This game is called a Conservative Government in the UK
8 Likes
I decided to buy Twilight Inscription, which is a monstrosity of a Roll nā Write.
It came with free promo dice!
Is it worth it!?.. hmmm. Almost certainly not.
But it has a Space Lion on the cover. Only more sure-fire way to get me to buy something is to put an oversized annelid and a bunch of stuff Anakin Skywalker hates on the cover.
EDIT: So in a very uncharacteristic decision, I decided to open up Twilight Inscription and start learning the game. I almost never do thisā¦ for a long time I felt that opening/playing a game before I played with other people gave me an unfair advantage.
Granted, I thought that mostly because several of my friends at the time said exactly that. I now know that they were merely sore losers, but old habits die hard.
Right, so! The game looksā¦ fascinating. Like, legit really interesting. The orange markers are a really nice touch. The four sheets you use is interesting, albeit I think a little too big (I think they could all be shrunk by aboutā¦ 25-33%ā¦ and still maintain the clarity they currently have). But it definitely works!
The basic idea is you have 4 sheets, one corresponding to each of the āactionsā you can take on your turn: Navigation, Industry, War, and Expansion. At the start of every round you reveal a new Event which will give you a set of fixed resources: you pick one of the four sheets and spend those resources. The Speaker then rolls the big, chunky (like, legit big and chunky, very satisfying) dice and that gives everyone at least 3 additional resources to spend on that same sheet.
Rinse, repeat.
There is some limited interaction with the players to your immediate left and right (in a 7 Wonders-esque āwarā where you compare your armies to those of the players beside you: winning gives you a resource bonus, losing costs you 1VP at the end of the game). Oh, and the sooner you Navigate your way to Mecatol Rex, the more points and votes you gain from that.
There are also ālawsā in a very limited sense (I havenāt seen any yet), plus Relics from exploring and a stack of 24 unique races (whichā¦ unless Iām completely kooky-dooks, is more than in TI4ā¦ I think full TI only has 21ā¦?) each of which gives you a passive bonus and also gives you a āFactionā bonus when you gain a Faction icon on your sheet (I think there are 1 or 2 on each sheet).
Honestly, it feels like a really satisfying combination of random and strategy. Itās likeā¦ Fleet the Dice Game but turned up to 11.
Now, how it plays is a very different question. There are single player rules, and I absolutely am going to try it at least once that way, but I suspect it will be one of those āBest with 3, maybe 4ā sorta deals where too many players (EIGHT! It plays up to EIGHT! Ridiculous) means that nobody knows what anyone else is doing. Butā¦ I am very cautiously optimistic about it!
Is it worth $70CAD? Ooh. Thatās tough at this point. I am inclined to say āNoā unless you are totally in love with the IP/Universe, which I am. Then yes, I think it probably wonāt disappoint you.
I do wish they had sprung for better art assets. Itās not bad, but a lot of it isā¦ not up to their usual standards by any measure. Like, TI4 is gorgeous, and TIn (thatās going to be an annoying acronym) is just ānot badā.
Anyway! Update complete, carry on with your lives.
8 Likes
Essen haul so far (and this will probably be most of it):
Netrunner bundle from Null Signal: System Gateway, System Update 2021, Midnight Sun.
Path of Light and Shadow + Solstice expansion: deckbuilding and card-upgrading area control with an interesting morality mechanic; looks like a launch last year from StrongholdIndie that I heard nothing about. Might not have gone for it except that Iām getting paid for my demo work partly in games and it looked fun. (They often have games that I see only at Essen and never again: Pirate 21, Witching Hour, Senators. This is the first big box though.)
Quest: Avalon Big Box: both Quest and Avalon, with all(?) the expansions that were published a few years ago for The Resistance and a bunch of new ones. I still prefer the dystopian sci-fi setting to the Arthurian one (āwhat do you mean, nobody knows who Arthur is?ā) but I love the gameplay; not completely sold on Quest but Iāll probably be demoing it a bunch more over the next few days. (Also demo pay.)
Promo packs for Deception: Murder in Hong Kong: Thailand, Greece, and a couple more I donāt now remember. Cheap and the game is always fun, though somewhat physically limited by needing to see the cards round a table; perhaps Iāll try a play-by-forum some time.
And, from Chessex, some dice for Xia so that each player can have their own set: any convention would have done for this, but getting d6, d8, d12, d20 without unwanted d4s and d10s doesnāt seem to be an easy thing for online dice sales, at least in the UK.
* while looking up what was what I found that the restore.nisei.net site has an invalid SSL cert
6 Likes
i think i need to get those promos for deception as well but i was too distracted by finally having seen Touch It across the hall.
I almost had to cancel going so i may have overcompensated. itās already going to be tricky to get home in the trainš
15 Likes
much smaller haul today and tomorrow I am returning home. and then I may do a few preorders.
played TM Dice game today. had a really good teacher and as such enjoyed the game immensely. will wait for retail but want it!!!
Played Challengers! which was also very good. great take on deck construction. If I didnāt know my partner would hate thisā¦ it might have been an instant buy. I talked to one of the two guys behind this and he said he met his partner in crime playing MtG which is no big surprise at all.
Of games I saw and didnāt try or buy I really want Revive and The Wolves. ps and Turing Machine. I hear the publisher picked the name not the designers. Apparently, They got a lot of comments how the game is hot a Turing Machine 
6 Likes
What are the four decks of cards?
2 Likes
Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. 3 of them seems like country-themed promos with those flags on the bottom right
4 Likes
Bought the X-Men Mutant Genesis box for Marvel Champions, and the Cyclops and Phoenix packs.
Phoenix in particular has the greatest downside theme Iāve seen in LCGs, which means any other players will be delighted to have her around RIGHT UP TO the point where everything goes sideways.
Anyway, getting the chance to play X-Men seems more exciting than Avengers or Spider-Verse, letās see which mutants are brought out next.
7 Likes
I checked up Amazon.de and saw that they now have stocks of this edition of Santiago. Insta-buy as Santiago is one of my fave negotiation and alliances game. Iām now selling my old copy which is the Power-Grid size box edition.
Also bought Family Inc with it. Filler Knizia card game
2 Likes
Only thing to add to my Essen list from earlier is Dulce, ex-demo copy, an engine building resource conversion game with some component design issues (cubes are light brown, grey, cream, mid brown and white, and all but the last have to be matched to printed mats)ā¦ but if one can work past that, great fun. Everybody loves the chicken rule.
4 Likes
I donāt remember when exactly I made the order but Ms. Simonsson finished making my copy of Turncoats. Itās fairly pricey but the money all goes to the designer (bar the Paypal fees) so Iām happy with that.
8 Likes
Ooh, very nice. Even assuming they have a machine that can do the fancy stitches, thatās not a trivial amount of work.
4 Likes
Got Ride the Rails
Choo choo
6 Likes
Sorted out and punched my copy of Endless Winter: Paleoamericans. I must say, it is really nice of them to have a whole compartment on the box for the expansions. And I love art by The Mico. (Pretty sure you all know who they are, but it is the artist from Raiders of the North Sea and Architects of the West Kingdom) Also, it looks like they love long name board games to put their art onā¦
5 Likes
Nice. Very good game. Ride the Rails really emphasises alliances, perhaps more than other Cube Rails Iāve tried.
4 Likes
I hate his name so much.
Not his actual name: Mihajlo Dimitrievski is a nice name! I have no idea if Iām pronouncing it correctly, but itās his name.
But āTHEā Mico? The only? The one? THE Mico is so condescending and superior. It would be like meeting Prince while he couldnāt use his name due to Sony and having to point at a symbol whenever I want to talk to him. And even Prince, who was a gosh-dern genius, barely gets a pass for that.
The Mico. Gah.
I also donāt like his art, but thatās entirely subjective: I think he has a really distinctive style and I totally get why people love it. Just not my cup of tea.
4 Likes
Are you saying that, following that rule of thumb, The Edge is more condescending and superior than Bono? 
5 Likes
I like his art and I am bothered by āThe Micoā as a pseudonym.
3 Likes
I must admit, the first time I heard it I thought it was De Mico. Which I prefer.
4 Likes
I donāt like his art, and am not at all bothered by the name.
I think thatās all our bases covered now?
10 Likes