Not when you have people who are reasonably adept with the whole 3D environment and won’t accidentally mess up the game state. A person can put a meeple back where they took it from and it is unllikely they took it in the first place. Someone asking me how to “turn around” in TTS is able to do anything they never meant to do–while at the same time they are unable to do what they want to do.
Does your perl have a java allergy?
I mean I just downloaded java and vassal and installed both and it works. Obviously, on a Linux machine that is almost as easy these days, unless… that person is an IT admin who is not running some kind of Ubuntu Desktop with package management that my dad might even understand (no, I joke, he wouldn’t) but something altogether more complicated 
3 Likes
Straight boring Debian. Next time I try it I’ll paste the error here and people can try to work out what it might mean. (Having said that, next time I try it it’ll work perfectly.)
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I’ve never found a Java program that I didn’t crash on my first use of it.
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Very much that bad, IMO. It’s a beautiful little production, and the underlying game is sound (it’s still basically the original game, which I loved). But almost literally everything else that was added to it feels untested, absurdly bloated, terribly paced, and plain un-fun. If I had to guess, it’ll also run well over 2 hours.
@Marx, might as well give it a go if you punched it, I guess. But keep those pieces pristine in case you feel the same as me.
1 Like
Or second. Or third.
Did I mention that I was writing these programs? 
5 Likes
So to get game play #1000 logged, I played a single spirit solo with Shroud of Silent Mist in Spirit Island without even an adversary (I’ve been a bit under the weather and just needed more comfort gaming). I think setup and tear down together may have taken as long as play. That big wooden insert+box is not always making things easier. In 5 turns I had turned away the invaders with my fearsome mists… I do not remember playing this Spirit before, I really like the way it flows across the island and generates fear fear fear… then I synced the games and it turns out I am at #1001. So that Beyond the Sun game I talked about up there was #1000. Fine by me, I love them both.
11 Likes
Played as the Bri’ish in 1775: Rebellion. Crushed the rebel scums, but the game could have gone badly at some points of the late game, which would lead a narrow win for the US. But the odds were stacked against them.
Terra Nova introduced 2 people to the game. Very abstract, but it was more old school German instead of a pure abstract. Been one of my faves lately and can be played comfortably from 2 to 4.
6 Likes
Finally got the final summer purchase to the table last night: a solo game of Le Havre. Really impressed with this, although it did take at least two hours to get through the first game to check I was doing everything correctly. Quite a lot of resources and economic options to juggle with but I can already see how the Special Buildings can guide the players each game so a world of possibilities for each solo run.
I never really got into Steel or Coke this game but made good value of the Leather Industry (Special Building) in latter rounds and only built three ships (one Wooden, one Iron and one Steel) but the Shipping Line came in handy too. I finished with 248 points which doesn’t seem bad for a first play.
5 Likes
Solo Hard City, episode 3: Toxic Revenge! Whereby Miranda (henceforth Mirambo) did carve a nice hole in a line of mutants while Donathan made a bee-line to the Mayor, hopping vehicles like hurdles the whole way. Sadly, he wasn’t fast enough and the doctor scored a bunch of points from his special action (free VP if the Mayor is still hiding, safe in her limo).
Finale came down to the Doc at 6 points, with Mirambo surrounded and at one health. She would get knocked out after the next activation (confirmed in the queue) so it was sudden death. I had to save our gunner or get the mayor to safety. Thankfully the mayor was in a good position and with the help of Blast the Dog and Marcellus’ upgrades, we had the actions left to (barely) pull off the move, though with no risk of failure!
Poor Donathan was last seen in the sewers with FUBAR. What became of him? Tune in next time to find out!
This was another episode with a really compelling hook for the Dr. Zero player, and which ended up getting abstracted for the solo deck. Once again it worked really nicely. In the 1 vs. All game, the Doctor can (among other things) attack the police cruiser for VP and, probably just as importantly, move mutants onto the car to block civilians (and the Mayor) from rescue. In the solo rules, the AutoDoc scores a free VP any time his special card comes up if the Mayor isn’t at least in the process of being rescued. This made for a really hot sprint and an absolute slaughterfest for the coppers, who managed two skill-ups in only five rounds.
Hot-n-heavy and right down to the wire once again. If I get through all 5 scenarios still feeling this way, I’m tagging it for the permanent collection. It’s kind of unbelievable how much I’m loving it.
6 Likes
Couldn’t resist a second stab at Le Havre after dinner tonight. It flowed better second time around as I felt like I was constructing and buying buildings more quickly although resources seemed a bit more scarce at first, possibly because of the new property. I was able to get more from heavy industry this time and built five ships so food supplies were good - then had a monster Shipping Line run, sending all five vessels away stocked with steel, coke and leather to make about 65 francs in round 6. (Clearly, this particular game was set pre-Brexit!) The final Special Building was the Luxury Yacht, so I was careful to wait until the final extra action to upgrade my cheapest Iron Ship at the Wharf. The end result - a staggering 313 points. Starting to get to grips with it, I hope.
7 Likes
Sneaky spare night so off to games club.
Anno 1800 6/10, good but not great. Came last as I struggled with the huge myriad of options.
For the king (and me) It’s Biblios, it’s great.
Coloretto It’s fantastic. Managed to screw one player over, but my cautious approach failed to get first place.
5 Likes
Played Paris by K&K twice. It looks like a point salad theme-park Euro of many mechanisms, but it’s very much an old school K&K.
Tempel des Schreckens - haven’t played this for years and I’m glad that I get to play it again. One of my fave social deduction games.
Bad Company - very much along the lines of Machi Koro and Space Base. Cute and decent. But I end the game preferring Space Base instead.
5 Likes
Had a nice 4 and then 5 player evening on BGA. Started with Azul which is still excellent. One of the 5 is an enthusiast for Lama so we played that next. It’s a bit of a cross between No Thanks and 6 Nimmt. I get the feeling it is pretty group and meta dependent as it didn’t seem like there was a huge amount of game there. However there was lots of swearing and laughter and, a bit like Red 7 I could see it a game you’d take on holiday and play loads and then never again.
Finished off with Haiclue. It’s a word party game with the restriction being you have to describe your keyword using a choice of 12 other words. It’s really fragile - when it’s good it can be spectacular but often 3 or 4 of the 6 rounds can be a bit of a slog. It’s not as good as things like Just One, Decrypto or Codenames but it’s a nice change.
6 Likes
I decided we needed to tackle my Shelf of „Opportunity“ and so forced my partner to play Samurai (the old Knizia tile layer). I say forced because after I taught him, it took about 3 or 4 turns for him to say „I hate this game. I hate this game.“ -.- I on the other hand quite enjoyed it and especially on the smaller map for 2 players it should be a nice quick and uncomplicated game. I like that you set up the map yourself at the start preparing the villages and towns for the tiles you kept behind your screen… to nobody‘s surprise I won the game with 4 helms and 4 statues.
After that we played my latest arrival: Radlands We played 2 rounds, each of us winning one. It‘s a really fast game that can be over in a few turns if someone gets their combos right. And here‘s my problem: I love combos. My partner hates them.
Each player starts their “tableau“ with 3 camp cards they select from a hand of 6. These cards determine your starting abilities, starting hand size and if all of them are destroyed you lose the game. You can place up to two rows of people in front of your camps to protect them. The game is played in turns.
On your turn you advance any event cards you set up on a previous turn (events move through a number of slots 3-2-1 and an event on slot 1 at the start of your turn gets resolved), then you refresh your water supply to 3, draw a card and then you get to do as many actions as you can pay for (with water). Actions are:
- play a card,
- play a card ability for an effect,
- trash a card from hand for an effect
- take the water tower into your hand.
Abilities and cards have a handful of possible effects:
- damage a person
- damage any card (person or camp)
- destroy a card
- draw cards
- untap cards (damaged cards are tapped, tapped cards that receive damage are destroyed)
- send your raiders on their way to the other tribe (a special event)
- gain additional water for this turn
- gain a punk (an unnamed NPC that can only take 1 damage and is represented by a card from the draw deck)
Now combine these effects in a variety of ways and you get the cards of Radlands.
The most important concept is that cards are protected if they are “behind” other cards and most cards only damage unprotected cards in the front row (towards your opponent).
It is well made and pretty except for the usual things that will have to be “fixed in post”. We already found one card that either has a typo or needs clarification and multiple other cards also seemed like they needed errata or a more extensive FAQ.
Definitely need to play more often. I am having a hard time judging this right now. I hope I can convince my partner to repeated plays.
6 Likes
We just tried out The Fuzzies and Space Base, both of which were rousing successes! Huzzah!
The Fuzzies is just charmingly ridiculous. I can see us playing this as a family over the holidays, it takes a few seconds to set-up/put away and it’s fantastic fun that’s over in 5 minutes. Wonderful.
Space Base is much more complex, of course, but still light enough to be relaxing. Love that it starts out slow and limited but before you know it you’re swimming in money, income and VPs, meaning the pace increases as the game advances. We both loved it.
Next up is likely gonna be Cairn, since it’s the simplest of the ones we have left. We’ll then graduate to Brass: Birmingham, Pandemic Legacy 1 and Tzolk’in, and we’ll get to Ghost Stories eventually, LOL.
5 Likes
If you’re playing Space Base with 2 players, I have HOT. TIPS. 
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Had a great game night, the star game of which was Cosmic Encounter. We had the same group as last time so I was confident in their ability to handle the red-light aliens, and boy was I right. One player was the Masochist and trying to lose all his ships, which worked well with the Void who could remove others’ ships from the game. The Disease scared everybody because he got two free colonies from his power (and could have won the game on a lucky draw of the destiny deck).
I was the Virus (I multiply my attack cards by my ships instead of adding) and I was not even close to losing any of my encounters, but obviously I wasn’t getting many offensive ally invites so at the start of my second turn I was still only on 3. No problem, I thought! I had an attack 14 and an attack 23 in my hand, and with almost all my ships I would be able to send 4 into both encounters. Except on the first encounter, the Citadel offered to negotiate.
“Sure!” I said. After all, we were both on 3, so I could promise to bring her on my last encounter and then not invite her. I decided to play my Morph, so if she played a Negotiate then all good (and she wouldn’t get a chance to steal my Attack 23), but if not I would definitely win with my multiplication powers.
Not so! She in fact played an Attack -04, putting me at negative 16!!! I was devastated, everyone laughed, and then the Void and the Ghoul negotiated a joint win while I was watching my beautiful space empire crumble before my very eyes.
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Mainly it’s one hot tip. Each time one of you takes a turn, when you’re done, roll again. This counts as an off-turn roll ONLY for both of you. Basically it gives you the off-turn action of a 4P game without making any other concessions. We’ve never found a downside nor a compelling reason to tweak it after dozens of plays. Highly recommended and I think @yashima can vouch for it.
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Oh interesting, thanks a lot! We’ll check it out for sure!
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