Met up with friends last night and got my last couple of birthday presents: Tiny Epic Dinosaurs and a Funkoverse: Jurassic Park set with Ian Malcolm and a T-Rex.
Ahhhhh, who was I kidding? Just got home with the Dark Horde miniatures box and another set of āthe coffersā token upgrades for Return to Dark Tower.
Hereās a warning to anyone who might have the option to grab the āfancy bitsā (the coffers): the count sucks. In my opinion this is something to buy twice or not at all; in my 2-hero solo game it seemed pretty clear that Iād be into the standard cardboard supply pretty regularly at 4 or even just 3 players, which sucks when youāve paid for the premium bits. Meanwhile, with two packs it feels a bit excessive. They are nice but not $70CAD nice and if I had done my homework Iād have abstained entirely (the cardstock is excellent in the game). As it stood, there was only the sunk cost fallacy available to me.
The minis are amazing and will enhance what is already an absolutely ridiculous production. No shame or regret whatsoever. Unmatched fans get it; Restoration do excellent minis as game pieces.
Finally bought Radlands recently. I donāt know if it was the hype or whatever, but it did not feel how I expected. I was expecting simple mechanics and a deep theme, with complex interactions. I did not feel like I got what I expected at all. The theming is pretty tropey, and not in a knowing, fun way, more in a āWe had not original ideas, hereās Mad Max but slightly worseā. The art itself is nice in a lot of places, but justā¦ plain in others? The gameplay is not as deep as I had hoped, so far. I was expecting way more events and expecting way more interaction with them, but itās kind of just another āpeople on a boardā card game in a lot of ways. Thereās 20 events in the deck total out of 80(?) cards, of which some of them are 0 turn events, so they ignore the event track completely, and that seems like the most interesting part of the game.
Thereās also some pretty ridiculous cards and combos. A card that readies any person and makes them active that starts in play? I honestly think the game would benefit hugely from the players not sharing the deck, and getting to pick some kind of playstyle. I drafted 3 camps that felt like they synergised well with punks, and drew 2 cards that made punks, so I lost. Being able to go āOkay, this is what I want to doā Smash Up style, not CCG style, would add so much extra to the game. It feels like its been hyped up to the max and I see absolutely none of what other people are seeing.
Been to our FLGS for the first time since Covid struck (also first time into Cardiff for the same period).
Picked up some small box games that will hopefully go on holiday with us. 6 nimmt Iāve played a load of on BGA and I expect it will be much better in person. So Clover is a word game that weāve enjoyed before and Oriflamme which I remember someone on the podcast enjoyed but I know very little about.
You are not alone. A buddy and I tried it right after it released and I found it fine-but-forgettable. Pretty art though.
Not a bad game, but I didnāt understand the fervor around it. Iād rather play Jaipur, Patchwork, 7 Wonders Duel, Schotten Totten, Battle Lines, Tea for Two, Blitzkrieg!, Ave Caesarā¦
May not be what you want want to hear now that youāve bought the second lot - Iāve got one lot of the coffers, and after 6 games at 2 3 and 4 players both with and without alliances I was never close to running out of tokens. Mixture of wins and losses against a variety of adversaries.
Maybe youāve been saving up more than we did, but I wouldnāt say that 4 players used many more tokens than 2.
At least you wonāt have token anxiety
Maybe true but change-making was already getting a bit frustrating with 2 heroes for me. They really skimped out on some of the single value tokens. I havenāt used Alliances yet but I got 5 of the little influence tokens in my first set. Thatās ridiculous.
Yeah, I thought that, but the influence is mostly awarded and spend in 5s anyway. Maybe Iām just jealous of all your extra fancy tokens!
I have to admit, there isnāt really any kind of twinge of regret. I keep them all mixed together and it makes for a pretty huge bowl of candies to rifle through. Will probably keep the influence separate once they come out though.
Picked up cough a few games on specialā¦
Khora - Rise of an Empire, Pirate Tricks, Renature, Alchemists, Pulsar 2849, Century Golem Edition
Was picking up my kid from school, but had some time to kill. Hadnāt been to my FLGS in some time, so wandered in to look around, despite knowing it would be tempting to buy something.
Saw Gugong used for $25. It followed me homeā¦
Yokai Septet - itās a trick taking game! It recently became available in retail. I found it cheaper in Bezos-Mart
Vivaldi - yep. Another trick-taking game!
Haggis: Hidden Gems edition - so the Hidden Gems podcast loves Haggis and it seems that Sean Ross allowed them to reprint the game. They only did on-demand pre-orders. Anyway, I love Haggis as my 3 player climbing game (and Tichu as my 4 player) and received my copy recently. Imo itās much better to just wait for a copy that appears once in a blue moon, but I was keen to support the team.
Welp, the French edition of Beyond the Sun has reached our shores, at least at one of the two stores where Iād put my name down.
So Iāll get something in the mail likely next week and our Table of Opportunity keeps growing!
Miniature Market has a Fatherās Day sale going on now, and even with half of the sale out of stock there were still some absolute bangers to be found. I ordered the Feather and Flame, Branch and Claw, and Jagged Earth expansions for Spirit Island (because if Iām dipping a toe I might as well do a cannonball), and Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition to āget the free shippingā. I am worried that SotM will be drowned out by the obscene quantity of Marvel Champions I own, but Iām more than willing to give it a shot at half-price.
This is game-adjacent, but I found a good price on a Gravitrax āstarterā setāspecifically the Pro Giant setāand decided to invest in the system (for me now, for kids later). This thing is about as close to an instant, comprehensive collection as one can reasonably expect from a single purchase. Itās a bit nuts.
Iām well into a second build now and loving every minute of it. My daughter is totally enchanted watching it all go, too. Itās an incredibly flexible system, so building and testing by the seat of your pants is very doable and not overly painstaking.
I was browsing the sale and as I got to the end where all the Out of Stock options go, I noticed a bunch of stuff I had seen on the previous pages. They were selling out within the few minutes of browsing I did!
Iām busy nowā¦ not that Iāll get to play anytime soonā¦ but I might be wrong about that. So I need to be prepared
Iād been interested in Glow for a while, but not Ā£35-40 interested. So when someone offered a 2nd-hand copy for Ā£25 on the game trading FB group Iām in, I snapped it up.
Some more from end of financial year sales: Get on Board: New York & London, Welcome to the Moon, Daimyo, and a couple of inserts
I impulse bought Clank yesterday so I sort of hope itās good.