Played make the difference with the monsters. This is a great kid friendly game and would recommend it as a stocking filler. The art is cleverly rough that your marks are near indistinguishable and there is something incredibly fun in creating and playing your own spot the difference.
4 Likes
We played a couple of games with my parents over the weekend: Wingspan and Scout. Wingspan was their choice because they played it with their game group but the rules explanation had been a bit all over the place. I think we helped them solidify their understanding! My dad also found an app that plays the bird’s call if you scan the card, which was a good 5 minutes of entertainment
8 Likes
Played a full game of God of War: the Card Game today, and it was good fun. Started out in Helheim where I had to eliminate all the enemies while keeping flames lit on the far columns, as if they go out and trigger again, you lose. Got through it without too much difficulty. Then on to Aelfheim, where I had to eliminate a Nest and a miniboss type creature, which was pretty easy as you can eliminate smaller enemies to get items in your deck which damage them both severely. Finally chose Baldur as the final boss, which got me closest to being defeated, and would have been without the 2 points of healing from Mimir. Got really lucky with die rolls to win the scenario and the game.
Due to the limited scenes in the game (10 total, I think), this is not a game to binge and play everything, IMO. Better played in small doses, as it gives you time to forget the particulars of a given scene. That said, the gameplay is entertaining, so even replaying a scene a couple of times will still be enjoyable, there just won’t be any surprise to it. And I doubt this sold enough to get an expansion, as more scenes would definitely give the game more legs. Though with the release of GoW: Ragnarok, mayyyyyyybeeeeee?
4 Likes
I thought I was getting close. I played another solo game. This time, I lost by a smaller, yet still significant, margin.
The good news is that it appears there’s no real risk is me “cracking the code” and becoming unapproachably good at this game in a way that would alienate players around the table.
5 Likes
The ongoing duel of New Yerk vs Two Tubs is heating up. While the baby watches on.
Lesson: Do not play legacy games exhausted. It’s not “oh well, ha ha,” it’s “holy crap that well is going to stay there for 21 more sessions what have I done.”
Continuing the indoctrination. Snug as a Bug in a Rug. Basically Peaceable Kingdom’s response to My First Orchard. This one’s a hit. Glitterluck requires counting and following directions, this one has a little more concept overhead. Still working toward Monza, and thanks all for the recommendations on stepping stones!
Oh, and Bluey Trouble. That’s going to be a hit. I never realized that Trouble is just Pachisi with a popper but there you go.
(Footnote: Purple fuzzy bear ears. Pink unicorn print jammies. As @whistlepig once said, fashion icon!
11 Likes
Ginkgopolis
I have seen the future, and it is filled with octagonal cylinders perched high atop buildings.
Exactly 3 types of buildings, as you might expect, that produce everything a person could want: resources (delicious), more buildings (structural!), and, of course, victory points (also delicious).
But, I’m afraid to say, my friends, the future also has automated solo opponents. And while that may sound good, I’m here to tell you that he cheats.
But, really, it’s pretty good. Nothing like the multiplayer game would feel, I imagine. In fact, the solo experience and the multiplayer experience could probably be considered two completely different games, outside of the fact that they share components and a good portion of the rule set.
I lost, 49 to 70. How did “Hal” get 70 points? Cheating. How did I get 49 points? Not cheating. I think we can see where this is going. In order to beat the solo AI, you will have to cheat.
Or… play… better than… I did. One of those two options should clinch your victory.
What a wonderfully elegant game; I really want to both play it again solo, but also play it 3 or 4 player (which I suspect will be it’s sweet-spot).
11 Likes
I played Gink twice on BGA, not quite synchronous but rapid play (like 4-5 hours start to finish) and fell head over heels for it (see: Xavier Georges fanboy).
Then I played three games true asynch, like weeklong, and it was really bland. Like, I think it turned off the people I was teaching for life.
There’s too much board state and plans-in-progress to carry over from turn to turn, and what your opponents did is both really important but also not apparent (contrast to Keyflower, which kind of works async - also a lot of board state to carry over but there it is more obvious what everyone else did, if you take the time to look).
Takeaway is that I have been dying to play again and this solo mode was my primary hope. If it’s more an “alternate universe” version of the game, too bad. Still going to try it though! I was hopeful after the success of Troyes.
2 Likes
I’d be interested in how the solo lens compares to your other experiences.
Imagine playing the game against someone who cheats, but also plays randomly – a type of solo opponent I’m often not a big fan of (looking at you, Rococo!). I think, perhaps, what lead me to come away with a positive experience may be the enjoyment of the mechanisms themselves. At which point, you might conclude that if you have played it multiplayer, the solo experience may feel comparatively shallow.
2 Likes
I refer to these bots as button mashers. They are sadly prevalent. Sometimes I play and think about how a bot could have been made better. Sometimes it’s just the best that could be done with the model.
The worst is when an action requires prerequisites. Example Rococo, if there is an Orange frock on display and only one orange bolt of cloth in the drawers. You take the orange cloth, which would normally secure you the frock, and then the bot just grabs it for free. Those are the most frustrating events. A fan made Pulsar 2849 did this as well, where you can take the only die showing a 6, paying a high cost, and then the bot claims the “6” transponder you were eyeing without the prerequisite.
This is often where I cheat (depending on how central it was to me).
2 Likes
Played a quick game of Resist! today, playing the first scenario in the book. Did horribly! Accomplished the first mission pretty easily, but it required revealing three of my Maquis. So then came the second round and I drew rather horribly. Which was almost guaranteed, as I had no spies in my first hand, even after drawing an extra card or two. Had one mission’s guards all revealed, and due to the types, I had no possible way of completing it, so went in blind to a different one. Amazingly, I had just enough to succeed at the mission, but at the cost of flipping a civilian card for each remaining guard. 5, in this case. And you fail if there are 5 civilian casualties. Flipped 2, 0, 1, 2, 1, so lost.
Just a brutal game.
6 Likes
Played Ethnos with 6 players last night.
Fast, simple and excellent. The end of game timer is such an elegant mechanic but adds a delightful push your luck element (in Round 2 I got boned)
13 Likes
Sounds like, perhaps, a bit too much Wizard sugar and not enough… Duris.
4 Likes
Terraforming Mars + Prelude + Venus Next + Colonies - Venus adds in little rules so it was fine. The game was slow due to all new players. But the game still only went for 8 generations. Which is how I see it end so far.
However, I am having the impression that Venus and Colonies adds more engine cards than terraforming cards, which nudges the game towards longer duration which would allow engine building plays to succeed. But I don’t have enough plays to say so.
I am liking all of these 3 expansions so far. I’m not looking for depth, as I can just play a Chudyk or Race for the Galaxy or Res Arcana, but for the theme and ROI analysis gameplay, I find this satisfactory
Railways of the World + England and Wales - I have an outdated expansion of England and Wales, but the Great Britain map is on its way from EGG, which I got on their sale. It was pretty fun with the new “worst VP goes first” turn order.
The ROTW auction is so toothless that I would opt for Age of Steam-style auction rules or with “worst VP goes first”. This cut down time on auctioning (gasp I know. Taking away auctions!), and the new rules gave me pause several times during the game where I have to decide whether I want to overtake someone on VP/Income track, but that means I go down on the turn order. Or do you want to take a different action to delivering a good to go ahead, but I’d have less income. Very interesting.
Tempel des Schreckens (several plays) - yep. People still call me “chaos” because I’m always ambiguous on whether I am a good guy or a bad guy, regardless on which role I’m playing. I still think it’s an interesting play due to the fact that both teams don’t know who are their team mates, and so testing players and finding your team is crucial - along with each team objective. Indeed, when I decided to trust one of the bad guys and spoke honestly, they used that information I gave to give themselves an advantage.
Never again. Never trust anyone again.
Just One - someone manage to get the correct answer with only 2 clues: “Real” and “Trapper”.
Take a guess: Fur
Played some Spirit Island with @EnterTheWyvern tonight. I picked up the Mist spirit which is challenging in a great way. But the Shroud’s sponginess made me want to play a hard defence spirit next time. I often play attacker spirits, so this would be great.
8 Likes
We just gave the Rails of the North expansion for Great Western Trail a spin, and… wow. Wow wow wow. So much more crunch. So many more decisions. We absolutely loved it, and there’s a good chance this will become the new base game, much like Quacks of Quedlinburg + Herb Witchesor Everdell + Bellfaire + Newleaf.
Oh, and I lost HILARIOUSLY badly, 67-142. 
10 Likes
Night 2 of the Unmatched league!
This time I had the choice between Dracula and Sherlock, and though I love me some Drac, I had to go with Sherlock.
Oddly enough, my first match was against the same player I went against first last time. And, we had the Cumber-match! He had Doctor Strange, a deck I have never seen before. His ability is after an attack, he can take 1 damage to put the attack card on the bottom of his deck and draw a card. He has Wong as a sidekick (naturally), both are ranged with move 2. And there are healing cards too! Nasty fighter to go against.
But…Sherlock! I was able to discard two of his healing cards, made some good guesses to cancel attacks or discard cards and just generally wore him down. I lost Watson and eventually took out Wong. He emptied his deck, but kept using his ability to keep cards in hand, and one of my last defense cards made me draw my last 2 cards. But, he was at 2, I played Counterpunch, and though he defended the combat damage, the 2 After Combat damage finished him.
1 - 0 so far.
Next up was the person I lost against last time, playing the Marvel dual hero fighter, Cloak and Dagger. I have at least looked through their deck, though I have not played them. They only have 8 health each, but they have some healing and some really good attacks and defenses. If Cloak attacks and wins by 2, you have to discard a card. If Dagger attacks and wins by 2, the player gains another action.
Again, I lost Watson, though not before I was able to heal up the damage Sherlock received and get both his fighters down to 5 or 6 health. There was a lot of maneuvering for position, but at one point he caught me with just a few cards in hand and managed to hit me with Cloak with a card that moved Dagger adjacent to me, who proceeded to attack me three more times, two of which I couldn’t defend as by then I only had a scheme in hand.
Luckily I was able to survive and after some more back and forth he ended up burning through his deck. I got to see his hand with one of my cards and he only had a scheme and an attack left, so The Game Is Afoot (Attack 5 card) took out Dagger, and I maneuvered away and Cloak died after the damage from being unable to draw a card when maneuvering.
2 - 0.
Final match was against Sinbad, who has seven voyage cards that increase his movement value as they are discarded, and also power up the attack value of other voyage cards. Started out okay, getting him down to 10 while Sherlock was full, but Watson took heavy damage and was eventually defeated before he could do much.
That left me with Sherlock unable to run away without boosting, as Sinbad was up to 6 move. I was just about to make him discard the one voyage card that pulls all the discarded ones into his hand, but he played it right before my turn. Pain followed as I got pinned between him and his Porter, and he always seemed to have a full hand of cards while I would keep drawing one card I could use and one Watson card, preventing me from attacking as I needed the defense. I got out of the pin, but was down to 1 health, while Sinbad was at 4. All I had was a Feint for defense after maneuvering and the Porter came and killed me.
So, 2 - 1 for the night. I hope to get one night of 3 - 0. We’ll see how it goes in 2 weeks. In any case, lots of fun was had and everyone has been a really good sport.
10 Likes
On Wednesday we played Dwellings of Eldervale, which is a very deluxified action-selection game with the addition of dice-based fighting and big monsters. The main aim is to maximize your points through a combination of multipliers (building houses, buying cards, and moving up tracks) and there are also various quests and bonuses that earn you extra points. The monsters seem to add a bit of interest rather than being a core part of the game.
I’d happily play it again if the owner particularly wanted to, but I’m not in a hurry (they offered it as an option for the weekend, and I opted for Anachrony instead).
Something that comes up with our group semi-frequently is that I don’t especially like the generic dragons and wizards fantasy setting that Dwellings (and plenty of other games) uses. This seems to personally offend several people to a point that I find confusing because I will still play those games with them and they have similarly strong biases against settings that I find engaging (turns out that trains and German industry aren’t for everyone 
). Has anyone else come across this sort of thing?
9 Likes
I have done some hardcore trick taking this week and playing what my friend bought for me when he was in Japan and Korea over the summer.
Fist up was Schadenfreude. This has 2 wrinkles - first of all the player who plays the second highest card wins the trick. Next up is the scoring - you score for the card you played to win the trick, and then every off suit card. You want to get 40, but if you go over you lose, the game ends and the highest score below 40 wins.
It’s a brilliant package in a very recognisable shell. The scoring is really clever with lots of big moments and trying to do well, but not too well.
Yesterday, we played @lalunaverde favourite Tindahan. This is trick taking combined with area control and you don’t even have to play a card! It’s so, so clever and after one session sits just behind Tichu as my second favourite TT/ climbing game.
The decision space of when to play, when not to play and, as lead player whether to not play but change the trump suit is so, so cool. Absolutely awesome.
11 Likes
A sort of set collection and area controlling game. I’ve only played it with two players which I thought worked fine, mind you that maybe because I won my first game with very little idea of what I was doing
The mechanics play well and I’ll play it again.
9 Likes
I hear good things about this one, not easy to get hold off unfortunately
I make no secret of the fact that I find genre fantasy* very dull. There’s been so much of it, especially mangled through D&D and back out again, that it seems very difficult to say anything with it that hasn’t already been said, especially in a medium like boardgames which tends to be quite weak on narrative in the first place. Like you I’ll play the games but I’ll generally suggest something else, then go along with whatever the group picks. This does irk one player I know.
* the term the contributors to The Encyclopaedia of Fantasy settled on after the editor wouldn’t let them use “rotefant”.
4 Likes