direction.
Legendary Cards
There is one Legendary card for each type of Cock Block. These allow you to move the matching Cock Block tokens on the board to anywhere you want on the board. This includes to placing tokens on the Chicks, making them unobtainable until the tokens are moved.
The ultimate counter is the All Ace$$ Legendary card. You play this on your character, and you become immune from Cock Fights and the Drank 2 Much card.
Ultimates
These are special cards. Moment of Glory allows you to play 3 actions in your turn, and Tomahawk God allows you to move ALL Cock Block tokens on the board.
Playing these cards at the right time will definitely change the game in your favour. Of course, at the wrong time, your opponents will love you for it.
Cock Fights
Cock Fights are the most direct player interaction in the game. When you start a cock fight, the players face off against each other, and the loser is ‘knocked out’ and loses a turn.
So how do you face off against your opponent? Well, you get to choose!
You can perform the ‘Cool People’ Cock Fight, which is a dice off. The first player to reach two hits wins. If you are not a dice person, you van do the ‘Geek’ cock fights, which turns it into a card affair. Each player chooses up to three cards from their hand, and simultaneously reveal their choices. Each coloured card has a points value, and it’s simply highest score wins.
General Thoughts
As you can see, it’s a very simple and quick game. I can see quite a few of my game group enjoying a few rounds of this game for quite some time to come. If all this has appealed to you, grab yourself a copy from the Kevin’s Got A Gun website here.
I am buying Cock Block. This is the game I believed in on Kickstarter. Full disclosure – I am getting a 20{dfca638b9dbdbc1caf156b9b6679a983a965572ca56a786c9cf360ad3783820c} discount for being one of the original backers, so I am getting it a little cheaper than advertised. I am disappointed that the version that made it isn’t the Deluxe version that was on Kickstarter, but that is a purely aesthetic thing. This looks like a really fun game, and the gameplay is intact, which is what makes a game. It also helps that by dialling back on the game components to simplified versions, the cost has been halved!
I do however wish the Kickstarter Chick-Spansion was available to buy as well. The idea behind the expansion is simple – it turns the gender table around. So while you will still need a sense certain sense of humour to play, women can turn the tables and go pick up the guys.
Now, looking at Board Game Geek and the Kickstarter pages, you will see a few angry comments. The tone will differ wildly from the impression of a quick, fun and dark humoured game I am trying to give. There is always a difference of opinion, and I am not trying to discount them. To see where some of these negative comments come from, you should know a little about the journey Cock Block has had.
How to get around a Cock Block
Late last year, A little game called Cock Block came up on one of my new Kickstarter leads. Unfortunately, it was the feed that lists cancellations of Kickstarter. I have a warped sense of humour, and my first thought was “No. Surely not?”. Well – yep. Yep, they did. There was a game specifically about picking up chicks and blocking your opponents. The cancellation was for one of my favourite reasons on Kickstarter – to come back with a better version!
Only a few days later, Cock Block Deluxe was launched. So many people had gravitated to the Deluxe version, that the project was relaunched concentrating only on releasing it. Same game, same schedule, just the best version possible.
It was here I got the chance to back the game, but this site hadn’t started yet so not much word was spread. Unfortunately, this lack of spreading the news seemed to be a common issue. Not many people were talking about the game overall. While the Kickstarter was technically successful, the people at Kevin’s Got A Gun knew that it could do better.
Now, I’m not going to mince words here – some backers were not happy with the second cancellation. There are a few comments of people accusing the creators of using Kickstarter of drumming up awareness of the game to get a distributor deal. I was a little confused at the cancellation, but I waited to see what would happen.
Just before the weekend, myself and all KS backers got an email answering most of these questions. Short version – they made it themselves! By taking the advertising money, they couldn’t spend on mainstream advertising, and with the help of a local manufacturer, they have made the game themselves.
The dialling back from the Deluxe version and the abrupt cancellation of the project has upset a few people, and I can understand why to a degree. By working with a smaller manufacturer for a limited run, the Kickstarter pledges would likely have been a deterrent to getting this deal at all. From the distributors’ position, it would have been hundreds of copies with higher manufacturing costs, but not a guaranteed continued sales stream going forward. By making a cheaper game and offering the original backers a discount, I believe that Kevin Got A Gun has tried to give the best deal to everyone. And as we all know, this sort of solution never works out as intended.
The things I would like to say in how Thierry Demers and Kevin’s Got A Gun have treated there backers are simple.
- As a backer, I have received a 20{dfca638b9dbdbc1caf156b9b6679a983a965572ca56a786c9cf360ad3783820c} discount on the game. While not the components I was hoping for, this discount didn’t have to be offered at all.
- The Kickstarter campaign showed a delivery date of May 2018, and that has been met. True, not in the traditional Kickstarter sense, but on time nonetheless.
So when you are checking out the game, don’t disregard the negative feedback. That’s always a good rule though. But now you know a little bit of where some of this negativity may be coming from, and it’s not because of the theme of the game.
Check out the game on the Kevin’s Got A Gun website here, which includes links to Video Rules and the PDF Rulebook. And as always, check out the Board Game Geek page for more information.
I will give a formal review once I get a hold of the game 🙂
Until next time,