How do 7th Continent and Sleeping Gods compare? Because 7th Continent just frustrated us.
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I really enjoyed both for different reasons. I kinda see them as 2 games doing similar things but from different points of view.
The game is far more focused on story and narrative in SG so thereās more satisfaction in completing a quest, or seeing through an ending youāve worked towards.
7th continent is far more exploration driven because story is a bit of a veneer by comparison. Satisfaction comes more from discovery and finding your way around the continent. SG largely points you in the general direction of where to go, but there are still visual cues to pick up on as something to go investigate
From a practical side of things I found SG far fiddlier, much more set-up and breakdown (Itās still worked out well, but 7th continentās save system is outstanding by comparison).
The combat system is more fleshed out in SG and it really is a good puzzle to work out each time - though every battle is guaranteed to slow your progress to a crawl as you lick your wounds and recover your crew/ship. 7th continent has a similar dynamic though when you can only progress so far before you need to stop and hunt/camp.
One of the main reasons I wanted to get SG was because it seemed pretty flexible in being able to play a solo campaign - but easily accommodate other players dropping in and out when available. Iāve not had a chance to test this out yet - but it seems much easier to work out than 7th Continentās rules for players joining/leaving, as the only set-up differences are splitting up the crew members that are always used anyway.
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Just finished up a game of Marvel Champions. Tonight, I used Captain America and Black Widow against the standard Ultron villain. I did surprisingly well, considering everything I have heard of Ultronās difficulty, pulling off a win, though things were getting really hairy at the end there.
I think it helped that I was able to keep the first scheme from completing for quite a while, which is tricky because it can only take 3 Threat per player. Ultronās gimmick is Drones, weak little things, but they are made by putting the top card of players decks face down in their engagement area. Each player starts the game with one, and more come out from encounter cards, or when Ultron attacks the player, a new Drone is created unless you put Threat on the main scheme.
Black Widow was good at taking these out with her Widowās Bite preparation cards, and Cap had Hawkeye as an ally, who was also very helpful. Cap also has Shield Toss, which letās him do 4 damage to X enemies, X being the number of cards he discards from his hand. Meanwhile, Black Widow has Dance of Death, which does 1, then 2, then 3 damage to enemies, so she can take out up to 3 Drones with it, or a couple and hit Ultron for some damage.
I got Ultron to his second phase which made him a bit nastier and gave him a whopping 44 health. Soon after I had a couple of schemes out that were accelerating the Threat accumulation and then I had to shuffle the encounter deck which added another, so I just started racing to do damage, ignoring the schemes, and luckily it paid off.
Definitely an increase in difficulty, and the game took about two hours, which is a little longer than I would like. Still, I am finding I prefer playing two handed, as it gives me more options. I think three handed would be too much, though, but I would love to give it a go with other people.
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I just finished up another game of Rallyman GT (solo), which will be my last untimed affair. Iām looking forward to logging my laps, and I do enjoy a good hot lap, but I suspect Iāll continue to run other cars on the track (timing my primary) just for the traffic.
@RogerBW maybe you can help me a bit on this one before my dumb brain blows a gasket working out basic arithmetic; Iām trying to guess the time economy here. Iām about to race on Sweden which has a massive straightaway. Am I correct to assume Iām far better off ending a turn in 6th [gear] at the expense of some forward movement (speaking very broadly of course)?
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Generally yes.
The best times seem to come from ending turns just before a corner, then braking hard into it and accelerating out. The more challenging calculations come when there are several speed restrictions in a row.
There are at least three systems for automated opponent cars, should you want them.
The current Rallyman GT challenge closes on Wednesday. 
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2611901/isgoytra-rallyman-gt-cup-march-2021
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Iām going to have to do a bunch of reading before I join in on any of the tourney stuff. This is the first time Iām seeing mention of a redline variant (which seems to directly address a quirk I had foreseen, and ties into my earlier question), for example. That said, I absolutely expect to get into all the online metagame goodness.
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Looks like Iām about 40 posts too late to reply directly, butā¦ Empyreal!
Dang I love that game. Was pretty disappointed with the automated opponent, though. My rubric for a good solo, in order:
- Must simulate the actual decisions and problems youād face if playing against a human
- Minimize any decision making on the automatonās turn
- Minimize bookkeeping through abstraction
Empyreal puts a real load on (2), making you choose a or b too often. And that puts you in a position to topple (1) as well, as you are generally deciding āwhat is best (or worst) for me?ā depending on your approach to the game. The automaton lacked a prioritization or randomization to simulate an opponentās agenda.
It bugged me enough that I built my own prioritization rubrics, following mostly the Gaia Project approach. It makes a bit more bookkeeping (3) but improves 1 and 2, so that is in order.
Iām bothered by how big and expensive Empyreal is. It is such a unique, tremendous game and it wonāt get much distribution based on the decisions made. I would still argue itās worth it, though.
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There are priority rules: towards the nearest city they donāt have access to; if they canāt do that, then prioritize spaces of that type with a resource and where possible farther away from the nearest player. I agree that it still leaves you making more judgment calls than is ideal, especially on larger boards. But it felt viable for me. I havenāt played much against automa, though - my typical preference playing solo would just be to play a fully solo design, or in a pinch a coop game that is practical solo. I mostly broke this out because it made it possible to sort of coop a game I really like that is not a coop game as such.
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Caught a little of the SUSD stream yesterday evening and decided to give Cascadia a go. Thereās a very straight forward solo mode here: https://cascadiagame.github.io/
Very enjoyable game, but it got me wondering about Calico as there had been some comparisons, though mostly saying how theyāre quite different. Turns out thereās a web solo mode to that too: https://myautoma.github.io/games/calico/index.html
Now I just need to see which one my brain fixates on over the next few days before I inevitably buy oneā¦
Or both.
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Oh, I didnāt know about the web Calico.
Iāve been enjoying Calico quite a bit since I got it a couple weeks back.
I have also played the Cascadia web thing and liked that one as well. There are similarities in that they are both puzzles. I feel from playing Calico for a few times that the puzzle is harder but itās been a while that I played Cascadia and I may yet get that one when it comes around to being translated.
We brought a box full of games with us on our mini vacation, but all that got played was Flux:Marvel because the 6YO demanded it. We probably played 10 games over three days. It was good family fun, exactly as advertised.
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Just finished playing Unmatched against my wife. Medusa again versus my Dracula. 'Twas a short game. Feels like I never shuffle these new decks enough on the first go, as both of my Beastforms and all three of my Feints came up really early. Being my only defense cards, I burned through them really quickly.
Got to maneuver quite a bit and did take out two Harpies and hit with one Beastform for 4 damage. Moral victory right there. She whupped me though, with 11 health remaining. Probably could have lasted a bit longer, but I was hoping to hit the last Harpy with Draculaās ability at the beginning of my turn, but died first. Still fun to play. I see interesting possibilities with Draculaās deck.
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A Zoom Hansa Teutonica with @Whistle_Pig on Monday. My wife absolutely battered everyone, it was brutal. I love HT, so much game in around an hour; I feel like thereās strategies galore to try out without considering the tactical element of the game.
A first ever play of Tigris & Euphrates on triqqy this week. 3 new players and one guy who had about 5 plays. Not a great interface, but games are better than no games! Somehow, I won with a massive total of 4 points. I think the interface and being new to the game led to some accidental chaos and wars started by mistake but itās really well put together. I definitely want to play it again soon.
Organising a Zoom game of The Resistance tonight with people we know but who donāt know each other. Itās going to be interesting!
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A friend came round, so we got MicroMacro City spread out in the garden. My dog then immediately ran around us for attention and jumped onto the map. 
So now my copy is personalised with paw prints.
The game is really fun. Itās inventive in how it all works, and I like how many cases branch out from the scene of the crime, rather than a simple linear path of A leading to B leading to C. Thatās probably as much as I can say without spoilers.
It is definitely expensive for what it is, and probably would have worked better in a book form with different cases on different pages. Having a big map is used as a thing in a few cases, but it also means that a lot of the cases were previously spotted in solving other cases. One or two cases were just piecing the things we had already seen in order.
In a couple of hours we got through three quarters of the cases. But the value comes in sharing it with friends and family. It is still very much Whereās Wally, and though it does use the conceit well, it doesnāt really subvert it or do anything that wows me. It is what you expect.
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The Resistance worked a treat over Zoom. We had 7 to start and then our friend had to leave.
We played Avalon (because thatās the website I have) but stripped out all the roles apart from Merlin. The good guys won both first games but then lost because the spies fluked a guess for Merlin. The Spies won the last 3 games, but all went to the final quest.
The way the tension ramps up as successive teams are voted down is fantastic. Youāre constantly scrabbling for information as the good guys because 1 spy on a quest crashes it. Even after 5 plays we were getting a meta and the last vote on the final quest was so tense.
It works really well over Zoom and I canāt wait to play it again.
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Is it bad to say I thought I was letting him win?
Not in throw the game kind of way but in a play a different style that was more aggressive than my normal style because then itās either quicker to die or win.
I do think I had a slight edge because The sisters movements were similar to the harpies which I know how to play.
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18Chesapeake with our group this week. Itās confirmed my feelings from the first time I tried an 18xx - theyāre just not for me. They just donāt seem fun: lots of maths, trying to screw people over via stocks, weird route building and super long/slow playtime. But three (of five) of our group did say they enjoyed it, so my opinion is definitely just my opinion. I just canāt imagine wanting to play one instead of Irish Gauge or Chicago Express which have a similar feel to me but are way shorter and simpler. Iām not sure I really āgetā most stocks games though - Iād rather just have my own company and play as that rather than the own bits of lots of companies and maybe a controlling share in one or twoā¦
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18Chesapeake is designed to be cutthroat and mean. If you have a chance, try a design by Lonny Orgler, they tend to be less mean and now focused on running good companies.
The pace of play can improve with familiarity.
But, admittedly, 18xx just isnāt for everybody.
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All things considered, I would also rather play a Cube Rail game.
If youre willing @Bondy034 , are you keen on trying Imperial/Imperial 2030 by Mac Gerdts?
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Iāll play an 18XX but I have no need to own one.
One thing I do prefer over cube rails is the ability to sell stock though.
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