Recent Boardgames (Your Last Played Game Volume 2)

[COMaestro]

Last night, my wife and I had a rematch of Unmatched, me with King Arthur, her with Medusa. I was able to get in a good hit pretty early on, dealing 7 damage, at which point she pulled Medusa back and started using the Harpies to block movement and deal some hits.

She used Stone Gaze on Merlin, for which I had no defense cards, so it was a one hit kill, and just before I was going to use a scheme which would have killed a Harpy, damaged Medusa, and let me draw a card. Oh well.

Arthur started getting whittled down, surrounded by Harpies and Medusa, but was able to whack her with Excalibur, bringing her to 3 HP. Arthur took more hits as I was out of cards to defend with and Medusa kept starting in the same zone, using her special ability to do a damage to him, leaving him with just 5 HP.

My salvation came in the form of a versatile card, as she attacked me with the same card I used to defend, a card which lets you draw a card after the combat, or draw 2 if you won. Being the same card, the attack and defense value was the same, so being the defender, I won the combat and got to draw two cards.

I had a path to Medusa, so maneuvered and boosted to move the four spaces I needed and then performed a boosted attack. She defended, but due to the boost she was overwhelmed and defeated.

So we are tied 1-1. Maybe we will play one more with these same characters before trying out other fighters.

I am really enjoying Unmatched so far. The hand management really makes this a tense affair as you try to get the cards you need to attack, but keep some for defense, meanwhile may need to use some to maneuver into a position where you can strike. Really feels like a duel.

[EnterTheWyvern]

Does it feel like an Epic Duel?

[Derelicte]

That’s fantastic!!

It’s a lot to grok at first, even though we’ve played other skirmish games for awhile now. The fact that each Champion has a “focus”, so you want to work towards that, but not to the point of sacrificing them, as well as the ideas of the “plot phase” and “clash phase” really take a bit to wrap your head around.

I do agree that the round structure makes it easy to take a break (which we probably should have done), as it’s easy to see who is first in a round.

I’ve seen some of the minis painted, and they have some fantastic detail, but not so much to be really intimidating (mostly). I also appreciate that each follower is a unique sculpt, which I didn’t really expect. I want to fix some warped weapons, but I do hope to get them painted in the near (semi near) future.

Not that we need them yet, but SFG has teased at least 2 more Champions. A dwarf and goblin possibly? I can’t recall for sure. Either way, I appreciate that SFG appears to be supporting Godtear in the same way they do Guild Ball, as neither game set the world on fire but seem to have dedicated followings.

[VictorViper]

I had a really hard time deciding between Godtear and Skytear (really, how unfortunate is it that these games came out at the same time with names like that?), but ultimately went with the latter for its cardplay. I know you’re new to both, have you got a preference yet? Or even “better”… worth owning both?

[lalunaverde]

Oh my. They are separate distinct games!?

[VictorViper]

Completely unrelated. What are the chances? (They were about a year apart but still).

[pillbox]

More importantly, do they both rhyme with “peer”? Or “pare”?

[yashima]

After receiving a neat little package from a certain corner of Cornwall the other day, I learned the rules, taught my partner and we played Innovation (well half a game of it anyway):

I don’t think we made too many mistakes but there’s a NASA launch tonight and my partner wasn’t quite paying attention… possibly

He scored a bunch of cards early on and snagged the first two dominations quickly. But then I got a card that let me skip from age 1 to age 3 by recycling some useless blue cards from my hand and from there I quickly went to age 4 and 5. When I managed to splay my fourth color with a huge stack of archived cards beneath, he gave up. I had more of all five symbols one can obtain until age 5 and he wouldn’t be able to execute anymore dogmas without my interference…

I really enjoy the game but I tried a 2-handed solo and that just didn’t work out at all. There is too much going on with the cards to play 2 hands at the same time. I hope to play again on the week-end.

Thanks again for the trade @IssiNoho77

[IssiNoho77]

@yashima

but there’s a NASA launch tonight

I’ll be out watching from 9:45 tonight, it should be visible from here.

I’m glad you’re enjoying it, I’d better do my half of this post when it arrives

[VictorViper]

It’s God “Tier” (so punny!) and Sky “Tare”.

[Brattyjedi]

@IssiNoho77

@yashima

but there’s a NASA launch tonight

I’ll be out watching from 9:45 tonight, it should be visible from here.

Check the news if you haven’t already. Weather postponement.

[IssiNoho77]

I did never mind, Saturday night I’ll light the fire pit and watch instead.

[Derelicte]

@VictorViper Yeah, that was a weird one, especially given they launched a different times, but not so far apart that one could have influenced the other.

As far as preference, I really can’t say yet, as we’ve only had one full game of Godtear and it was a bit of a slog (lot to learn/keep track of).

I might lean towards Skytear, as there is a lot of depth in the deck building, even using the preconstructed decks for each hero. That said, Godtear might be a bit more my style in that it’s a straight up fight with some “area control” elements.

As far as owning both, the average person definitely does not, especially if said person already has multiple skirmish games…

That said, I have a problem and tend to collect skirmish games (and skirmishy coops) with near reckless abandon, so what do I know!

[bengeile]

I’m holding my breath for some dragons, and hoping for another Large Follower champion. Shayle’s been fun to play with.

Getting six warbands on the map at once really livens up the game, especially when there are more than one Maelstrom on a team.

[lalunaverde]

Played another game of Food Chain Magnate. One went for a burger rush and got CFO bonus (+50% revenue). But me and another player played our late engine strategy well and gladly in contention.

I went for a regional manager and built multiple restaurants on the map, which annoyed everyone (mission accomplished), and engaged in price wars. Went 2nd place, due to the wrong placement of a restaurant - it was too far to be competitive.

Definitely keen on playing this for real.

[COMaestro]

@EnterTheWyvern

Does it feel like an Epic Duel?

I see what you did there. And I would love a SW expansion to this.

[Benkyo]

Not all dogmas need or benefit from an icon advantage. When you are behind, you might be able to use dogmas that you want your opponent to “share” (do first). In any case, you always benefit from the free draw when they share, so there are plenty of ways to use dogmas your opponent won’t want to share, or has no choice but to share (giving you free draws).

If the game wasn’t fun, that’s another matter, but falling behind on tech and icons is far from a losing state in this game.

[Derelicte]

Today was about lighter on the games, but still good.

First up, was another 2 games of Street Masters. First we tried 2 new fighters, stage, and enemy. This ended badly as after some research, the enemy deck is one of the more difficult, lol.

After 2 brutal losses, we tried again with the 2 new fighters on the “starter” stage and enemies. It went much better. Almost too easy, but a nice way to learn the fighters.

In the afternoon we played our first game of Oceans. My son was a bit nervous after the Watch It Played, but he got a decent starting hand, while I had a slow start, and he wrecked me about 70 to 40!!!

At 2, it’s a pretty quick game, so we’ll probably try and get it played again soon.

[yashima]

The icon advantage in itself was never going to win the game. That’s what I was saying… there were other factors at work beyond the game state making him throw the game.

I can already see how some of those “draw and play” dogmas can mess with an opponent.

I suspect this is a game that is helped immensely once you know the cards a little better but in my test game I only played until age 4 and to enable a fairer first game I refrained from looking at all the cards. I suspect there are interesting choices later on and as opposed to Mandala there are already strategies in emerging in my mind…

[KIR2]

Up to September of PanLeg S2

I feel like the game is mainly rushing me to finish each game ASAP. The massive accumulation of cities in parallel with the massive amounts of epidemic cards - and now hollowmen! - mean a lot of games are about getting everything out ASAP and hoping for the best. When the cities losing supplies are all over the place, there’s no easy way to manage it through supply actions. Maybe once or twice you can stimy the bleed so as not to completely lose, but it still feels like holding back the tide. It’s interesting, but it does mean I lost 3 games in a row. I’ve got a few labs under my belt and a few more abilities to get the cards I need even faster, but generally it feels like S2 games are over in a flash! Not counted the steps, but it feels like each character can’t have had more than 4 or 5 turns each! Overall I still prefer it to S1 though. S1 felt crippling in how harsh it was, slowing it down to a slog that felt more stress than fun. S2 feels a lot more dynamic.