OK, it’s not a boardgame, but I bought some Speedpaints, in the hope that I can upgrade my dull, lifeless, grey minis to something better, or at least not as grey. Not that I have that many games with minis - just Cthulhu: Death May Die, Wonderland’s War, Project Elite, Nemesis…
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I picked up the Hot Trick expansion for Super Fantasy Brawl this morning, placing an order for the (out of stock) Art of War box while I was at it. Once that comes in I’ll have the full roster to date. That is wildly excessive for a casual player, but it’s turned out to be the exceedingly rare type of scrapper that has my partner and I keen to experiment.
I’ll admit the minis are a tad loathsome to paint (very soft, both in material and definition), but they are all unique so I can have a little fun without much repetition fatigue. The sculpts are distinct and characterful as well, letting us play easily while still unpainted.
This went from an impulse buy when I saw the retail version’s size (and pricing), to a full nosedive into the deep end lickety-split. It’s way more than necessary for me, but it’s barely a dent on my shelf, a nice medium-term project, and a quick little banger when we can squeeze in a game. K.O.
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What is it?
@Guvnor, it’s Wonderland War.
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So Game (UK computer games shop) had a fire sale on some games.
My ride share has just given £15 to cover costs, with was £0.02 more than 7 Wonders. Oops
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This was a trade, but I’ve now got a tower of boxes thanks to acquiring a full pledge of Altar Quest. I think I have pretty reasonable expectations in terms of whether I’ll want to keep this around or not (leaning towards not), but I’ll give it a fair shake. I disliked Street Masters but saw the appeal of the deck system, so it’s going to need to play out quite differently on the board to win me over. We’ll see.
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Went by my FLGS yesterday to browse their Labor Day sale and left with the Mad Titan’s Shadow expansion for Marvel Champions since it was 50% off. Hoping to have more time to solo games with the kids going back to school starting tomorrow, so that I can justify the purchase
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So.
Jealous.
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My partner and I have made a decision to drastically cut back on game buying. This decision was actually made about 3 weeks ago, and I’ve just been distracted by household chores, COVID, and various tasks to get around to posting about it.
About that time, the US August Math Trade concluded and I ended up trading:
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SENT: 7 Wonders (old edition) – RECEIVED: Simple Great Battles of History
I’ve had SPQR on my shelf for a long time and I’ve been really intimidated by it. Simple GBoH promises to cut down on game length of its supported games, which includes SPQR among others, but possibly at the cost of less random (which may increase analysis paralysis?). Additionally: I would have traded 7 Wonders (old edition) for just about anything because it’s been replaced by a new edition and I think most of the people who like 7 Wonders probably already have a copy, or can get one dirt cheap. Mostly just glad to unload 7 Wonders; the fact that I got something interesting and not-so-common in exchange is just gravy.
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SENT: War of the Ring: Second Edition (with a beat-up box) – RECEIVED: Flash Point: Fire Rescue bundle with 2nd Story, Dangerous Waters, Extreme Danger, Honor & Duty, and Urban Structures.
This ended up being a pretty good deal. It does leave me with 3 copies of the base game of FP:FR, because not too long ago I had picked up a copy along with a couple of expansions… So now I have some redundant inventory to clear out.
Also around that time (or maybe a bit earlier?) the BGG Geekmarket closing announcement knocked loose a copy of something I had been watching:
- Gentes: Deluxified Edition
Been looking at this one for a while, but only interested in the Deluxiified edition because I had read somewhere that it was absolutely the best option for solo play; which I later found to be, perhaps, not as accurate information as I thought – however, this particular copy came up with a roughly non-Deluxified pricetag, so my patience definitely paid off.
The GeekMarket closing announcement also prompted a slew of auctions, which caught my eye and I put a few low-end bids and got quite a few wins.
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The Networks bundle with Executives, More Executives, On the Air, Telly Time and the wooden token upgrade accessory
I already had a copy of The Networks and The Executives; but the price here was pretty good as a way to pick up the expansions and recoup some of the costs by selling off the redundant items.
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Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Secrets
was not supposed to be the sole win for this auction, but pretty quickly I realized it was the only thing I had a serious interest in; fortunately, shipping on it was dirt cheap and I picked up another expansion for less than retail, while also putting some money back in a fellow gamer’s pocket.
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Merchant’s Cove w/Secret Stash
I actually lost this bid, but the person who outbid me flaked out on the seller, so I was offered at my original bid price after the fact. This is one that I had hoped to pick up in advance of the new expansion Kickstarter campaign. The price was great, but it ended up missing the secret component that was hidden in the Secret Stash box lid, because the original owner never played the game and didn’t realize there were secrets. I got a partial refund and am likely able to print a replacement.
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Victorian Masterminds
I actually don’t know much about this game, but the setting and design pedigree caught my eye. Antoine Bauza and Eric Lang seem to me to be a strange design duo. It was cheap, but I still somewhat regret bidding on it because it’s such an unknown.
Fortunately, the GeekMarket isn’t gone, just restructured to keep BGG out of the middle of the transaction (this is probably due to US tax law; hooray for politicians!) – the big loss in the whole thing is the detailed feedback system replaced by number of transactions – and maybe also the structured view of transactions and the associated GeekMails that made it easy to find transaction details.
Additionally, I had a little birthday money and a gift card from work burning a hole in my pocket, so I ordered a few things from my favorite online game store:
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Lord of the Rings LCG: Angmar Awakens Campaign Expansions and Angmar Awakens Hero Expansion
I have a lot of untouched Lord of the Rings LCG content, but I want to stay up to date on any of the new format products that aren’t from cycles already in my collection. Picking up Angmar Awakens doesn’t add any redundancy into my collection and brings me within 3 cycles of a full set. As those remaining 3 cycles get rereleased in the new format, I’ll probably try to pick them up as well, but I think only one of them is a good candidate, and it’ll be a while since they already announced they are redoing the LotR saga next.
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Clinic - Deluxe Edition – The Extension
I was floored by my solo games of Clinic, so I made a point of putting all of the expansions on my wishlist. There are lots of them (and a new one coming soon I think), so I picked up the next in line with hopes of getting the rest as gifts in the future.
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Star Wars: Outer Rim - Unfinished Business
I haven’t even played SW:OR yet, but I watched a solo playthrough with Unfinished Business and I’m surprised by how much UB adds to the solo experience; I’m more disappointed, actually, that the base game touted a “solo” game at all when UB added what appears to be essential gameplay to to solo bot.
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Seasons: Path of Destiny
I finally have a complete Seasons. Have I played Seasons? No. But I will. And I have a feeling I’ll like it. Path of Destiny has been hard to find for a while, so when I saw a new slew of restocks hitting the various online game stores, I figured I should grab it while I could.
A lot of what I bought from the OGS are Asmodee products; that’s not a coincidence. Asmodee’s part replacement process is so awful that I only want to buy from reputable retailers; in this case, one with good prices that has a physical location not too far from where my in-laws visit during the summer, in the off-chance that I need to send something with them to physically exchange at the store.
And, finally, I had a Kickstarter game show up:
- Twin Palms
I love trick-taking games. My partner is not as enthusiastic as I am. But my in-laws are from Wisconsin and grew up playing Euchre. I’m sure this will make its way into our suitcase for the trip to the beach my in-laws are taking the whole family on next spring… and hopefully it’ll get some table time prior to that.
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If you’re keen on an async game on BGA, happy to play it. Although, I’m kinda competent at it and can be daunting (strategy-wise) for first timers.
I might take you up on that! But not at the moment. I’ll put a reminder in to ask you in a couple of weeks when things are, hopefully, a little more chill at home and at work.
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a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of game producers suddenly cried out in terror
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FTFY 
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Yes, I thought the pillbox front was a bit too quiet lately…
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I’ve also had Seasons on my “try it out on BGA” list for a few years. “In a few weeks” may be the worst possible time, though. Keep me in the loop in case it works out.
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Latergramming here.
But it’s always fun to see.
Brian Boru is in the category of “I know I’m going to love this genre, but I haven’t had a chance to play anything yet, so I’m just going to keep buying games in the genre.” Looking forward to it, but it’s on a big “to play” pile with no opponents in sight.
Modern Art: Played this once, maybe 15 years ago. Didn’t like it. But Isle of Skye finally broke down my auction mechanism resistance and I think I’ve matured as a person to where I can handle the ambiguity of vaguely valued things. This has just been on the radar for so long I figured it was time.
Ark Nova: To be determined. Zoos are strong in my house. A good solo is always welcome. Sentiments are so mixed on the amazing to overhyped spectrum that I’ve just got to try it out myself. As a bonus, I got it for free due to a complex interaction of events involving shipping insurance!
Silver Bullet: Overpriced but awesome.
Timeline: This has been a massive hit in my house and requires cards for longevity. So there you go.
Also pictured: Star Wars playing cards, Avengers playing cards, a refrigerator water filter, and my grandmother’s dining table.
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I hope that’s first edition, the designers really watered it down in the revamp
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If you mean trick taking, Brian Boru is not a good example of a trick taker. The turn structure simply uses trick taking as a way to determine what actions are taken and in what order.
Not saying it’s a bad game, but rather, it will give you the wrong impression of what a trick taker is.
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I think it suffers from player order effects (I’ll do better if I’m sitting next after a bad player), but I’ve still had fun with it. I have a grey-import European edition in a tiny box.
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