And the best bit about Arkham is the upgrade cards. Playing a game and decide you hate a certain useless card? Upgrade it to something else completely different! The incremental deck building with a limited amount of XP makes tinkering so much easier since it massively restricts choices AND provides guidance for how good a card is - of course a 2XP card is going to be better than a 1XP card. Having the same card at different levels of XP is inspired as well. You know it will always do the same thing but better, more reliably or cheaper.
Technically, 0 XP cards can be bought for 1 XP each when āupgradingā, but I house-rule it that 0 XP cards canāt be bought - you either start the campaign with them or theyāre off limits. Cuts out a whole load of cards to limit AP, and stops people just making lateral movements rather than advancing their deck.
I also love how the card art and theme of cards helps with deck building. If it sounds like a character should use the card, then it was more than likely designed precisely for them.
I was just going to say this, one of the best bits of Arkham is adapting your character through the campaign, which makes it much easier.
Though as counterpoint I have all of marvel champion (guardians of the galaxy just arrived the other day) and have not once tinkered with decks. Aināt nobody got time for that!
I do love that Marvel Champions had a specific goal that no-one ever has to do deckbuilding unless they want to.
But also that (since I do like deckbuilding) itās SO GOOD in MC. Perfect balance of being easy to understand but also offering loads of routes to take, all of which work.
We had a 2nd āfakeā Christmas yesterday as we could meet the rest of my wifeās family. Having a roast dinner outside in the cold is an odd experience!
However, got a few extra pressies - High Society, Judge Dredd: Cursed Earth and the Hidden Secrets expansion for Mysterium. Quite happy with that
I brought home two games last night and Iām feeling it in my back this morning.
HEXplore It: The Sands of Shurax (incl. Return toā¦): This was inevitable, I think. For all my love of TTRPGās Iāve never found much satisfaction within the narrative boardgame space (actively loathing many of them), and dungeon crawlers really just tend to scratch the tactical itch. Thereās an absolute glut of content here, but thanks to a heavy reliance on note taking over tokens and counters, my component anxiety isnāt being triggered at all.
This is allegedly the most complex of the three chapters released so far (steps too far according to much of the existing fanbase!) and explicitly not recommended as the jumping-in point for newcomers, but screw it; That advice is usually presented to folks unfamiliar to RPG systems and while I might be dumb as a brick, I do have a weird penchant for rules absorption. Not that 150-ish pages of often highly circumstantial rules and edge cases make for a breezy page-turner, mind you, but I got this, and Iām only doing this one solo. You put this kind of investment into a system you pick the one with the theme that speaks to you, that was the way I saw it.
Detective: City of Angels: This is my next hernia. And holy crap am I stoked to check it out. Not much to say yet.
Just know that Terra Mystica has no direct conflict. It has the typical mean German way of taking stuff away from other people by being first
The German art of marking spots at the hotelās swimming pool with towels before breakfast translated into a board game classification called German style
The birds are singing their happy repetitive songs, the flowers are starting to bloom, the tree pollen is filling my sinusesā¦ yes, it must be: Kickstarter Fulfillment Season!
Indeed, itās a month post-Chinese New Year, which has given many, many projects enough time to make their ocean transits and filter into various fulfillment centers. Truly it is a wonderous time of spreadsheets and tape and barcodes.
I have fewer Kickstarter-irons in the Crowdfunding-fires than I have in years past (well, probably just year-past, I havenāt been doing the āKickstarter Thingā for that long), so the influx is sporadic.
The latest addition is: Mercado de Lisboa ā at the time I backed this, I had no interest in Lisboa itself and was looking at MdL as a āLacerda-liteā option. It still seems to be that, I suppose. I have not yet played my copy of Lisboa, and this arrival may usher the other out of my shelf of opportunity. I noticed this has a solo mode available, and that will likely be my introduction.
Current KS expectations, based on the last time they gave an actual āwe expect it to be with you byā date.
Kickstarter
days
date
DVG Air Leader Expansions
-71
23 Jan 2021
Ell DeckĀ¹
-63
31 Jan 2021
Gladius
-35
28 Feb 2021
Railroad Ink Challenge
-4
31 Mar 2021
Epic Jungle Star Realms bits
-2
02 Apr 2021
Rallyman Dirt
117
31 Jul 2021
Sakura Arms
148
31 Aug 2021
Project L Finesse
178
30 Sep 2021
Aeonās End Legacy of Gravehold
239
30 Nov 2021
Sentinels of the Multiverse
239
30 Nov 2021
V-Commandos Ghost
360
31 Mar 2022
Ā¹ Bez, I love you dearly, but I wish you wouldnāt fall into the whiny Glaswegian āitās not my faultā stereotype the moment anything goes wrong because Iāve known too many people who did that and they werenāt good people.
Iāve never thought of putting down my little houses as throwing towels on the hexes but once thought I cannot eradicate the image from my mind
I know they are lagging behind but I feel this is like this small 2 person endeavour and one of them caught covid and they had no way to compensate for that. Maybe I am wrong and while I want the game I mind waiting for it less than I mind waiting for that ā¦ mail that my Oath package is on the way and no it has not arrived yetāthe mail.
Petrichor: Collectorās Edition and Cows Expansion
56
2021-05-31
Lunar Base
-95
2020-12-31
Agropolis
-36
2021-02-28
Herbaceous Pocket Edition
209
2021-10-31
Hoop Godz
270
2021-12-31
Donāt get got SUSD Edition
25
2021-04-30
Raid - A Viking Card Game
56
2021-05-31
Aqua Garden
117
2021-07-31
Paper Apps Dungeon
25
2021-04-30
Button Shy Reprint Campaign
86
2021-06-30
Darwinās Journey (2)
239
2021-10-30
Radlands
178
2021-09-30
Moon Adventure et al (1)
147
2021-08-31
Ares Expedition
178
2021-09-30
Mouse Cheese Cat Cucumber
209
2021-10-31
City of Crowns (Paladins Expansion)
239
2021-11-30
Everdell Complete Edition
360
2022-03-31
Death Valley
117
2021-07-31
(1) is in the post already
(2) I donāt quite know what got into me on the last day of that campaignā¦
(3) A recent update suggested they were optimistic of starting deliveries in Europe soonā¦ but it is Matagot soā¦ I will believe it when I get the game
(4) Is in Hamburgā¦ waiting for dispatch notice every day
Kickstarters I backed after Zombicide 2 that have already delivered:
A War of Whispers
Izayoi
Rocketmen
Viscounts
Micro City
Way of the Samurai
PS: yes there are 3 button shy campaigns in there.
They are far from the worst offender on my list, and my list was not intended to call out any particular project; if anything it justifies the delay as they are on very similar timelines as other, more established Kickstarter creators
Also: the towels on the beach is not unique to Germans; that was the only way my partner and I (or anyone else) were able to get lounge chairs (or beds) on the beach when we went to Mexico.
Coming from a typical touristic destination for both British and Germans (Gran Canaria) this is an old one going on between them. Thatās why now we have most Brits in Puerto Rico and most Germans in Playa del Ingles (which is ironic, as it means Englishman Beach), to avoid trouble.
Watch: Swords of the Coin 
