Recent Boardgames (Your Last Played Game Volume 2)

Boardgames
3428

I’ve found another way to cheat in this thread. :smiling_imp:

I’ve been really unlucky getting any personal time since receiving Mind MGMT, which means that I haven’t even done my compulsory component check yet, at least not thoroughly. The game comes with a folder filled with 14 different deckboxes similar to what you’d find in a campaign game, so I wanted to do a high level component check before I knew what anything did or meant.

Sadly, I fear I may be missing a single component (and will need to make a request for a new board, as an unfortunate aside), but more interestingly, the packages contain TONS of unique extra stuff that isn’t accounted for in each boxes item list.

This was the edge of the rabbit hole.

I went onto BGG to see if I could get pointed toward a comprehensive component list so I could fully confirm everything before placing my request. Jay Cormier himself popped in to let me know I might have been too careful about looking into things, as there’s a reference to a website in the SHIFT system rules.

So now I have a slick, creepy website that wants me to enter a code. I enter “RULEBOOK” as suggested in the manual and am treated to a file for a PnP character called the Rules Lawyer, which acts as the judge’s gavel for edge case decisions, and which swaps sides any time it’s used. Cute!

Then I sign up for their (Off The Page Games’) newsletter since I’m pretty into what I’ve seen so far (and traditionally love Jay and Sen-Foong’s stuff), when a popup happens and I’m congratulated with a cipher sheet.

The game box, rules, components, absolutely EVERYTHING is plastered with cryptic little hints and codes and deceptions. I’ve already uncovered what I think is a confirmation of their next project (another comic IP and without spoiling things I’ll say it’s one of my favourite books ever). It’s just way too much.

I don’t want to offer much more than this as I dive in, so this’ll have to suffice as a brief overview of the love that was poured into this box. But my goodness has it been a complete jaw dropper of an experience so far, and I haven’t even read the rules.

10 Likes
3429

Just finished up a game of Concordia with my wife, using the Salt resource from the Salsa expansion on the Hispania map. After just a couple of turns, I was not feeling too confident about my chances, a feeling that turned out to be justified.

Not sure what it was, it just seemed like she always had a glut of resources and tons of money, while I was constantly scrambling for anything I could get. That said, the scores were pretty close, at 151 - 140. I had managed to get into every salt city, but my wife had built in all the cloth cities and had used Prefects and Mercators to good effect, which explains her bountiful money and resources.

Came down to her getting the last card on the display, winning the Concordia card with it. Good game.

6 Likes
3430

Been playing a load of Great Western Trail on BGA. Getting hammered by some really good randoms and holding my own against people I know.

Playing online means you can try loads of different strategies which is fun.

I worried that not playing it had meant I had overrated it in my mind but I still absolutely love it.

5 Likes
3431

I tried Yokohama, was considering looking for it in a trade but perhaps wont. Its a decent enough game. Cute graphics, worker placement a geographic and sequencing problem to solve. But its sort of like lots of other things.

3 Likes
3432

Played Nidavellir withy lovely wife this evening, and she continues her winning streak of games. We both did better than our first game…by exactly 20 points. Meaning the difference in scores was exactly the same as our first game. Meaning we both improved, by the same amount?

I do realize in hindsight that I could have either won or narrowed the gap in the second to last turn when I grabbed the Blacksmith hero which forces you to burn a card from another column. I chose my Fighter column, but if I had picked a different column, we would not have tied in Fighter ranks, so only I would have scored my most expensive coin, not both of us. 20ish point swing there, and since the scores were 340 - 319, that could have made the difference. Oh well, maybe next time.

6 Likes
3433

You had a better score-over-score percentage increase! Nooooooow who’s the winner!? ( it’s still her )

10 Likes
3434

I found that Lost Cities got played out very quickly. Fantastic first play, then it got stale, then I found it’s second layer of hidden depths, then once those were explored 5 games later it was done. With the likes of Battle Line and Jaipur around, Lost Cities was one of the easiest sales I’ve made. Arboretum and Hanamikoji also come to mind as doing a similar thing better.

But I’ll be darned if people don’t still LOVE Lost Cities.

3 Likes
3435

We got a lot out of Lost Cities before we eventually got our fill, but we definitely eventually got our fill. There seems to be an immediacy to the rivalries that form with the game, and I think that’s a big part of why it’s such a hit for some folks. I’ve gifted it a few times now, always to couples, and they have bitter, bitter stories to share, all of them. :sob::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

3 Likes
3436

There’s a Dice Tower vid on “Best casual two-player games” this week and they ABSOLUTELY LOVE Lost Cities.

I think you can see the whole game very quickly, and as you say there’s maybe one more level to it. I just find that I’m happy to have a game at that level an almost infinite number of times, because maybe I’ll be able to put 2-3 deals down and actually get the run on Yellow this time, just maybe - wait, what do you mean she’s playing the 5?

2 Likes
3437

Two games played today. First up was Concordia with my wife, on the Hispania map and using the Salt from Salsa. While I did a better job spreading over the map, she did a better job of acquiring cards, especially the game ending Senator play giving her cards worth 15 points, plus the 7 point Concordia card. She continues her winning streak, 139 - 116.

But! Then we played Nidavellir, and I played my best game yet. Managed to get a chain of heroes going at one point, getting three for one play, which was nice. We used the three advanced heroes for the first time, though only one got picked by my wife, the one that lets you keep all your coins in hand and play them after seeing what your opponents have played. Definitely very powerful, but not a huge point swing overall. Final scores were 349 - 275, finally giving me a win for the first time in many days.

6 Likes
3438

Played the online Steam version of Carcassonne and liked it. The interface has a small learning curve, but there are some nice online features too, like some visual help determining field ownership (a real bugaboo in the analog version). I believe you can turn off Fields completely if you like, and they have The River, which is a nice way to start the board.

1 Like
3439

Got a game day in today. Played two games of Marvel Champions and lost. Then 3 player game of Fort, Orleans, Hansa Teutonica and Unmatched.

I won all but Fort. Orleans was a first time play and it was amazing. My friend had the geeked up bits, or whatever they’re called. Great game. Hansa was a fun one too - but after Orleans, hard to live up to! Unmatched is a fun little skirmish game. I crushed everyone with Bigfoot. He just smashed everything in sight.

4 Likes
3440

Woah.

Sneakily joining fields can be a really significant strategy, which can take planning and effort over many turns. Having the game telegraph that to everyone with some kind of highlighting is crazy.

1 Like
3441

It’s not like there’s anywhere to hide these “sneaky” moves. Everyone should have easy access to that information.

2 Likes
3442

Just so you know, the Unmatched community considers Bigfoot to be “easy mode”. :wink:

OT: Had a couple more game plays today. My wife and I played two games of Jaipur. She won the first in two rounds, leading me by about 10 points each round.

I managed to win the second game, losing the first round by just 2 points, then winning the second and third rounds with scores in the 80s. Good fun, both games.

3 Likes
3443

Saturday games again yesterday. We’re really concentrating on our friend’s 10x10 and my “play all my unplayed games” challenges at the moment.

  • Mottainai: I’ve been putting this off because I’d heard that the rules were difficult to understand. I didn’t find it that tricky in the end, probably because I’ve played Innovation, Import/Export, and Fort before. Controversial (?) opinion: I think Mottainai is better than Innovation.

  • Ulm: still fun. I managed to complete a set of cards for the first time ever, and that ultimately gave me the victory :partying_face:

  • Inis: played very similarly to our last few games where there was a huge mass of sanctuaries in one location, resulting in many scuffles for control. Took less than an hour even though we had to stop to look up a tricky rule clarification and pick up our dinner half way through.

  • Ride the Rails: this one went quite differently to our last few games. Usually we end up with one mega-network growing out of the starting location, but this time we had several mini networks which only got joined up later (we were using the Germany map). My husband won partly through the tactic of sabotaging routes in which I had the most shares, by building them off into nowhere.

Last week we’d had a discussion about why my husband has a much lower win rate than either me or our friend (he asked, we weren’t just rubbing his face in it). One of the possibilities that we came up with was that he tends to pick a strategy early and stick with it, even when it’s not working out. So this week I was grumbling about his route sabotage in Ride the Rails, and his response was “you said I needed to play more tactically!” :laughing:

12 Likes
3444

And thus the student becomes the master.

4 Likes
3445

I would say Mottainai and Innovation have little to nothing in common, aside from the designer. Both very good though!

3 Likes
3446

I too share this opinion. Slight caveat of I’ve played a lot of Mottainai and only 2 games of Innovation. I love Mottainai though. In my top 20 games I’d say and I miss being in the office getting to play it at lunch breaks.

5 Likes
3447

Haven’t play Chudyk’s games that much other than Inno. :frowning_face: I love them all though

4 Likes