My friends & I played a league of blitz bowl on TTS during lockdown. It’s a fun beer and pretzels game, but it can be very swingy with some abilities so much better than others. Don’t think I’d enjoy it if I actually cared about winning. It’s perfect for a silly league though - a great experience for a few months that I’m not sure I’d go back to (well, haven’t played it since).
Was hoping blood bowl would be similar but beefier, but Blood Bowl ended up feeling a lot slower, drier and clunkier from my experience of the computer game. Not a fan of how big the pitch is, and I was surprised how much squares instead of hexes changes the game.
Really, I think something between the two games would be my ideal. A medium sized hex pitch (like a bigger blitz bowl), with more of the character ability/development components of Blood bowl.
Until then, I’ll stick to Aristeia for boardgame-ified miniatures sports game.
Never heard of it before. Apparently, this is on the top of the wishlist for one of my boardgame friends for his birthday. I could get it on ebay Kleinanzeigen it looks like… but I feel like he might be better off (and so would I) with a copy of Cthulhu Death May Die…
I think it got somewhat overshadowed by C:DMD in general perception too. Frankie Bones (BGG:BrokenAxe, I’ve chatted with him a bit) played it solo a few times and loved it (as someone who hasn’t been a big fan of dungeon crawlers in general), but it seems to have largely dropped out of the 1 Player Guild writeups.
chatGPT suggested 8) that the main difference is that C:DMD is more of a fast pace action game while Machina Arcana is more strategic which would fit with my friend’s general taste I guess. I am still surprised as this was told to me by a third friend who has it from his wife, I am waiting for verification that this is the game they mean.
A friend backed the second coming KS. We played once and then it got shifted on. We were enjoying room one, got to room 2 and realised we were repeating the same stuff and all enthusiasm drained. The friend who bought it is more Ameritrash focussed and still they got bored too. We have been playing together for many years and so are hard bitten. For adventure games it’s firmly below many for me. The ameritrash friend rates Mansions of Madness, KDM and Gloomhaven much higher. I’d say also not as good as Too Many Bones although this friend didn’t like that one and I can’t stand KDM and I’m not keen on Mansions 2nd ed.
Machina Archana had some good ideas but ultimately failed to escape generic for the genre. If your friend is still enthusiastic for the genre it’s competently done and they’d have fun. It’s not a breakthrough/exemplar however so I’d avoid for those less enthusiastic about the genre.
Listening to the latest SU&SD podcast, I was quite interested in Skymines. Has anyone played it? How does it compare to Great Western Trail, by the same designer? How is it at two players?
I never played Skymines, but Mombasa (assuming there’s no change in gameplay) is the best Pfister game for me. But, imo, the decisions aren’t that deep enough. The promo expansion did made the bookkeeping strategy more viable - I’ll hope that Skymines integrated that one in the base game.
Looks like a great opportunity to grab someone’s original copy on the cheap, in my opinion. Everything to date already fit in the main box and it really works well using a “bag it all up and toss it all in” approach.
I did spoil myself with the BGG bag collection for it, for what it’s worth.
After making the Skymines post, I realised that I’m the wrong person to ask regarding modern Euros. @EnterTheWyvern really likes this one. I like it too, and will play it if Wyvern or anyone else wants to play it - although I will ask to play the standard random setup rather than the basic setup. The decisions in basic are obvious that you can call the game once a player research the correct 2 technologies.
Yeah. Really like it. Not a fan on how the expansions are design if you’re going all-in. Their solution to add more depth is to add more crap. Personally prefer Tzolkin instead.
I think teotihuacan is an alright price considering it’s got all the expansions, promos and Geek up bags included… but a majority of the deluxe components look horrendous to me. Those resources!! And cardboard tiles to wood?! Why??
I’d just want the dice and meeples and even then the original meeples are fine and very unique. By no means a bad looking game
… Can I just buy the dice separately???
There are a lot of components to the expansions so I can see the trays would make that a little easier. The expansions are very modular, which is good, but it does mean a lot of stuff isn’t used in any one game making it a faff to set up. Buying the base game and seeing how you go, introducing expansions gradually, does seem the sensible option here. I could see there being major ‘box opening paralysis’ with how much stuff is in there for new players.
Oh, and quite a lot of the stuff in the expansions is for solo play. Bots and such. Great for some people, but feels like a waste to me. I put it all into one of the expansion boxes, but can’t do that with a big box.
Everyone knows my opinion on 5 player expansions so I’ll be quiet now…
I fully agree that the resources look ugly. Remind me of the the expensive downgrade for Food Chain Magnate out there where the clean shapes have ugly stuff printed on them.
With the wooden tiles though they make me think of @Benkyo ‘s Dominion set. Replace shuffling with a bag draw for ease. The cardboard tiles are a pain to shuffle and stack so having a clearly labelled bag would be easier.
To answer @Acacia I think you’d like it. Given the other euros you like I’d say this is amongst the best in class. It has a satisfying level of strategy to it and a good balance of tactical consideration. It’s closer to the multi player solitaire than fully interactive but has enough interaction that you still play the game with friends. There are some decent subtleties to it and so it has legs. Over 15 games and still not bored of it which I think is excellent for a euro.
The non randomised board set up is worth playing with a group of new people as it simplifies strategy just enough for you to onboard yourselves. It dies get stale quickly as it doesn’t allow for a lot of the subtlety and variations in play.
Expansions wise, the little second one is near mandatory for me. It just adds more of the variety and I now keep it permanently in. It is however not needed until a few games in. Group depending could easily be 10+ games with core components, 5 may be better. I rate the first expansion very highly. The modular nature of it allows you to spiral out in to varied ways of playing for longevity and none of them are duds. Seasons is the most boring but it’s low rules grit so could be worse. I enjoyed orange temple and the priests are fun, although the first time I used it the game was won by the player with the most linear option. I don’t think it’s over powered but when everyone else was working out something more complex there was a thought process deficit compared to the one straight forward priest. I have the last expansion but due to pandemic stuff and getting in to 18xx and @lalunaverde going anti-euro I’m yet to play any moddules.
One of the strengths of the game is the variety and longevity. The variety isn’t superficial enough to quickly feel samey so each game remains a genuine challenge and I think the modules extend that and allow the game to be played a lot before the puzzle is grokked in to tedium. I think the original has good table presence, is fun to play and has legs.
I’m currently debating springing for the upgrade pack on the KS. The bags and wooden chits are appealing to me, the printed meeples look nice and I can use base game resources. However the box is bigger and after Yedo deluxe I don’t trust their inserts. Plus €70 euro and postage is a lot for upgraded components. Not sure I’m that keen on over produced games anymore. Maybe it depends on how wild I go at Salute on Saturday…
Cardboard vs wood tiles is the major difference between the two editions of the new Ra as well; and while I didn’t go for the deluxe edition, I’m envious of the wood tiles – they look very nice, and I suspect that drawing those from the tile bag would absolutely feel better.
Yeah, for me wood makes sense when it’s something you’re touching a lot (better tactility), putting down on and picking up from the board a lot (higher profile = easier to pick off a flat surface) or drawing from a bag (easier shuffling). The bags make the tiles a much better option.
And now I’m hovering over the back button even though I only want half the stuff
I do think Teotihuacan is a modern classic of its genre. Definitely not for everyone, but the thing it does in a ‘focused resource management euro with interesting rondel mechanics’ it does very well.
The most common criticism is it’s not as wide as many other euros - regardless of your strategy, you’re still building the pyramid. But it holds up to replay in my experience, and the modules add a lot.
and even then the original meeples are fine and very unique. By no means a bad looking game
