Yes, it was pretty good.
I’ve played with 6, all new. 2 hours, but with a rules mistake that added at least 15 minutes.
It got a little bit, slap the leader at the end, but it didn’t drag.
The map and components remind me of Concordia, but it’s more Dudes on a Map than that. The ending is making me think of Inis
Okay, I’ve never played any of the Graphill games, so tell me about all of the:
West Kingdom
North Sea
South Tigris
games. Paladins seems very popular, and Wayfarers / Scholars?
I think Architects of the West Kingdom is a pretty clever worker placement game.
I played Paladins once solo and was pretty flat on it. Probably better as a multiplayer game; maybe I expected too much because the solo community on BGG seems to generally prefer Paladins as the top solo in the West Kingdom series.
I rather liked Viscounts when I played it solo. A nice deck-builder-with-board game. I wished the cards churned on their own a bit better, but it was fun.
I’ve been interested to learn more about the South series, but haven’t learned enough to buy any of the products. They all sound great though.
North Sea:
Shipwrights - never played the original. Had the Redux version, it was ok but nothing special. Sold it on.
Explorers - I could imagine people liking this if they had a history with it and fond memories. Can’t see it grabbing anyone else. It’s nice enough but the word ‘meh’ could have been designed for it.
Raiders - good game. Probably even better with at least one expansion? The only one of the North Sea trilogy I’ve kept.
West Kingdom:
Architects - I like this a lot, some fun angles on worker placement and it all works together to make a good game.
Paladins - some people love this. I don’t; I found it dull, and the most spreadsheet-like of all Garphill’s games. The only West Kingdom game I didn’t keep.
Viscounts - I really enjoy this game, it feels like a classic board game but a modern-ish version. And there’s a castle.
South Tigris:
I haven’t had these very long and have only played them solo as yet. I think they’re great, and can’t imagine getting rid of any of them. They’re quite dense and complicated, certainly more than the previous trilogies, so they require a bit of effort to learn, but once you do they go like a dream. Possibly the best-designed games I’ve played, and I think they’re good and thematic too. I can see why some people might not like them - they’re not exciting, as such. For me they’re a bit like a more complex Concordia - a superb machine that’s just a pleasure to operate.
Oh - I like the Mico’s art a lot. Some people don’t.
definitely not the one to get started with. it is really on the heavy side.
Architects is good fun and imo the best of WK. I am considering selling the other two. Viscounts is fine but won’t see the table anytime soon in my large collection . Paladins has been replaced by Legacy of Yu for me.
Legacy of Yu is great.
I enjoy Hadrian’s Wall too, but only solo.