My kickstarter backlog seems to be resolving… this Stationfall my fifth-oldest undelievered boardgame KS (older: Frosthaven–somewhere in a German warehouse but of course I have addons that pushed me to the back of the list, Hoop Godz–I’ve given up on that, Raid–production is done & Darwin’s Journy–on a boat)
I managed to set it up, realized the tutorial is a 3 player game and I will have to learn the game and the solo mode at the same time and it’s still on the table and not played (pushed to the side so we can eat). I am a bit tired of learning complex games right now. After 2+ years I was not that excited to receive this right now. On the other hand, the theme and the idea (complex hidden roles game where everyone can influence every character and if you reveal your identity you get more powerful actions but also more pushback and you have a backup identity and…) still speak to me. Just arriving shortly after Hoplomachus Victorum… my rules-learning ability is a bit exhausted.
I am getting lazy now with learning new rules. I am too spoiled and too jaded when the games that I buy and play are the old-school German types, Cube Rails like Irish Gauge, or 18xx where learning a new one takes 10 or so minutes. I read the rules for Guards of Atlantis on my way to Wyvern’s place and it was relatively easy to teach.
I enjoyed Matt Eklund’s Pax Transhumanity. I think I would prefer playing someone else’s copy and they teach it to me.
Here it is including my Turing Machine preorder which was stuck with Revive.
I am pleased that all these come in smallish boxes: Evergreen is the size of Brass B but with something that resembles an insert I could put on the table? I specifically rebought this multi-language (yes including German even though now they list it as FR/NL) edition of Kingdomino O because the German edition is a fullsize box with lots of air. I am surprised that Bloc by Bloc is so small… Turing Machine could have been the size of the Decrypto box if they tried a little harder but it’s ok.
It arrived. I’ve been anticipating this since I received a message last week that they were starting shipping and that packages to EU were shipping directly from Poland
This was a really good crowdfunding campaign: no drama, fast and that lovely message from the designer (please forgive me for not trying to spell out his last name) is also on the unusual (and great) side.
I won’t wait to try the game. Dinner is canceled for today
(I have played Imperial Settlers but not this one)
51st State is a repeat offender in my “Last Game Not Bought” file. I’ve come super close many times. I think in the end I have too many similar titles and until I cull those it just doesn’t make sense. I very much want to play though!
What are the other games keeping you from this one… maybe we can—uh—help
(But I was the same, I saw it a few times in stock but every time I had reasons for not buying… but when this „everything in one box“ campaign came along… it was like now or never)
I find everything in one boxes often overwhelming, better to start small and then expand to build upon. I bought the game years ago and we played it twice I think.
There is certainly a risk with getting these all in one boxes.
At least this one‘s size is managable: a bit higher than your average square box but at least the sides are standard Kallax length. And it was reasonably priced for an „Ultimate Edition“.
I began playing today with one of the „just more cards“ expansions straight away. The rules say to only use 1 expansion at a time. And while it means taking the deck apart I will probably follow that advice. I am excited to try some of the more involved ones.
(Dragon Shield box provided for scale, not as part of a Kickstarter)
They’re very thick boxes, but I find I don’t mind a thick box as long as it’s reasonably tidy and rectangular length- and width-wise, and these are both quite good in that regard.
The closest I think would be Furnace with the resource conversion but even though my 2 games of 51st State (so far) ran just 5 rounds there is far more going on in a game than in Furnace. More decisions. No auction. Furnace also has no solo.
I have not played Nations but seem to remember that it is a big involved game. On a sidenote: Nations was in my top 5 „need to check out at SPIEL“ games that year but as we walked by and I said something like „wow that looks interesting“, my partner started running and then Nations fell into the „didn‘t buy because“ shelf for some odd reason and now it is oop and I am fine with that.
In any case the only thing 51st State shares with Radlands is the post-apocalyptic setting and „cards“. But Radlands is a quick head to head battle with a ton of interaction and the goal of eliminating the other player, 51st State is a city building game at its core. You build up far more than gets destroyed. You win by points and having lots of buildings. It may be that one of the expansions I have not tried has more of a battle thing going on. But you could play 51st State and never attack the other player. Also Radlands has no solo.
Res Arcana is difficult. I have only played a handful of times before selling it on. I sold it because I found the last 2 games boring and my partner dislikes head 2 head games and playing with a friend on BGA just didn‘t work well and failed to rehabilitate the game for me. It might be though that this is the one that is most likely to scratch the same itches for you that I got 51st State for. Also Res Arcana has no solo.
As for the others: Everdell. That is probably closest. Tableau builder with resources. But an integral part of Everdell is that you are limited in your actions where in 51st State you have a production phase that just delivers a bigger and bigger pile of resources every round and at the end I was left with nowhere to convert those resources rather than not having any. The trick btw with 51st State is that you discard all resources at the end of a round.
Race for the Galaxy is a tableau builder. Maybe. Maybe. But I‘d prefer to leave this comparison to the professionals. I have not played RftG enough (especially recently) to allow myself to dissect that one. Let me just say: I can see why you would throw that into the ring but the connection is ephemeral and I feel inadequate to make more of it than say: yes I can see something.
I have not played London at all. Oceans I have too few plays but I do not see a connection.
This is an interesting exercise of thought. I could probably go on. But the coffee machine is hot now and I need to wake up Hope it … helps.
