I love how you get cool skill dice by levelling up. I never got into the story, but I was too immersed on the dice building, and the typical “kick down the door, kill enemies, get loot” spiel. I started board gaming with Descent 2nd edition and it reminds me of that playing TMB.
I’m thinking of getting Jaws of the Lion to play this kind of gameplay again. Any other games like this to consider? (a question to Wyvern and to everyone)
Mage Knight is still the best, I think.
That said, I prefer the theme of DungeonQuest (you get nothing for winning a fight, except not dying, there’s no “levelling”, and the only loot you are interested in is what you can carry out in the unlikely event you don’t die).
A friend kindly lent me his copy of Mage Knight. I’ll get into that this week then. Thanks, Benkyo!
I was considering moving on one of my copies of full Gloomhaven so we could discuss that if you want. I loved Gloomhaven, remains one of my all time favourite games, but I’m burnt out on it after 200+ games. I’m now one with the system and there’s no exploration for me anymore just rote parsing of information now. That being said thinking back the game is so much fun. The story is decent enough but not the main driver, the whole resource management with risk chucked in is great. Characters evolving in how they play is interesting with the choice of cards you add and then having a big pool to play your same character differently each mission. Soooo good.
Jaws of the Lion came along after I burnt out so I can’t fully comment, but it’s meant to be easier so you might not be as engaged.
Other than that I’m out of references as I tend to dislike many games in this ilk. Although for dice chucking silliness remind me to introduce you to Warriors some day
And this is exactly what I hate about DungeonQuest. 
Agreed on Mage Knight though.
Nah, you got slapped about the head by the Invaders! 
A quick round of Fleet Dice this morning. Me vs. Ruth. She decimated my wharf early, but not before I could sneak in a few dibs, which I was able to make good use of. I pursued a heavy income/coin bonus strategy but sadly missed my king crab license by one due to a few mistakes, and missed an easy extra 13 points as a result.
Just the same, crushed my prior best with a 78 and squeaked into “O Captain, My Captain” range. Admittedly, this wasn’t an easy game for ol’ Ruth so I have to give some credit to lady luck and choppy waters.
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We completed the back half of Maracaibo last night, with a final score of 177 for my partner, to my paltry 144.
Wow, what a game!
As mentioned in the interim post, I spun my wheels (slapped my oars? Fanned my sails?) for much of the game, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t able to at least dabble in some quality play. By game’s end I finally managed to put a strategy into place that would have made for a great lynchpin to my overall pursuits… had I implemented it two full rounds earlier. While it was the only thing I managed to get running successfully, I did start to see some other combos and opportunities, again usually too late.
In short, it doesn’t take long to see what the game is inviting you to explore, and working out how to achieve a given pursuit is so rewarding. My partner was on the cusp of a legitimately great game already, with several options at her disposal. With a little more familiarity she would have broken well over 200 points. Both of us are hungry to have at it again, to correct our mistakes and see how far we can push it.
So far what’s delighting me the most is that it doesn’t feel like a gauntlet of mechanisms just to convert some VP. It has its point salad moments, but for the most part you need to work hard to earn good point conversions, and that never feels obfuscated.
It hits a lot of the same buttons as Yokohama (for me) in this regard: Everything you need to do is at least a few steps deep, frequently you’ll need to pivot, but so long as you remain sharp you’ll end on top. The winner is always going to be the person whose engine best exploited the game state.
We’ll be playing this one again very soon. My partner is smitten.
So I played a game straight from the mind of a four year. Inexplicably it involves not one but two top trumps decks and a pile of wooden blocks.
Fun was had.
Rules from memory
Pick a top trump from each pile and play top trumps.
The winner of both battles (if any) picks from the Thomas pile, picks a stat and moves that many blocks in the tower.
The four year old wins.
In the event of any rules conflict refer to rule 3?
Refer to the independent adjudicator. Who’ll consult the latest rule book.
I’m not sure about their independence, as it’s my opponent
A future Knizia to be sure… although having multiple decks of cards in a game sounds a bit like Rosenberg maybe with a dose of Vlaada for the sheer audacity of the wooden block stack
As an aside, I love this and play along.
We stifle creativity of kids with the schooling system so anything that gets them out of it is fantastic. I did some simple one shot RPGs last year with both kids and they loved it.
Games Night last evening, and we played my copy of Brass: Lancashire after a request from Saturday. It was going to be a 3 players game but we had a late addition and we had to reset and I had to reteach. I still have not played this game at its best with 3 (according to various rumors and I think BGG).
I did well in the canal era, although I could never really get my money making going, so started with a low income (2 per turn or so) the railway era. I got blocked more times than I liked, plus being an overseer of the rules did drain me, but the game was well liked, even though it took the whole session (3.5 hours or so?).
I ended up my last turn truly skint with just 9 pounds, after going for a shipyard at nearly top prices of iron and 3 pounds a pop of carbon, so I could only pass on my very last round, hoping for somebody to build a coal mine. I think at 4 the game corners you a bit too much on luck of the draw dependency. Also, if it had been Birmingham I could have used my last two cards as a wild, which I think it opens up possibilities in a game like this. But not in Lancashire. The North is harsh like that 
Not surprisingly, the player that had blocked me the most won, building 2 shipyards in railway era is always helpful like that. So after a surprising end score count up that placed me third (I was convinced I would be last) we called it a night.
Just played a solo game of The Bloody Inn using the long game rules. Did somewhat middling, with only 130 points at the end. I think I built too many annexes, and it did not help that I had a bunch of money on the track at the end, when I had a 3-rank annex that would have given me 36 points at the end of the game, so I only got 2 for it. Always important to cash out your funds for checks!
Now my Benadryl is kicking in, so I better clean up before I pass out.
Yesterday we had a rematch of 1862. We managed to knock a couple of hours off our previous play time, and the score is now one all.
With games of Through The Desert and Nidavellir in the middle.
2 cards to develop anywhere is a thing in Lancashire too though?
Last night I played against the second monster on the Primal: The Awakening demo on TTS. It was really good, using the alternate weapons and masteries plus the different monster really changed things up form the first game.
Again reassuring after having spent many monies on the KS. It might possibly suit @lalunaverde’s desire for a campaign/upgrade your dudes tactical combat game. Although no dice 
Is it? It must be on the rule book and I forgot about it. It does not appear on the player guide card…
