Lunch Money
I'm taking it ALL from you, wuss...
If you haven't played this game yet, I heartily recommended it.
It's made by Atlas Games, and it just rocks. I can't say enough
good things about it. If you have been reading the rest of my
homepage, then you'd know that I'm really into games; collectible
card games especially. Lunch Money is not a collectible card
game, but I think it wouldn't be as good as it is if you had to
go buy boosters for it. When you buy Lunch Money, you're buying
the whole set of 110 cards. That's all you have to buy! Really!
The setting of the game is simple; you're a bunch of kids in a
schoolyard that are viciously fighting for lunch money. I mean
vicious when I write it folks! These kids use knives, chains,
spinning backfists, chokes, headlocks, and basically whatever
tactics you used when you were in kindergarten fighting it out
amongst yourselves. The basic strategy is this: You start out
with 15 points of life, and when these are gone, the game is
over for you, and you just got your butt stomped! Don't cry, it'll
only make everyone else pick on you more. The cards in the set
are broken down into groups which have their own color so that
you can distinguish them easily. You have: Basic Attack (yellow),
Defense (blue), Weapons (purple), and Specialty (orange). Use
these cards well, kids, cause if you don't, your ass is grass.
Card Descriptions
Your Basic Attacks are just that;
basic attacks, like kicks, punches, backfists, elbows, uppercuts,
headbutts, you get the idea. Defense cards keep your opponent from
inflicting damage. Here you have First Aid which heals two points
of damage, Block, which blocks an attack, Dodge, which doges an
attack, and Freedom, which gets you out of grabs, headlocks, and
chokes. Weapon cards are used, but are returned to your hand after
you use them unless, someone plays a Disarm, which makes you
drop your weapon. Specialty cards are bad-ass cards that allow you
to do some mondo damage to your opponent it you can get them out.
In the Specialty category, there is the most powerful card in the
game (at least I think so), Humiliation. This card allows
you to cancel ALL the cards played up until you play the Humiliation,
and it gives you a free basic hit on whomever you humiliated! This
can be used on anyone's turn, and on offense or defense. The only
card that will counter a Humiliation is another Humiliation.
Styles of Play
There are a few styles that you can use to play this game. Basically,
play they way that suits your personality, or if you want to screw
people up, play theopposite of it. The most important thing
to remember in this game is to TALK TRASH!!!! That's right,
everyone, just throw that sportsmanship out the window, because
kids are mean and they love to talk smack. Here are some ways
that I play the game:
- Bull Rush-- There's not much finese to this type of bully,
just keep a Humiliation in your hand for defense, and
go out and attack, attack, attack! What you want to do is
try and make your opponent play out his or her defense cards
so that you can make that one attack that will knock them out.
Note, however, that "bull rushing" is not a very good tactic,
and is usually the one used by novice players. I never use
this because people will punish me if I go in without testing
the waters.
- Don't Hurt Me, I'll tell-- These people are wusses,
and just sit there watch the other players duke it out. When
everyone gets down to a manageable point deficit, they go in
and attack with a vengeance and usually end up winning. The
key to playing this is to deal damage with Humiliations, and
keep those defense cards close to you're heart. When you see
everyone geting weak, go in for the kill with those Humiliations
just so that no one can block you. The key to beating these
pansies is to kick their butts from the start.
- Akido Master-- This is what I play all the time. You just
sit there and wait for people to attack, and when they do,
HAHAHAHAHAHA! You tear them apart with your block-grab-kill
counters. Make them pay for their insolence. You basically
have to discard a lot of cards until you have that block-grab-hit
combo in your hand. Once you get this, keep passing your turn
and scare everyone in the playground. They'll know you have
somthing up your sleeve, so use it to your advantage. You
can even attack and use your grab against their blocks!
If you're an advanced bully, you'll actually use all of these
tactics throughout the game. You'll keep your opponents guessing
by testing out how they react to your attacks, your defense, and
your poker face. The most important thing is to discard cards that
you don't want to use. They just slow up your hand and leave
you vulnerable to attacks that you can't stop. I find that weapons
are pretty useless because they don't allow your hand to move;
they just keep returning to your hand, you know.
Playing Variants
If you've been playing the game for a while, you're probably ready
for even more ways to hurt your opponent. I know that I wish we
could lengthen our combos so that we could do something really spectacular
to destroy our opponents! Here are some ways that I found I could
make Lunch Money more exciting:
Super-Turbo-Combo-Lunch-Money-IV :
This is my answer to short combos! I want to see some long, drawn
out exciting combos, mister! Basically, after a grab, you can use
all the cards that you can! Let me give you an example: you can
grab, big combo, kick, punch, and powerplay! However, after you
get in the legal hit after a grab, your opponent may block your
hits afterwards. You should start out with 30 points of health,
though, otherwise, your games will get pretty short and boring.
Try to make games the best of three just to make things interesting!
Tag-Team battle
Get into teams of two, and just start wailing on each other! Here,
teammates can take part in each other's combos! Remember though,
these are legal combos, not Super-Turbo ones. If you block, your
teammate can grab and powerplay, and then you can finish with a
roundhouse! The extra long combos are reserved for...
X-Men-vs.-Street-Fighter-Turbo-Too-Cool-For-You-Alpha
You want long combos, you got 'em! Team work? It's in there.
Super cheesy, you bet! I'll put more rules about this variant
up here later, I just wanted to make you wet, that's all...
Lunch Money Cards:
