Crunchy Euro Games - AwSHUX Previews

Boardgames Shut Up and Sit Down
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiZ0vxptsiU

2021-04-23T14:32:51Z

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So far, I’m only a few minutes into this and I already want to trade Irish Gauge and Ride the Rails for 2 copies of Iberian Gauge (why 2 copies? Well, it wouldn’t be a fair trade if I traded them both for a single copy!)

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I’ve been looking for Irish Gauge on and off… Ride the Rails I waffled too long on… maybe third time is the charm.

Other than that I am probably insta buying Honey Buzz—as soon as I can. Zee also seemed to like it. It has not been available here to my knowledge and I was a little put off to see that my order from Belgium came in an Elfcreek box which means Elfcreek has delivered games to Europe… and I missed it.

I cannot wait for Planet Unknown KS to deliver now. The additional boards look so tasty.

Merchants of the Dark Road… I was interested at some point but now it looks like just another of those massive „too many choices“ games.

Shinjuku is definitely the one game I had not heard of before and that I am now interested in.

And what madness was that robot game? stress bots? Well I felt stress at seeing that board.

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Honey Buzz looks like a lot of fiddle worth definite chances (read: inevitabilities) to back yourself into an unfun corner. Something I would want to play before buying at the least.

I have a copy of Merchants of the Dark Road pledged on Kickstarter; yeah, it’s probably going to be overwrought and, since I didn’t buy the deluxe edition, I will have overpaid. Oh well, I really like Brian Suhre’s other output and was happy to support him

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Been interested in Honey Buzz for a while, but (as I said on the KS thread) also really like the look of mad scientist caper My Father’s Work.

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My Father’s Work looked amazing and hilarious from that preview - and, if I had people to play it with, Iberian Gauge might be a great way to introduce myself to the 18xx genre.

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Maybe maybe but it also has edible looking components…

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I’m not sure about fiddle… I suppose you could AP over the hive-building special puzzle, but I found that engaging without being overwhelming. Usually, I know what kind of nectar I’m going for, and the question is largely “Do I want extra triggers of this action sooner rather than later?” Then it’s just a matter of thinking about what kind of nectar I might want next, and in what part of the hive that’s going to be easiest to accomplish. And that’s driven by the contests.

I have screwed up badly early in a game, but that was my fault, I knew it right away, and I was able to recover in another cycle of bee placements. If my opponent had been working harder to punish me for it, it probably would have been worse, but it wouldn’t have ended my game. Thinking about it afterward, I decided that usually a mistake is effectively the loss of a turn (or two, if you spent lots of bees to do it). The place that can really hurt you is when you’re racing to complete a contest, but I bet after a play or two, you’ll be able to recognize when the stakes are high and you really need to focus.

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I just watched the my fathers work video. Not sure about the game but it is certainly interesting. Although… I love the book used as a board, which in itself isn’t novel but I’ve never seen it framed with an actual board before ( or I’m seeing things). And love game boards with round edges. Damn my love for aesthetics.

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Honey Buzz and My Father’s Work were the two that caught my eye the most. I’d seen a lot of talk of Honey Buzz and liked the aesthetic, but knowing how it plays now it definitely feels like something I could get to the table on a regular basis. My Father’s Work would be more effort in that regard, but it sounds like a fascinating game to explore.

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I see what you did there!

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I like the look of My father’s work, Planet Unknown, and Cryo. Perhaps also Iberian Gauge, given that I like Ride the Rails.

Stressbotics looks mind-boggling

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Will be interesting to see more reviews of Cryo. NPI really didn’t like it in a ‘bad design’ way rather than ‘not my thing’ way.

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And by the amount of discussion on the preview videos we have an easy measure of this community’s interests.

For some reason My Father’s Work did not speak to me at all. But I am ready to change my mind when I learn more about it which I am sure I will :slight_smile:

Cryo doesn’t grip me either. Although it tempts me to look at Artemis Project again for some reason.

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This isn’t at all my style of game, so rather than be unremittingly negative I’ll mostly just list what’s covered in the video.

Iberian Gauge – I don’t suppose I’ll fall in love with cube rails, but I’d like to try one some time.

My Father’s Work – love the theme, and I especially like that one’s spouse is significant, but required apps are a hard pass for me. The corked bottles are lovely, though, and I suspect one could split the generations into separate sessions.

Honey Buzz – I do love those transparent tokens.

Brew – dammit Tom please stop constantly jumping the Tabletopia camera around and flickering the things I’m trying to look at. You don’t do it when you’re showing off a real game.

Cryo – why can’t we all just get along, man?

Dwellings of Eldervale – those trays look like a lot of work to get things out of. I do like the magic board though.

Planet Unknown – argh Quinns keep the camera still please.

Merchants of the Dark Road – a Kickstarter I saw and skipped. I like the action-value-changer-disc thingy.

Shinjuku – I can see I’d do it very badly, but this is one I think I might enjoy trying.

Chai: Tea for 2 – I think my favourite thing there is the dice trays, though the pots for pieces are good too. I’m not as fond of the style of art for the people though.

Stress Botics – I like the look of this but it seems aggressively complex.

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The trays are pretty good. And the game is good, too. It just didn’t reach the level of greatness I had let myself get hyped up to during the KS. Also I think this one and On Mars taught me that there is such a thing as „too much“ in terms of game systems. I like them both but for the price tag it would be better if these were games I would care to play more often. Despite all that the game is still smaller as a whole than its box. I reserve the option of changing my mind if I ever bring this to the table for a RL game night.

Also, I really need to play again. as my expectations for the game are now in the basement, it should be more fun.

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Amabel Holland got this lease mechanism going which is great. I tried The Soo Line and Trans Siberian Railway first which uses leasing and it blew my mind how original and cooperative it is.

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My Father’s Work looks like one of those games that will make people bemoan the current state of the Eurogame. “Back in my day, games used to just be cubes and rules. Now, these youths want theme, and story, and apps, and evolving gameplay, and all this unnecessary faff they call “fun”? Well I never!”

Anyways, crunchy Euros aren’t necessarily my bag, but Planet Unknown interests me. I like polyomino games, but up until now none of them had a theme that really captured my interest.

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