At what point does the term “mini” no longer apply?
9 Likes
My wife and I went out for lunch for the first time in forever yesterday. Afterwards, we stopped by a bookstore just to browse a bit before getting home to the kids, and perusing the game selection, I saw Vast: the Mysterious Manor, and my wife was lovely enough to purchase it for me.
5 Likes
I think it’s when you can give someone concussion from a hard thwack to the head? They have some heft
3 Likes
I went over the weekend and exchanged my duplicate copy of Aquatica for auZstralia. A game I had been aware of for a while, but it’s:
- Martin Wallace – a hit-or-miss designer for me
- Cthulhu mythos – a hit-or-miss theme/setting for me
- Stronghold Games – a hit-or-miss publisher for me
But a friend of mine told me he was really enjoying it not too long ago, so I added to my list of games to keep an eye on (BGG subscription).
I then noticed a few things. It seems to have a dedicated player-base and it rarely shows up on the secondary market. Usually games that don’t show up on the secondary market are either cheap, low-production count, and/or highly-treasured by most of the people who buy it. It certainly is not cheap, and it seems to have good ownership numbers.
So when said friend was talking about how he and a couple of friends made it their “game of the month,” where they get together once a week1 and play that game; and afterwards it’s still being actively explored (and never “won” throughout the month).
Additionally, said friend is also prone to playing solo games and I believe that’s how it ended up in his collection to start with.
1: which I am invited to just as soon as I can get out of the house at nights once the baby is a bit older.
3 Likes
Prime Day here. Got Jaws of the Lion for $20 because $20.
I had Outer Rim in my cart for $40 - something I didn’t really need but knew I would like. Before I could check out the price reverted to $60. Shucks.
Also Kingdomino and Bunny Kingdom for cheapish but I haven’t gotten those in the past and don’t think I should now either.
Nerdz Day is coming just after Prime Day which is tough because you don’t know exactly what will be available or what price on Nerdz Day. This seems like a push-your-luck type situation…
Anyway, there is a Mandalorian based clue for one of the Nerdz Day items so I may get a second crack at Outer Rim? Not sure what Mandalorian based games / expansions are available these days.
6 Likes
I now own Camel (C)up 1st Ed and Supercup. I can backport the best bit of 2nd ed into 1st ed
4 Likes
Oh, do tell!
Partnerships in higher player counts, from when I way doing waaaaaay too much reading on the differences it seemed the crazy camels added little to the game and people were evenly split on the ‘one camel won’t move’ rule
1 Like
I think it was the crazy camel that I thought would be an interesting addition. But I’m also someone who bough Supercup on discount after 2nd edition was released, doubling-down on my 1st ed.
Enjoy! I do love some camel-based gambling 
2 Likes
A couple of Kickstarters delivered this week 
Already tried Rove and I think it hurts my brain a little bit—which is nice because I found Food Chain Island too easy.
6 Likes
Interested to know how marvel plays.
2 Likes
Have you played other versions? I have not…
No but the theme peaked my interest.
1 Like
My birthday is coming up in 10 days and so as is my habit I‘ve been looking for a game to treat myself to (we don‘t give each other presents anymore). The preorder for JoCo2 is announced for next week but that won‘t be here for a while… I had been eyeing Star Wars Outer Rim with the expansion for a bit but the German version is published by Pegasus which is quite good at keeping things in print and available and so I haven‘t felt any particular urgency and I think I can wait a bit longer on what people say about the expansion…
I was clicking on one of the OLGS that has very good wishlist tracking because I was thinking „I really want to get notified when they get Wonderlands War“… I swear it wasn‘t in stock the day before.
So Wonderlands War and the expansion Foozilla for The LOOP will be arriving early next week Most of my recent birthday buys ended up leaving my collection again most notably Tapestry… so I will see how Wonderlands War fares.
I have also repacked the box with the games that need to leave this morning. I think this round I‘ll donate them to a local place. It‘s not a lot anymore and several older games like Alhambra (app is good enough for me and friends have it and I have none of the expansions).
6 Likes
SWOR without the expansion felt very sparse (and explicitly derivative from Firefly, fixing some bugs and introducing others). I haven’t played it with the expansion, but Star Wars is quite a negative IP for me these days.
2 Likes
I like sandbox board games. I think Western Legends is pretty good, I think Merchants and Marauders was an ambitious, if flawed, effort, and I love Xia as probably best-in-class. Love Firefly but it’s very heavy and you absolutely must know the IP for it to work. Mage Knight is sublime but starts pushing the boundaries of what a “sandbox” game is. And so on…
SWOR is very good. 2nd best, maybe? The major advantage is the limited scope of the game to some extent… there are only 2 major “tracks” through space, which means that you’re more likely to interact with and engage all the game has to offer, unlike the others which tend to be so large you can actually avoid, intentionally or not, big chunks of the game. The limited scope however also means that you probably “need” to play to your character’s strengths: trying to run Han as a bounty hunter is possible, but you’re really going to struggle. Trying to run Boba as a smuggler is a bad idea, etc.
It has some really neat ideas (the “fame” track for each of the factions is a nice touch… all the other games basically only have 2 tracks, “criminal” and “not-criminal,” almost always defined by a bounty or lack thereof), but it also requires a deeper knowledge of the IP than the others. Blessing and a curse there.
It also means that the base game really “needs” (is heavily benefited by) more content because you interact with so much more of it on a single playthrough than you do for most of the other sandbox games. Again, blessing/curse.
So, should you buy it? I mean, if you like the idea of going anywhere and doing anything… no. It is much more limited in scope than many of the others. But I think that gives it a focus the others often lack, and the narrative elements are really strong without being oppressive.
I have the expansion now, and I am super excited to get it on the table to try out. I’ll keep you posted about when I do!
5 Likes
My interest is largely in the IP and not wanting/needing Rebellion. I think at some point I’ll buy it. The first time I saw the board at SPIEL I was immediately fascinated but at the time I think Star Wars meant something different to me 
and I don’t think it would have been a game for me back then.
2 Likes
Want Outer Rim now!
The only review I heard on release was by SVWAG and they weren’t impressed, but anything Star Wars is interesting
4 Likes