Preordered Enemy Anemone, another trick taker
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I will order a copy when we get back home just so I get ahead of the Christmas crush that will inevitably happen with this oneā¦
1 Like
We still have My Island to finish as well. By the end of the year we might have got through three legacy games (also Sagrada Artisan)
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Was that at Wellycon? We had Ulterior Design around at Baycon (first weekend in October) and I felt intrigued, I have Flipology from them and the little one loves it, I thought the theme could work with the girls, but in the end I didnāt buy it. Happy to hear what you think of it.
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Yep, that was Wellycon. Iāve now unboxed Dreadful Meadows which was a bit more involved than your average box, as there are some perspex two-piece standees to punch out and assemble, and each piece of perspex has a protective film to peel off which takes a bit of practice to be able to do quickly. Very unusual, but I suspect they wanted you to be able to still see what was printed on the tiles theyāre standing on. (Thereās also an unfortunate design flaw which means if you fit the two pieces together completely flush youāll end up with a rough point of perspex protruding below the base, so you need to maintain a slight gap to avoid damaging the cardboard tokens. This was avoidable, so it seems like someone didnāt think the design and manufacturing processes all the way through, or else there was an error somewhere. I donāt think itās a big problem in practice, but definitely something to be careful of during assembly.)
Ulterior Design is a very lightweight game where you want your house to have more in common with the current trend than your opponentsā houses, and to this end youāre playing cards to either your house, someone elseās house, or to the ātrendā itself. Cards have two halves and always overlap, so youāre generally replacing items with different items. Randomly a judge will appear and award the player whose house best matches the current trend in the specific criteria that judge cares about. I wonāt have an opinion on this game until I get a chance to play with other people though ā thereās not a lot to it, and itās very luck-dependent; but itās also very quick, so if it makes people laugh then Iāll hang onto it for sure.
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Witchcraft! just arrived. Why is the box a different size to Resist!?! Itās basically the same game from the same publisherā¦ why would they do this to me and my shelves? Perhaps itās their way of saying āhonestly, you should only keep one of theseā.
5 Likes
Continuing the influx, today I picked up the Black Goat of the Woods expansion for Cthulhu: Death May Die. I donāt think I need any of the big box expansions (or certainly not right now), but Iād settled on this particular small box ages ago as something I was keen on to bolster the options for the base game, and I guess itās only recently come back in print (presumably along with the most recent big box).
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I caved and pre-ordered Ticket to Ride Legacy(while still on vacation). The German version is supposed to be available at the end of November. They had it at SPIEL and people were standing in the 2nd longest line for it (Disney Lorcana had the longest one) and I just didnāt want to spend my time first waiting for the game and then lugging it around.
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Did a trade. At the risk of sounding like a one trick (hah!) pony. I got some trick-takers:
- Trickster: Champions of Time
- Time Chase
- Jalape-NO! - this one is a Kramer and Kiesling! Reprinted by Playte, which is a Korean company thatās been reprinting some old stuff.
- Chronicle - by Seiji Kanai of Love Letter fame
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Bought Trailblazers, was surprised to see it on Amazon. Itās the travel edition, but the āproperā version was over $300 for some reason. I was going to wait and get it on the kickstarter, but I only pledged $1, not sure if Iāll be on the pledge manager when it comes out (I know it usually does). But I wanted it nowā¦
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Maybe this should be last game that arrived or something. Anywayā¦ in the weirdest most paper and volume-wasting packaging ever Spacebiffās least favorite Chudyk game (I am assuming, I didnāt actually check his ratings) arrived at my house: Aegean Sea.
My partner questioned my sanity after I told him it was from the designer of Innovation.
I told him it could have been the new Glory to Rome (which neither of us has played) and also Asmadi games avaialbility over here sucks.
Less glorious than Glory to Rome is definitely the ā¦ innards. Exhibit A: the clear lid you can see to the upper left of the picture. This is what Planet Unknown is actually missing but this game never needed. The lid goes over the black insert and then you can press itāforciblyāback into the box. To get the lid off, turn over the lower portion of the box and shake until the whole thing comes out, then pry off the lidā¦ yeah, the lid goes into the bin later today.
(this could have been an Innovation sized boxāI have the Iello edition currently)
PS: and because everyone is probably keen to know the German spelling of Aegean, yes itās double āƤā: ĆgƤisches Meer 
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Recent plays of Heat: Pedal to the Metal convinced me that itās worth having (but that means i need to kick out a light game. Oh no.). Our recent forum play in BGA was pretty cool to see how hand management and positioning yourself ahead of each curve is so important
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Eager to hear if Aegeanās as bad as Ava and Space Biff say.
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I upgraded my Catacombs & Castles to second edition.
The first game was a game I always wanted to love, but never did. It fell flat several times both for me and the people I introduced it to. I could never figure out why (it seems others couldnāt either, but then they did, and here we are).
For one, it sounds like the boss mode is better than the team v team mode. Easy to solve.
But also, first edition had really convoluted rules and no good aids. There was the rush shot, the projectile shot, the grapple shot, the vampire shot, the egg shot, the net shot, etc. etc. Many of these had arbitrary details and werenāt really different from each other mechanically, just thematically. It was too much to track and to teach. Second edition has combined similar shots, better teaching aids, and intro modes with a reduced set of icons and shots. Sounds like just what I was looking for all this time.
Itāll be hard to sell the 1e. Oh well.
I maybe could have houseruled in that same direction but the new maps, new heroes, better player aids, and simplified setup (rather than a houseruled setup on a piece of note paper) pushed me over the edge.
1:1, the collection is ok with this one
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I canāt quite claim to have played Aegean Sea but I learned the rules and played half of a 2-handed learning game. I am not sure it warrants all of Spacebiffās hatred but I understand where he is coming from in his review,
- the game is opaque, so opaque in fact that there is a whole page in the rules containing basic clues on how to actually get points before even a single rule is explained
- somehow this is even more fiddly than the usual tucking and splaying
- the faction abilities are pretty complex and yes putting them on the back of your home island on the front of which is the basic turn referenceā¦ not ideal
- triggering any card ability can be quite complex.
- and last but definitely not least: as @lalunaverde would say āthe game is spicyā āit is probably far easier to do asshole moves than to not do them. Why?
Well the basic thing you want to do is āget the goods homeā that involves
- Playing a good on an island
- Playing a ship on the same island
- Playing more population on the island than anyone else
- Playing a ātimberā card but instead of building a ship, you get to sail it
Ways how other players can mess with that?
Too many it seemsā¦ considering that you need at least 4 turns to bring a good home on your own. Others can always try to play more population but it is far easier to try and trigger some abilitiy that sacks any one of the cards you need to pull of your āheistā and destructive abilities are numerous and the more cards there are in play the easier they are to trigger.
The rulebook says it is likely that in the first game or so you will score single digit points. Points are more or less per goodāsquared. The game ends when someoneās faction deck is empty. As you empty your basic 4-card hand every other turnāactions are quite card-costlyā¦ that game end is never that far away it seems to me. And setting up the whole chain of actions necessary to bring the goods home, it seems far easier to snatch whatever someone else set up or at least sabotage themā¦
I am not discounting the game at this point but I am almost sure that any attempt to play this with my partner will end before the actual game end with a declaration that the game is awful and shall never be played again. (I never tried Mottainai on him either)
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Finally found The Corpse of Viros at a decent price.
Honestly, this is what Iāve wanted Ashes to offer from the start: coop/solo boss battler rather than 1 vs 1 duel. Looking forward to trying it.
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That box cover could go in the Box Art topic of the week thread. Very red and swish
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I recently posted elsewhere that I participated in a no-ship math trade. Thankfully, these seem to occur twice a year in the sprint/autumn, which strikes me as good timing, but I can really express why, outside of perhaps winter around here feeling like hibernation ā itās nice to get some new games for your shelves before you cease emerging from your house as winter approaches; and then in the spring, youāre, possibly, tired of the games you have and need to mix it up with a trade. I dunno, that strikes me as apt, but Iām not certain I explained it adequately.
Anyway; in the past Iāve been pretty stingy with my trade offers; I decided to be a bit more lenient this time around because, quite frankly, Iām getting tired of the same games sitting on my outgoing/for-trade shelf.
Unfortunately, I actually donāt even recall some of these decisions, though I donāt regret any of themā¦ I do have to wonder what exactly I was thinking.
Comanauts traded for Costa Rica
I really donāt remember adding Costa Rica to my list. Oh well, Comanauts needed to go. It was a āsweetenerā I received in the last math trade and I had no need for it to stick around as it is not a āhot demandā item
Clinic: Deluxe Edition w/The Extension traded for Endless Winter: Paleoamericans w/all expansions and most promos
This was an extra copy of the Clinic Deluxe base game and first expansion that I ended up with after buying a secondhand bundle that contained stuff I already had.
Endless Winter was the big game that came up in this trade that I had my eyes on. I donāt expect to find a good game here ā itās been pretty conclusively critically meh-ed and most of the community reaction has been lukewarm, at best. Iām just looking for an interesting solo experience with the kitchen sink approach for including BGG mechanisms in a game. Iāve read that it actually has a lackluster solo experienceā¦ but I assume Iāll be able to have my fun with it and, if it needs to move along, I should be able to offload it on the secondary market or the next no-ship math trade.
The Captain is Dead traded for The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31
I really donāt need hidden traitor games; itās something my partner and I are both awful at and rarely enjoy. But this one is certainly evocative, though I donāt know if Iāve ever actually seen the movie (either one, I suppose) and Iām not in a hurry to do so. Weāll see how it goes. This is the new edition (though, honestly, I canāt remember the difference)
Fields of Green traded for Nidavellir w/Thingvellir
This was a spare copy I had of Fields of Green after buying a secondhand bundle in order to get the expansion. Interestingly, I also already Nidavellir (unplayed) and really just got this in order to pick up the expansion and resell/trade the base game.
Under Falling Skies traded for Hostage Negotiator
Itās been hard to unload UFS, surprisingly. Probably because of the low retail price and the high cost of shipping.
I donāt expect to hold onto Hostage Negotiator; I donāt think itāll be my kind of game; the brutal dice and the dark theme/setting are probably just going to kill it for me. But I, at least, get a chance to try it. And if it needs to go, itāll be ready to go for the next no-ship math trade, Iām sure.
Asgardās Chosen traded for Flowerfall
This is a spare copy of Asgardās Chosen I bought locally for $5 (or was it $10?) on a BGG auction with local pickup. I already had a copy, but this was for the game and the mini expansion. Nobody is talking about this game; and Iāll be honest, I havenāt been chomping at the bit to try it out, even the official solo mode thatās available. But a good price for an out of print game by an out-of-business publisher (Mayfair) is a good price! And I managed to trade it for a game Iāve been aware of but only mildly interested in for several years. Designed by Carl Chudyk, but possibly one of his strangest designs: the core concept is that you drop cards and let them flutter and fall on the table.
Also, it comes with two copies of Win, Lose, or Banana which I was not previously aware of.
So, nothing mind-blowing. Iām interested to get Endless Winter on the table to see what it actually is (I think itās a board game; time will tell)
7 Likes
you seen to have a lot more spare copies then just Roads & Boats 
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This is a game that requires you to be drunk to play for more than 2 minutesā¦
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