Got my payment notification for Rocketmen, I feel a hard look at my big box games coming on.
2 Likes
Got these in a trade as part of my cull. Little Town is in shrink, weāll give it a try - I know Quinns was a fan. Really excited to try Alchemists. I suspect Iāll be rubbish at it but there is a lot that sounds fun.
7 Likes
Iām also a fan of Little Town. Itās fast and rules light but has plenty of depth for itās quick play time. Also surprisingly deterministic and interactive. The shared space is most of the game too. I hope you enjoy it despite the hype
3 Likes
I wish I know how to trick people into a game of Alchemists 
4 Likes
I love the deduction puzzle part of Alchemists but not the eurogame.
5 Likes
the puzzle is wonderful, but you have to balance solving it with the game and I admit for me it usually doesnāt work that well either. Iāll play but i wonāt usually propose it.
4 Likes
Search for Planet X has superceded Alchemists in a lot of ways, or at least bridge the gap as an introductory logic puzzle. I love Alchemists, but teaching a euro game AND a logic puzzle all at once is a lot. Those are two niche areas that need prior experience to understand and follow. Teaching is like asking someone whoās never ridden a horse to play Polo.
My mum brought me up on logic puzzle magazines from when I was 8 or 9, but I think Iām the exception. 
7 Likes
(Time, huh) good god yāall
(What is it good for?) Absolutely tripping, say it, say it, say it
(Time, huh) Oh-ohh yeah, huh
(What is it good for?) Absolutely tripping
Listen to me
(Time), It aināt nothing but a dinosaur
(Time), Itās got some friends, thatās the Romans and so forth
Time tripping through your radio, you canāt ever get enough
You know ā standard military simulation stuff
Life is much too short and precious to be tripping time these days
Time canāt give life, but you can use it to play games, awwww!
3 Likes
Itās truly a shame! Alchemists is so good. I have the same problem; and I donāt even have to content with people who have played Search for Planet X
4 Likes
Well this sure turned out to be a little microcosm of helpful information! Alchemists is a game Iād have been very likely to snap up if there ever was a good opportunity. I think this cooled me off enough to just join in on a game if it ever comes up.
5 Likes
Usually the person who is best at managing the Euro game wins and not the person best at solving the puzzle. That said I like Euro games and this is not a bad one but with a hassle of a setup I never remember between plays. For a nice deduction puzzle without any pesky Euro mechanism I recommend Cryptid. Easy to teach and play 
Usually ends up being played over multiple rounds with both the more casual and the more regular gamer crowd. I keep searching for an Einstein puzzle game but in the end I always go back to apps to scratch that particular itch. (Also really it doesnāt get more Einstein puzzle than cryptid but it needs three people to play)
4 Likes
This is why, I think, it has a valid place in my collection (and on my Top 10?). Iām pretty good at the deduction puzzle, but the risk/reward calculation to publish before you know is an artform (and why I could never actually be a member of Academiaā¦ I wouldnāt play games with knowledge and research)
Cryptid is great, too, but thereās (almost?) no balancing mechanism to keep the person who is best at logic/deduction from winning every time; other than maybe the luck of the turn-order.
2 Likes
I fancy myself being pretty good at deduction but maybe my friends are weirdā¦ different people tend to winā¦ though we had one person win on such minimal information once that I couldnāt quite believe it 
but I generally agree with the criticism. There is nothing there but the info everyone getsā¦ deduction is the dominating element.
1 Like
Cryptid and Planet X are pretty swell. My issue with Cryptid seems to be about playing āNoā cubes at the edge of the map to minimise information sharing. My fave is still Draculaās Feast: New Blood, but it is fragile. But I tend to like these fragile but clever games. Need to try Loot of Lima.
3 Likes
Same same. Punching took forever and the box barely closes now. Havenāt managed to learn the rules yet. Also still no signs of Planet X anywhere in the solar system (or a shop close to me). Wanders off to check out the Dracula game she never heard ofā¦ ā¦edit: Oh that one.
Well, my purchase limit for the year isnāt looking great, but how could I pass up on this deal?
Lords of Xidit ā
Iāve been watching this game ever since I saw the SUSD review; and itās rarely reasonably priced on the secondary market. BGG Auction usually start at $25 for a used copy. Imagine my surprise when:
A. I put a minimum bid of $5 on a copy
B. The offer was accepted
C. The shipping fee was, somehow, less than $5.
I got a basically new copy of the game (not in shrink, but unpunched; bears a āAsmodee Demo Copy ā Not For Resaleā sticker on the front of the box) for less than $10. Iām still flabbergasted. Up until I opened the package I was still expecting one of those scams where they send you a picture of the product you thought you were buying.
Also: the rubbery/plastic pieces smell weird; anyone else had this issue? I doubt there would be component differences for a demo copyā¦
pillboxās 2021 Purchase Tracker as of 2021-04-30: 8.8
Tracker
- Codename: Fifteen (0.1)
- (KS) 1860: Railways on the Isle of Wight
- Anachrony: Infinity Box
- (KS) Bucket of Bolts / Artefact (0.1 each)
- 18OE (Codename: Easterly Alacrity)
- Northern Pacific (Codename: Boreal Pacifism)
- (KS) 18MagyarorszƔg
- Vast: Crystal Caverns (Codename: Dark Shiny) (0.1)
- (KS) Root: Marauderās Expansion (0.1)
- (KS) John Company
- (KS) Empyreal: Far Corners (0.1)
- The Networks
- Fields of Arle: Tea & Trade (0.1)
- Seasons of Inis (0.1)\
- Lords of Xidit [NEW]
4 Likes
How odd. For a while over here there were a lot of copies hanging around in branches of The Works (a shop that mostly sells discount books and other cheap overstock stuff) and could be had for Ā£10-15.
3 Likes
Yeah; Iāve actually noticed that a lot of Libellud titles are harder to track down here in the US compared to those of you over in the UK and continental Europe who, likely, have to burrow your way through piles of Libellud games to get to the corner shop. Iāve also been on the lookout for a reasonably priced copy of Thurn & Taxis here in the US, but it seems like you all over there could re-shingle your roof easily from readily available copies.
4 Likes
Not quite. I think I got really lucky a couple times because recently there has been almost nothing interesting on local ebay kleinanzeigen or quoka.
1 Like
Itās weird, someone kind of offered me Ā£80 for El Grande, I was tempted as I could paste up a German copy for Ā£45 for the big box
2 Likes