Recent Boardgames (Your Last Played Game Volume 2)

Boardgames
6479

Had a 3-player game of Ethnos with my wife and her brother on Thanksgiving. Got interrupted by our kids frequently, but got through it without too much aggravation. My wife killed it with 85 to my 69 and her brother’s 62. We had Minotaurs, Skeletons, Merfolk, Trolls, Orcs, and Giants.

Later that evening, a friend came over to play a bit, as he had watched his three sniffly kids while his wife came and had lunch with us, so he needed to get out for a bit. Introduced him to Taverns of Tiefenthal, so we had a 4-player game of that. Used all but the random startup and the signature modules.

One thing I really like about Taverns as it can be really difficult to determine who is winning, and this time was no exception. Everyone felt like everyone else was doing better than they were, but the scores were ridiculously close. Our friend won with 111, I was in second with 105, my wife just behind at 103, and her brother had 101. A single Noble would have made all the difference. Really good game.

Then today, my wife and her brother played Lords of Waterdeep with the Undermountain expansion. Her brother got out to a big lead, accomplishing two or three 40 point quests, but made the “mistake” of using three Intrigue cards to steal four fighters from my wife and a cleric from me, so neither of us ever chose him going forward for any bonus resources when our Intrigue cards gave them out.

While he was still in the lead at the end of the game, he only accomplished five or six quests for his lord. My wife fell behind and just never seemed able to catch up, which is unusual for her. I was in striking range, and luckily had the lord from the expansion that gives you 3 points for every completed quest, and I had completed 11. I pulled off the win with 208, her brother next with 191, and my wife in last with 142.

It is nice to get a win in this now and then!

8 Likes
6480

Bearing in mind I’ve only got a lap under my belt with my partner (our game is still on pause), I think it’s dramatically improved over Flamme Rouge. There’s two big reasons:

  1. The AI is way easier to manage. You want as many bot teams as possible in FR, which gets clumsy and messy on the table fast. Heat’s bot system is lightning quick and intuitive after a few turns. I’ve been playing solo with a full compliment of 5 bots and I would always play with 2 more if and when they release.

  2. Flamme Rouge is best with max players mostly thanks to the strict focus on keeping pace and striking at the right time. Heat puts a lot more emphasis on the track features and playing bold as often as possible, so I think there’s a little more to chew on with fewer people to bounce off.

[EDIT] I think there’s better potential for personal satisfaction in Heat, mostly because you can get a little trickier with timing and even some combos. Flamme Rouge is always about that hint of deception/deduction and one-upmanship.

[EDIT 2] I should probably log more plays! I did another quick run just using the weather module before tucking into (and completing) the 3-race “1961 season”.

Right off the bat, I can say that I’ve found the first real deficiency in the game. The “Legends” module (the bot deck) is actually devoid of any real personality, so while they do a fantastic job keeping pressure on in single races, a rivalry won’t happen without some dumb luck. As a result, I won my championship handily, even though each race was a pretty tight competition between first and fourth. That said, this is highly forgivable. Each race was still tight and fun to play.

The Championship mode is basically “the works” in terms of modules, but they included a pretty neat season format that tweaks the tuning/upgrade module, and introduces the press corner and event card to each race, serving up opportunities to push hard for rewards. It’s completely fabulous.

Championship mode, even just for single races, is absolutely the only way to go for my tastes. The variety it introduces comes with almost no additional rules overhead, but broadens the decision space, really shakes up the tracks and can make for some seriously wild features (extra dangerous chicanes, long straights with free boosts, etc.). The only thing I haven’t touched so far is the advanced deck of upgrade cards, but I’m happy to tinker with the basic set for now (they’re already pretty wild).

It’s hard to really overstate how tickled I am by this game. it’s dead simple, but the thrill of the race is so strong thanks to a surprising amount of control and a system that begs you to drive into the red at all times.

Easy game of the year. How the hell do you dethrone Rallyman? Take a look.

8 Likes
6481

Played a few solo games of Heat, and man–what a game! Will try not to repeat what others have said too much, but it is very, very good. It’s not just that the card play leads to a lot of tense and interesting decisions, it’s that the card play also leads to some fun, UNinteresting decisions–those moments when you hit the corner perfectly, and can just blast your engine as hard as possible and play those high numbers. The contrast between the tense hand management and obvious “gimme the good cards!” turns give the game a perfect sense of speed and momentum, and because you likely got to those high-speed moments via careful manipulation of your cards, they feel well-earned and satisfying, rather than a complete luckfest.

And the solo mode is fantastic. I have a ton of appreciation and admiration for it–not because it innovates in any way, but because it shows the designers understand what makes a good solo mode. You don’t need to replicate another player, you just need to replicate the interaction points that would come with other players (ideally with minimum upkeep), and this does that perfectly. Opponents scream down straightaways, scrape by corners, and clump and unclump in ways that invite you to play the slipstream odds. The base Legends opponents are a bit easy after a couple games, but you can easily bump the difficulty by increasing their top speeds, which is greatly appreciated.

I haven’t even touched the other modules in the game, but there is a ton of content in the box. None of the additional stuff seems balanced around the Legends mode, but will have to try it out to see if it actually affects anything (i.e. how much easier do custom Upgrades make the game).

I was thinking about this, and I wonder if you could get a little personality by removing cards from the Legends deck–like, after every race, maybe remove the lowest-speed card(s) for the top 2 Legends in the championship (starting with the 10-speed card). That way, the cars that win tend to go faster in later races, helping them win more.

6 Likes
6482

Someone on BGG took the time to map out all the cards and their speed values to confirm they all move equally across the deck, so i think you’re onto something. Theoretically you could get a quick gauge on the hot and cold cars based on the numbers taken out. I like the idea of thinning it per race in a championship too. If it works out you could mimic a hot streak by prioritizing the removal of the next lowest card from the fastest bot in the prior race.

I’ve got 2 more seasons to run. I think I’ll take it for a spin! (My god the horrible clichées and puns I want to use when talking about this game).

P.S. Regarding the rest of the post: this guy gets it! I feel like a damn hero playing this game. No wonder F1 drivers are such pompous asses.

4 Likes
6483

My wife, her brother, and I played Orleans today, using the beneficial deeds board from the Trade & Intrigue expansion. Funny enough, we all had seven trading posts at the end of the game, so nobody got the last bonus citizen tile. I had the least amount of money, but had the most goods

I also had six citizen tiles and was the only person to reach the end of the development track. As such, I won. Final scores had me at 138, my wife at 107, and her brother at 101.

8 Likes
6484

Played my first few games of cat in the box. Man it took me a surprisingly long time to figure a strategy out. I stumbled into 5 paradoxes in a row before I got a score in the positives. Fun trick taking game though, adds a couple of different scoring paths and adds a bit more of a puzzle/risk element to the decisions you make.

8 Likes
6485

Guild Master, first play. Picked this up on special, sounded cool. You are each running a guild, and each round you will put together groups of people to build, recruit, and fill contracts. You start with basic buildings, which allow you to have two groups of two people each. Upgrading your buildings allow more groups, and more people in each group. You also start with novice adventurers, but you’ll be able to recruit new ones. On your turn, you make your groups and give each group an order. Orders are to build, recruit (from A-F), and fill a contract (1-6). But all orders are made in secret, so you could choose the same as another player. If that happens, you pick a skill from your group and roll dice to see who is higher. We played the shorter version of the game, six rounds instead of nine. I think we all enjoyed it.

Wonderland’s War, another game with the full deluxe version, with the minis and the groovy tokens. Still enjoying it, but it really does take a while to set everything up, and tear it down after. And some of it can be a little fiddley (remembering the rules for the Wonderlandians etc. And every time we play we have to go over the rules for drawing. Maybe we don’t play it enough… (only our fourth game). Not sure if I could convince the others to play it every week or anything. And when Frosthaven arrives (not my game), if we play that and WW, that’s the day gone.

Subastral, something a bit simpler to end the day.

6 Likes
6486

I think I need this game

5 Likes
6487

Yeah, folks’ excitement on here has prompted me to put it high on my list (shakes fist, this place causes me to spend money once again, etc)

8 Likes
6488

Goddamnit and now I’ve bought it

8 Likes
6489

I’ve been hmm-ing and ha-ing over Flamme Rouge recently with an eye to it being a good game to play with my parents and siblings, but I’ve never had a chance to try it, and while I’m 99% sure my parents (who love the Tour de France) will get a huge kick out of the theme and the fab artwork, I’m not sure whether it’s going to be a winner mechanically.

So all the talk of Heat being a better Flamme Rouge is a bit of a blow… because I like what I’m hearing about the gameplay, but the theme change just kills it dead for my intended audience.

7 Likes
6490

If your folks are into card games where you’re playing the player, bluffing, etc. then I wouldn’t worry too much about the mechanics of Flamme Rouge. It’s got a very defined arc, so the first game is basically awkward for everyone, but by the end it all clicks. I’ve shown it to two groups of non-gamers (who also loved the theme) and while the games started out mostly procedurally, by the first or second deck cycle, the “oh-OH’s” started coming out and by the end everyone was hungry for another round.

[EDIT] If you do have experienced card players in the fam, I recommend including the breakdown of deck distribution with the teach. I’ve taught to a few card sharks that appreciated it.

7 Likes
6491

Games day at home, for Xia.

IMG_20221127_164510
IMG_20221127_1645104032×3024 2.41 MB

My first win, mostly because I managed to hoard some exploration tokens after a wide-ranging start. Enviro shield and GTS are great investments if you’re exploring a lot.

13 Likes
6492

Thanks for this - sounds like a must buy for me!

5 Likes
6493

Just got absolutely destroyed at Tzolk’in. 84-31. Ouch, my health and well-being!

10 Likes
6494

May the power of Xia bring prosperity to your house, by Xia’s golden wings. Praise Xia!

4 Likes
6495

FTFY… :slight_smile:

4 Likes
6496

Lots of new games over the last week or so thanks to a local gaming con:

Selfish: Zombie Edition x2, the most memorable part of this one was getting bitten twice in a row as the first action of both games (a bite = game over effectively). The second we took back and reshuffled. And then I was bitten again about 2 rounds in… Eh it didn’t last too long at least.

Azul: Summer Pavilion, I did pretty bad this game and our winner did amazingly for his first run at this iteration. High scoring game - lots of finished stars, twas fun.

Land vs Sea, okay we’re into the con games now - this one was rather interesting. Little head to head tile laying game with some expansion stuff included to shake things up as folks get familiar. Not sure how it is at 3 or 4 players, but as a two player it was pretty fun. I’m tempted to pick it up, but I’m running into shelving issues at the moment and am not sure what I’d be able to move on to make space for it…

Splendor Duel, this one is terrific - I already had a copy on order but playing it just confirmed what I’d suspected: lots of great new ideas on a familiar shell - which I already enjoyed. The only downside is that it only works with 2, otherwise it’d replace Splendor entirely for me.

Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra, this is a weird one for me. The game was enjoyable and there is that Azul core, but the scoring is very different than either the original or SP. I think I like it more than the original but less than Summer Pavilion. Not sure I need another Azul in my collection though, but yeah not bad (though the tiles feel a bit crummy compared to its relatives).

Star Wars: The Clone Wars, new iteration of Pandemic with a Star Wars theme. It was decent. I’m not the biggest Pandemic fan (or Star Wars fan for that matter) but I enjoyed this one as much as regular Pandemic, probably. We lost a turn before winning and on the lowest difficulty too! The classic has a bit of charm I felt this one was lacking so will probably not pick this one up.

MicroMacro: Crime City - Full House, we played one of the cases of this after dinner and it was very interesting. Definitely limited replay value, but seems like an excellent ‘con game’ or one to check out for a few hours at a gaming cafe maybe. It’s interesting playing a game where the art is the game and that map is really an impressive thing.

Sagrada, my gaming buddy for the day suggested this one towards the end of the night as he already knew it so we wouldn’t have to struggle through another rulebook to learn the game. It was enjoyable, light and not heaps to it but quick and the socketing of those dice felt good. I own a lot of dice drafting and placement games though, so another I won’t be acquiring.

Wayfarers of the South Tigris, the teach on this one was painful - the owner hadn’t learned the rules properly, so we spent a good forty five minutes wading through the rulebook trying to learn it :frowning: It wasn’t even from the con library! He brought it from home and had it for several weeks prior. After we got through that, I actually rather liked the game. Hits more at a Paladins level of rule crunch than Architects though. I won by a decent chunk, was ahead on the journal track for most of the game, and got some good points through having a bunch of cities - the game definitely rewards a more focused strategy than trying to do a little of everything. I didn’t like it as much as Paladins, but would happily play it again (especially now that I know how to play!).

The Grimm Forest, I’d played this one before but lost the vote between it and Ethnos (:frowning:). It’s fine. It’s totally unremarkable and an unnecessarily large box. And those fables are pretty chaotic. Not my kind of thing, really.

Cockroach Poker Royal, we had a couple of friends over for dinner after the con (to eat some of the leftovers from my wife’s high tea she hosted while I was busy gaming). The resident champ of mindgames and bluffing lost, which we all enjoyed. He kept passing me non-fly cards and saying they were flies - I think he was expecting me to flinch eventually, but I kept calling him on it. Great fun.

7 Likes
6497

After the Great Tzolk’in Massacre of 2022, we tried out Disney Villainous, which my wife had purchased in August. Played two games, my Prince John against her Ursula. I won both, but both were photo finishes.

It was fun! Lightweight, some randomness from the card drawing, but the production’s amazing and I really like that each character is almost its own game. Lots of replayability in there. On the other hand, it makes the teach a bit more difficult since which character you play affects the game so much. Like, Ursula doesn’t have one of the basic actions on her board (eliminate a hero). She has other, card-based means of getting rid of them. That’s a rather large wrinkle!

So, not game of the year, but I’m glad we own it.

5 Likes
6498

My wife and I played Lost Cities this evening, which was very close other than the first round, where my wife was ahead by a good 39 points. I managed to come out ahead in the next two rounds though, to take the win 123 - 111.

Then I decided I should probably open up the Castle Ravenloft board game I got at the SHUX math trade, since it had not been opened after being horribly jostled around on the trip home. While Inhave the Legend of Drizzt, which uses the same mechanics, I only played it once a long time ago, so I read the rules, got everything sorted and decided I would go ahead and play the first solo scenario.

Played with the fighter and had to escape the catacombs beneath Castle Ravenloft using the Secret Stairs before Strahd awoke and killed me. I succeeded, but just barely, as I was at 0 HP when I was on the stair tile and used my last healing burst to revive and win.

Maybe it works better with more heroes, but as it is the solo game feels rather punishing. The stairs were plaved beneath 10 dungeon tiles, meaning I needed to explore (be at the edge of a tile after the Hero phase) 11 times to reveal the tile I need, and every time you reveal a tile, a new monster appears, and you may also have to draw an Encounter card which adds more bad stuff. And to top things off, everything then activates to attack you. So it feels like you are ambushed by a new monster every time you draw a new tile, since you don’t get to do anything before it activates!

Sure, you get a treasure card when you kill a monster, but half of the ones I drew seemed rather pointless, at least for this scenario.

Oh well, it was a fun diversion in any case, and hopefully I can try it out with more players at some point.

7 Likes