Played three games of Kingdomino with my wife today. Kids were being pretty chill, so we got to play with frw interruptions. She won the first, really blowing me out of the water with her Mines. I won the next two games, with much tighter margins. We played with the scoring variants where you get extra points for a perfect 5x5 grid, and also if your castle is in the center of the grid. We both managed these bonuses every time except for our last game where my wife was unable to place her last tile. A nice and simple end to gaming in July.
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Itās been a while since I sat down with my favorite. But today was the day. I sent Downpour Drenches the World and Many Minds Move As One against a Brandenburg-Prussia Level 2 (no Scenario) on Spirit Island.
Not having played in a while, I had to backtrack several times and correct bad moves. At least with these two, I didnāt have any terrible targeting restrictions that usually cause my mistakes.
In the first three rounds, I got two rather unlucky events (Bureaucrats Adjust Funding give bonus towns adding to those from Prussia and Relentless Optimism prevent my fear generation from taking off and the bonuses from the rest of the cards fizzled) and most of my early fear cards fizzled with little effect.
Then Many Minds got lucky finding out how to summon Sea Monsters to their aid (it needs blue and red elements for the secondary trigger and luckily Many Minds could provide both) thus cleaning up a major stronghold on their board while at the same time generating a huge amount of fear among the invaders. (I remember very few such a lucky major power draws)
But Downpour just didnāt want to become anything like in my previous games. Only in the last two turns did I remember to use her isolation powers to prevent further spread. And on the very last turn when she used Foundations Sink Into The Mud for a whopping 3 times to clean out the invadersā coastal stronghold (there was another one further inland, but it didnāt matter at that point).
After 7 rounds, the fear deck was empty and the invaders left the island screaming something about the Sea Monsters and rain stormsā¦.
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Right, after watching a gameplay of Spirit Island to see if I was doing something wrongā¦ yes I was! I was undercutting myself by just getting 1 fear from destroyed cities. Not that I remember destroying more than one on my first game, so I donāt think that really mattered much. And I was putting the invaders cards wrong, by having the deck next to the explore section instead of over it. Which I also think it did not matter much.
So after this bit of regrouping (and quite glad I was not doing things very wrong) I had a game with Rivers Surge in Sunlight (somehow this name stuck) still against no nationality but with a blight card now.
I was really lucky with the invader cards, and using the power to move explorers and / or towns, I avoided having the invaders building much. With the help of the Dahan, that I could even make grow a bit, I had obliterated the towns and explorers nice an early without having much energy spent. I went for a major power, and got a really good one (something to do with drought? Which I found funny, being a water spirit) that helped me eliminate more towns from the island.
After that I could focus on the initial city from the jungle patch by the coast. I got a couple of helpful fear cards, and even though I was hoping to win by keeping cities and settlements at bay on level 2 fear, I won well before that, by smashing every single explorer and downgrading the city to town with the drought card. If anything, I was a bit disappointed that I could not clean the blight in the land before ending the game.
So now the explorers do not dare come to the island where a city and three towns disappeared underwater, or dried out.
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Well, that sounds like you got that well in hand.
A mistake I made early on with Spirit Island was that explorers only appear in coastal lands or those adjacent to a city or town. If there are only explorers in a land it will not cause further explorers to appear. This is not always an issue but the closer one inches to victory the more a single explorer not appearing can make a difference.
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The Mind
Monikers
Bulletā¤ - played the Boss Fight mode by myself to get the grips of the game. Played as Adelheid Beckenbauer against Rie Akagi as the boss. The boss pretty much beat me easily.
Bulletā¤ easily is one of the most innovative games Iāve seen and play. Itās puzzly, but doesnt resort to the typical Euro fabric of bean counting or the remixing of existing mechanisms (not that they are inherently lame. I find it hard to call them innovative)
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I must admit on my first game I thought initially that the explorers would move about, instead of popping up afresh. Then I remembered how the app on my phone would make them appear instead of moving them from one area to another.
With regards to exploring area, I thankfully got it right through the app, that if no building or coastal areas are adjacent, they cannot pop up. Which makes sense. But I can see how easily that can be done wrong.
1 Like
I got a face-to-face gaming session on a patio today thanks to @Seryn. First time sinceā¦ jeez, February 2020? I turned up late and only had time for one game, but it was Sheepy Time from Neil Kimball and AEG, and wow, what a fun time! Simple, direct, offers a very light-but-satisfying crunch and no shortage of luck-pushing. Itās amazing to look at, comes with a huge variety of variables to shuffle in, plays fast-and-loose, yet decisions never feel inconsequential. As light family-weight games go, this is a knockout IMO, and Iāll be adding it to my collection ASAP.
Without digging too deep, the gameās highlight mechanism, in my eyes, is the score track. As rounds go on, you REDUCE the number of points required to hit a winning score based on the performance of your last (non-game-winning round). So for example, in round one, players might all need to score 50 points to win, but by round three a player might only need 20 to another playerās 23, to another playerās 27. Essentially it takes a classic trick-taking conceit (play till one player has a cumulative X points) but puts a hard limit on the game session since the points required to end the game are always dropping.
Notably, this isnāt as cut and dry as just being in a better starting position than other players. For example: if Iāve been kicking butt and need to score 20 this round to win, but my next competitor needs 27, well if he hits 27 and I have a crummy round, they win. Itās an interesting distillation of a tug-of-war and a cumulative high score as a game-end trigger and I think itās just fabulous.
This is another light, ācasualā game thatās managed to knock my socks off recently. Just a great time.
[EDIT] I wanted to add that I suspect this is a game where you really want the full player count (4) if possible, 3 minimum. Exclusive of whatever the solo mode might offer, it really feels like a game that will lack at 2.
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There was no Games Night for me yesterday (visit to the state agents just after a quick shower and then paperwork all evening for our house hunting - mortgage) so late at night, after all that pen pushing and keyboard tickling, I needed a break, and a solo game of Spirit Island it was.
Upped it a notch, and this time I went against the Prussians on level 1. Well, what a mighty battle. Using Shadows Flicker like Flame on island D, I had an interesting struggle ahead. Unlike on my previous two games, this one was a longer one (reaching a couple of cards into the 3rd level of the invaders deck) and left the island scarred (went into blighted island, which meant forgetting one power per invaders turn or losing one presence) which did sting.
The one power that proved key was Shadows ability to turn explorers into Dahan. That, and my ability to gather them āen masseā helped raise the level of fear quickly. With only one attack power, I played mainly moving invaders away from building areas, and defending the coastal jungle that became quickly a massive hub of Prussians with a city and two towns.
Towards the end of the level 2 of the invaders deck the island was having the invader measles, but a lot of pent up energy went into my powers when I spread enough presence to play 4 cards a turn. Two continuous āSlow rotsā, my innate powers and my loyal growing Dahan (defended by my fast card power and bulked up by assimilated explorers) spread havoc amongst them, quickly raising to the third level of fear.
So after all, even though at same point I thought all hope was lost, the tables turned, and I was about to eliminate the last city by the coast when I got the last fear card and made the Prussians abandon the island. I must say Shadows is a bit too reactive for my liking, but it made the fight really levelled. 4 areas got blight, but at the end of the game there were enough Dahan left to do a nice mushroom omelet. I can see how Shadows combined with Lightning to accelerate powers could be a deadly team-up.
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When I suggested that the winner pick the next board game, @COMaestro looked like this.
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My biggest takeaway of ālooked like thisā is that he wore his eyeglasses on top of his duckbill.
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Got in a quick game of Space Base this afternoon, and I was feeling lucky. I landed income early, so I invested in a tight little jackpot zone for points before spreading out a little and building anything else up. It turned out I didnāt need much else. I popped up to 45 points in a matter of four rounds thanks to some unbelievable luck both on- and off-roll.
My partner had a nice little engine built up, but there was no competing with that kind of speed and she ended at 20. That sounds worse than it was, though. If I hadnāt been so obscenely lucky sheād have popped the 40 threshold in the next two turns.
Still a favourite. 
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In honor of @Chewy77 pushing Spirit Island to #11 in the Top 100ā¦ I had to play another roundāalso in anticipation of my signed contract taking away time and brain power for such long games soonish. I decided to see how Sharp Fangs and Many Minds might synergize in their usage of the Beast tokens. Once again I went up against Level 2 Prussia (there is very little micro management with this opponent as most of Prussia is just setup changes)
Spoiler: the synergy was less than I expected, no more than the synergy of any two spirits I played so far. I thinkā¦ thatās good? Most of it was in the form of both of them being able to move beast tokens and in some way their own presence through that.
But in a nicely thematic play the turning point came in round 6 with Many Minds playing An Infestation of Venomous Spiders and Sharp Fangs went for Angry Bears. I love when the cards fit the spirits that well. Water and Animal powers in particular seem to do this. The game went on another half round because the invaders had somehow managed to obtain a stronghold in the mountains in the furthest corner of Fangsā domain and because it was blighted Fangs had to circle for a bit until Many Minds pulled him along with their swarm into the mountains.
This time I got rather lucky with the events and most of my fear cardsāof which there were plenty, both large and small animals are apparently quite horrifyingāhelped the game along nicely. If I had not managed to remove that last city, I think in another round the fear would have finished off the invaders. The last city went with a fear card that removed 2 Strength of invaders per presenceā¦ and I hadāpreparing to finish the gameāmoved 4 presence into that single land.
For me one of the key questions is if and when to go for major powers with each spirit. There are spirits that will never have enough energy to do this. Others should go for the big cards quickly and yet others need to time this carefully. Interestingly this may vary from game to game. In this game Many Minds grew fast enough that they were able to get the Spiders by round 4 I think? Despite being low on energy production Sharp Fangs with their double choice growth can make up and yet Angry Bears was less effective than I had hoped because it came into the game a little late when most of the big strongholds had already been reduced to rubble and just 1 city remained.
3 Likes
I take it the claw symbol is from one of the expansions.
So far, I have played not complex spirits and had no problem gathering energy. But I can see how not having enough can be a problem. Maybe (and I talk from very little experience given by 3 games) some spirits are better suited to play in tandem/group??
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Both. But originally, Branch and Claw. Roaming Beasts.
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If you look at the back of the spirit boards it usually tells you if they are more of a defensive or offensive spirit. I think the only combinations that may have some trouble synergizing are those that do not complement each other in these aspects. Like if you play two very defensive spirits, expect to have a very drawn-out game. Even so, in my experience all combos are valid. There are a few spirits like Spread of Rampant Green and the Serpent from the first set of promos that are really all about supporting other spirits and helping them grow faster.
In this case I was just curious how two spirits with a similar focus would fare together.
The first expansion (Branch&Claw) introduces four types of tokens that can be placed in lands:
- Beasts that move around the boards and sometimes damage invaders (during events or cards)
- Wilderness that prevents invaders from exploring a land (once per token)
- Disease that prevents invaders from building in a land (once per token)
- Strive that prevents invaders ravaging a land (once per token)
All of these can be introduced or manipulated by some spirits and some cards. Some new Fear cards also interact with or create these tokens. And besides new cards and new spirits the first expansion also introduces events that also interact with these tokens (especially beasts).
One more token is introduced in the second expansion (Jagged Earth), I donāt even know what it is called it is represented by a jagged looking thing coming out of the earth and it makes everything deal more damage. A sign of past fightingā¦
I really like playing with these tokens. The events introduce a bit more randomness into the game, which is fine. The game still has very little randomness to it and the tokens more than make up for that. Putting down a token that will prevent one of the phases from happening in the future is quite powerful.
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Itās the Badlands token. When damage is dealt to Invaders or Dahan, itās increased by one for every Badlands in the region.
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My partner and I just finished up our first game of Mind MGMT using the basic ātraining missionā rules, which certainly feels like enough to chew on for a little whileāat least for a couple of hidden movement novices.
I was the recruiter while my partner hunted me down as the rogue agents. She lucked out and caught onto my scent early, which I think is probably the best position to be in for maximum enjoyment; I was certainly sweating from the word go. Worse (for me) still, I had been making a bit of a clear bee-line to a corner square from the outer edge and had few options to play tricky when trying to get out.
Fortunately for me, lots of imperfect information has its drawbacks, and my partner was emboldened to take an early risk and, worse, made a near miss with it. This allowed me to move into the space she had just asked about on my next turn, making for a relatively safe little smokescreen. There was always a chance she would ask again in the same spot, but I was betting she wouldnāt consider it.
This actually worked out for me at the end of the game as well, as she guessed on a couple of 50/50 capture attempts that missed their mark. Both times the asked-about locations were in a free place for me to move on my next turn; with the clock running out, I had no further chances at a recruits win, so I ducked into the locations she had just been, denying that extra little bit of information.
In the end, I think it was a sneaky diagonal move through an altar that bought me the time to win. It allowed me to avoid using my mind slip token to jump a space, which in this case I think would have been just the hint she needed to make a last minute nab. Super intense the whole way through and it was really fun watching my partner puzzle things out, with groans from both sides a plenty.
We were done in 45 minutes and itās been left out so we can turn the tables later.
This is going to be a fantastic game at the full player count using the full rules, I think. Some people seem to be suggesting this is really a 2P affair, and I can certainly confirm it works brilliantly as a duel. But knowing what (little) I do about the full game and the big-fancy-folder-of-mind-screws, I think having more brains to share the cognitive (over)load will make for a hell of a group experience.
Good time. Really looking forward to the next one as a rogue agent.
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Played two games of Azul with my wife last night. She obliterated me in both games as I kept accruing negative points. I know she had more than double my score in the second game. It was just ridiculous.
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IāM NOT SORRY.
AFTER WHAT HAPPENED IN MARIO PARTY LAST NIGHT, THE SCALES MUST BE BALANCED.
Do you remember what happened in Mario party? I remember.
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Lignum 2nd edition - very good game. A lot of forward planning and front-loaded decisions. This is due to how you take actions as you move along the route. Since money is scarce until you sell stuff at the end of the round, you have to budget your money properly. Hence why you want to plan the whole round. So having a strategy is important at Turn 1.
Player interaction is in the route, where you focus on some parts and set your timing right so you get first dibs on them. But thereās trade offs where you have to miss some opportunities to grab the ones that you find more important.
We played with the variant where we removed the blindbidding at the end. And itās purely based on who reaches the routeās end first. So, now you have another trade off of how fast you want to be, so you can have first dibs of which area of the forest you can cut. The last to finish goes slow and can do more actions, but is last at which area they can cut.
Great stuff/ Defo recommend trying it.
3 Likes