Recent Boardgames (Your Last Played Game Volume 2)

[Deviates]

Played a couple of games via Zoom recently - Welcome To and Ganz Schon Clever. Had probably my worst game ever of Welcome To, party down to not being able to count to 6. Surprisingly that did seem to cause any problems with Ganz, winning that by around 60 points.

Also had the chance to play my girlfriend at Taverns of Tiefenthal, El Dorado, Agricola ACBAS and Barenpark over the last week.

I think I’ve become obsessed with Taverns, I enjoy this game so much. Everything about it is satisfying, and even if you have a duff round you’re pretty confident the next will be decent. I re-watched the SUSD review recently and it’s probably the one I disagree with the most, even though they were fairly positive about it. Couple of close games with the gf, both scoring in the 140s, but me winning both.

With El Dorado we had one close game that she won, the other I ran away with it - very rare for us when playing this. Curious to hear if anyone has either of the expansions (one is a standalone game too) and what they make of them?

I’ve played Agricola ACBAS a bit, not a huge amount, but I’m still not entirely sure what the best strategy is. Some games something seems to click and I get a huge score, other times I end up with much less and get destroyed. One huge score win, to two humiliating loses on this one.

Barenpark has become our ‘Sunday morning breakfast in the sun’ game. It’s such a light game, but is great fun. We’ve become pretty keen on these kind of games that give you your own little puzzle to solve, and then you compare scores at the end. This really hits that spot, and there’s something really satisfying about covering up an entire tile. She won both games, but I still managed to cover every space so the OCD part of me was happy.

[Deviates]

I keep seeing Villainous around, and I am tempted. I know a few none gamers that the theme alone will be an easy sell for. I might way to see if the Marvel Villainous brings anything new to the table before buying though.

[pillbox]

After playing Villainous with my partner, I finally got Rallyman GT to the table for a solo session. In order to warm up my tires for my debut in the ISGOYTRA Rallyman GT Cup 2020’s May session, I thought I would go through and play all of the stages starting with January. This is good, because the series organizer (whom you may know…) has published the results for the January (and only the January) results, so I can get a bearing on how I did (and ensure it’s within a degree of magnitude of the other entrants). My result was 6:36, which I think is very good. I mean, I have serious questions about how some people pulled off the incredible times that they did, but I’ll admit I probably played it pretty safe, having no losses-of-control.

Here’s how the race looked right before the light tree went green:

And here I am, screaming across the finish line:

[FunkJem]

Aww, you guys!. It’s nice to be back! Warm fuzzies, everywhere.

I miss pushing cubes around. I think I waxed lyrical about Hansa Teutonica on the old forums (sob, honk, sob) and I see Quinns and the others have too … it’s just cubes and a board … whisper it … possibly one of the best cubes and a board euros around. But it’s so nasty. And so pure. And so satisfying. It’s terrific. I can’t find it on any online game thingies, more’s the pity

[Benkyo]

@Snobbydolphin

I’m curious about any opinions on the expansions and comparisons to Pax Pamir (do I need to pledge for the reprint if I’m really liking Root?).

Pax Pamir 2 is really very different to Root. I much prefer PP2.

In Root, you are all doing different things, but it seems to me to boil down to grinding out points however you can, according to your personal scoring scheme.

In PP2, there are only 2-4 opportunities to score in the entire game, so everyone is trying to manipulate the board and their court into a configuration that will net them the most points when scoring occurs.

In Root, the four of you represent everything on the board.

In PP2, the three NPC coalitions are the main strength on the board. Each player can be allied with one of them, those alliances can switch very easily, and those scoring opportunities are all about whether an NPC faction you are allied and influential with is dominant.

There’s also a circle of cards around the board that represents each player’s “court”, where spies can move, battle, and betray (removing cards from the game).

In Root, you are dealt cards randomly from a common deck.

In PP2, you draft cards from a common market, using an “untaken cards increase in value” system, but with a zero-sum economy - no extra money is injected into or taken out of the game, barring a few rare events that might never happen, and some leverage cards that provide money that needs to be paid back if you lose the card.

Finally, Root features quite a bit of luck in dice rolling and card drawing, while PP2 has only which cards are in the deck and the order in which cards appear in the market as a random element. I don’t mind either approach.

[lalunaverde]

Oh dearest @FunkJem , I have bought the Hansa Teutomica big box from Dice & Decks, which had a good preorder offer and with a friend piggybacking, I got free shipping.

Bought that since it’s a pain to grab all of the 3 expansions.

[bruitist]

@FunkJem

I can’t find it on any online game thingies, more’s the pity

It’s definitely on something as SU&SD streamed it recently. I can’t remember the platform they used though.

[pillbox]

@FunkJem

I can’t find it on any online game thingies, more’s the pity

@bruitist

It’s definitely on something as SU&SD streamed it recently.

I believe they used the Tabletopia version.

I heard (but haven’t checked) that there was a TTS mod for it, but it may have been a victim of EA Asmodee purging unlicensed mods of their IP.

[IssiNoho77]

You could try this one

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2041786618 if it’s still working

[COMaestro]

It was Tabletopia, but it is a premium game, so you need to have a paid account to play it. If one person has a Gold account, they can invite guests to play, so that would be the cheapest method if you have a regular group: pool funds to pay the monthly fee for a gold account and play any game on Tabletopia you want that way.

[pillbox]

@IssiNoho77

if it’s still working

It appears to be! In addition, I had already made a backup of that particular mod and completely forgot!

[IssiNoho77]

It was in that curated list of the BGG top 500 mods - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2086043930

[Snobbydolphin]

This is probably the most succinct and effective distillation I’ve seen. Thank you! The decision space for PP2 seems way more tense than I’d previously thought, which greatly appeals to me. Sounds like it’s much more difficult to determine your opponents’ approaches and intent.

Aw, heck. I think I’m gonna have to get on my first kickstarter if late backing is still available.

[Chewy77]

Had another go last night with Ticket to Ride - Europe against my daughter. This time luck was on my side, and I managed to achieve the largest route and both of us did manage the larger target ticket. If anything, I was a bit unlucky not getting pink cards or locomotives for my last connection (Brest to Pamplona, I believe) which gave my daughter a chance to get closer in the scores.

Cannot wait to play it with 3 or 4, I am sure it will be a lot of fun.

[pillbox]

Another time trial complete as I catch up with the Rallyman GT ISGOYTRA RALLYMAN GT CUP 2020. This time I played the February circuit. I definitely experimented with more risks this time and get bit by it twice, once putting me in a 00 which represents a huge penalty (though, diminished in this particular championship ruleset). In the spirit of the championship, I won’t share my time or my stats. More than anything, I learned a few things and I’m eager to try out a few new strategies. Primarily, looking at descending gear sequences as the optimal time to do risky flat-out rolls and, most notably, working on setting up better gear sequences through corners rather than my initial, gut-reaction in most cases of racing up to the corner to end my turn only to start the next turn with 1 or more brake dice.

[RogerBW]

Just so you know - it’s fine to talk about times once that month’s results have been published, and they’re always at the end of that month’s challenge thread.

[pillbox]

I hadn’t read to the end of the Feb thread so I didn’t realize that!

In summary, my Feb track results were: 7:08

Full stats

ISGOYTRA: ISGOYTRA Rallyman GT Cup 2020 February

Special: Special 1

Class: GT6

Starting Weather: rain

Starting Tyres: rain

(08:20-01:12) = 07:08

123c4(5):bb1cc234(6):b2cc1(4):cc123(5):b1cc234(6):bb123cc4500(7)!:0:123456cc(8):b43c2c1(6):1cc24(5):bb123(3):b12cc30(5)!:123(3):b12cc(4):12cc34(6):b23cc456(-1)

Total Time: 07:08

The key highlight of my bravery stupidity was this turn:

bb123cc4500(7)!

“Wow!” you say, assuming you understand the notation. For those that don’t, that’s me rolling two brake dice, two coast dice, and gears 1-5, all at once. Well, immediately following that and the ensuing turn to get back to gear 0, I did this:

123456cc(8)

Which is gears 1-6 and two coast dice all flat-out; this time it came out in my favor.

[IssiNoho77]

I’m one chapter into Monochrome Inc, great fun. I’ve tried to hide anything too spoilery, but I don’t think there’s any danger of seeing this ruining it for anyone.

[EnterTheWyvern]

On TTS played a 3 player game of Teotihuacan. After an experimental start where I was lagging severely I clawed my way back in to a barn storming second on 171 points behind a 190 leader. I had a lot of fun and still really enjoy the subtleties in this one.

I’m in the process of getting to grips with locking workers now having not done it almost at all for my first maybe 9 games. It’s interesting what it does to your cocoa rhythm for harvesting and spending. Will have to ponder it and try a few other things out

[Chewy77]

Suggested by @Captbnut I bought and installed the Twilight Struggle app on my phone. Gosh, is this game tough!!!

I have played just three times (one the tutorial, where after following it, I managed to lose to the USSR in two rounds before even reaching Middle War) and always been battered by the machine. I have a feeling this game is going to take some good time to get semi-decent at…