Recent Boardgames (Your Last Played Game Volume 2)

[COMaestro]

Two games today. First up was a three player game of Lords of Waterdeep. I had a chance at winning, but my wife threw a Mandatory Quest my way on her last normal turn, which left me one cleric short of being able to complete a 12 point quest, well 18 total because I had a Plot Quest which added 2 and my lord would have added 4 more (though the MQ did give me 4). She won because she had more gold than her brother, which is the tie breaker. Scores were 178 - 178 - 168. I am really curious to know how it would have gone had I not been hit by that MQ. Oh well, it was a good play on her part.

She and I followed it up with a game of Ethnos, using Dwarves, Trolls, Wingfolk, Elves, and Skeletons. This one I won, getting more Troll tokens so ties were in my favor. Scores were 70 - 47.

[SteveB_uk]

Right then, let’s get Star Wars smuggling.

[bort]

Ok, it’s a Star Wars game, but apart from that I have no idea

[RogerBW]

Outer Rim. I like both Firefly and Xia, and mechanically this felt a lot like them with Star Wars painted on it - but I’m told the expansion makes it a lot better.

[SteveB_uk]

Yep, it’s my first game of it, but already every time I find something that was added by the expansion it’s a good thing.

[SteveB_uk]

That was very fun. Played Star Wars: Outer Rim with the Unfinished Business expansion.

Minor spoilers on how some characters / cards work:

I had an amazingly lucky first round - Han got a mission to deliver cargo to Nal Hutta, which he can reach with his total movement. I dropped that off and got the credits, then bought another cargo job. This reveals the next cargo card in the pile, which dictates which patrol moves but also (because it was an expansion card) turns over a contact on your planet to see who it is. It was Chewbacca! So naturally I chose to encounter that contact instead of a planet card or anything else, and because I’m playing Han I got him on my crew for free instead of paying. End of turn one, awesome.

Jyn as the AI also got very lucky early. A couple of delivery jobs gave quick fame, and then an AI action to spend money for even more fame. The AI not needing to test in order to get the job rewards is VERY strong, yikes, and the “Spend 800 to gain 1 fame” is just relentless.

Han’s +2 movement came in incredibly handy, being precisely enough for me to get to several long-distance destinations and deliver goods. He starts with a negative reputation with the Hutts (obviously) and I JUST got it back to neutral when the Hutt patrol ship caught up with me, phew.

I began to despair as I got several missions that needed me to be at the far other end of the galaxy, which is why the expansion’s “cross the core worlds” travel route is great. I did it, and cleaned up. Every expansion rule I came across seemed to be a big improvement.

Jyn Erso leapt up to 6 fame very quickly with me panicking behind, but then (being hated by the Imperials) she ran into their patrol frequently, and got slowed right down. I concentrated on ships and crew that smuggle illegal goods well, and just got to 10 first.

The story is surprisingly strong. Depending on what comes up from the decks you could have a very different experience each game, but it always made sense thematically. The AI (from the expansion) was also very good, with each AI character having a signature action card. Jyn had a huge job to deliver to the planet she was on for a big reward, but because she’s Jyn, when she noticed it was an imperial planet she had to stop and do some local sabotage first, delaying her handing the job in for a turn.

I also like that (as Han) I rolled the ONLY result on my final (illegal) cargo delivery that meant I couldn’t automatically deliver it without attention from the authorities, but then had the opportunity to make a piloting check to avoid suspicion with the flavourtext “I don’t know, fly casual!” So I did, and won.

Definitely one to play several times, because as Han if I was against a more combat-oriented player or AI (one of the Bounty Hunters, for example) I could have been in much more trouble. As it was I managed to fly around dropping off smuggled cargo without getting into too many fights, which was perfect. I think playing as a Bounty Hunter and getting your fame from that instead of smuggling jobs would be a really different game.

[Benkyo]

Epic game of Oath, in which many books were burned, a citizen’s attempt to seize the grand sceptre failed by just 1 sword, and that same citizen (intentionally) helped seal the chancellors win after their gambit failed, by directing a roaming monster to reveal and create a path to the location of the exile cult hiding out in the hinterlands.

Epic game of Innovation, a 4-player team game that was the first time I’ve had the post-nuclear apocalypse experience.

A middling game of Bunny Kingdom. Didn’t seem to deserve the criticism I’ve heard of it (though the winner did win due to a wealth of hidden goals), but also didn’t spark joy. Adding a shared map to a points drafting game works reasonably well, I’d say it sits on a par with other pure drafting games I’ve played.

[Simfers]

I tried to take my revenge onArk Nova and failed, losing 44-33. I was missing just 10 credits to be able to play two MASSIVE animals (both elephants), which likely would have given me the game, so I had to settle for an elephant and a bear that let me play an Association action after. Curses!

We finished it up with two games of Pandemic, one with four players, one with a full seven. Victory and Victory+, respectively.

Hey, I won at something!!!

[COMaestro]

The three of us played Taverns of Tiefenthal yesterday, using all the modules. Again, we all picked the same starting card, this time removing a patron from our deck, getting a dishwasher, and upgrading our cash boxes.

Nice aspect is you are guaranteed at least 3 gold a turn, if you want it. Downside, you only start with one non-patron card in your deck, so your tables fill up quick the first few turns, but eventually we all had some upgrades and the game moved along like normal.

It was a pretty close game, but my wife won with 122, I had 111, and her brother had 109.

A bit later, my wife and I played Star Wars the Deckbuilding Game, which she won as the Rebels. I had a pretty good start, nabbing an AT-ST and Director Krennic early, but her first purchase was a B-Wing, which hit hard, and she was able to get some cap ships for defense. As such, she took out all three of my bases while I had only eliminated her first.

[lalunaverde]

Played async 1880: China to have a look at why is everyone so hyped about this. By late game, one of my companies has creaking old trains and I’m afraid that I have to foot the bill, dumped it to an opponent, and they then spend rounds withholding to give the company money. On the next stock round, I took over the company. Thanks, bubs, for taking care of MY company while I was off making money somewhere else.

Feels good, man

Very counter-intuitive game if you’re used to the typical 18xx formula. Anyway, I am understanding how to do some tricks on the board and on the stock market. I get it now. I get it. I’m happy.

[Captbnut]

Really glad you enjoyed it. I think it felt really Star Warsy.

It was just a bit too dice dependent for my wife

[Acacia]

So, Kanban EV. Does anyone know about this? Does @LaLunaVerde know about this? Really blown away and boy, does it fit into the “interactive, toothy euro” category.

I’ll try to focus my ravings rather than write what will undoubtedly become a full review…

First, just the interlocking of the game. There’s only four actions, but each spills into the other four meaning you need to route your actions, but also each creates and destroys opportunities for other players, pushes the variable in-game timers, etc etc. I am amazed by how tight and interwoven the game is and yet so clear.

Second, it’s not complex. Is it? BGG says it is my second most complex game, nestled between John Company and Gaia Project. The official teach video is 36 minutes. But it just… isn’t? I think you can divide it in three - there’s the setup (which is a lot, by most standards but not by Gloomhaven or anything). There’s the bookkeeping. And there’s the gameplay. The result is that ONE person at the table needs to take hold of all the complexity - when do you reshuffle the car demand tiles? What happens if Sandra gets to administration and it’s full? Can you claim a meeting card that scores you zero points? etc. One person needs to know this to run the inter-round upkeep and answer spot questions. For everyone else, it’s worker placement with four actions, scaling from dead simple to moderate. Then you need to explain training, Sandra, and meetings and boom you’re ready to go. This makes it a lot like Nations for me - one person needs to know the errata and the rest of the table can breeze through, checking in when edge cases come up. Takeaway is that it is super approachable for a euro of its weight.

Third, the theme. Yes, I’m an MBA. I’ve done masters level work on Kanbans and Kaizens, Poke Moke, Five S’s and Six Sigmas and all that jazz. There’s a feel here, both in mechanics and presentation that nails it. But what really gets my business head spinning is the wildly dysfunctional and yet oh so realistic business place this game creates. You’ve got Sandra, the world’s worst boss, who demands you do 20 things and then hunts through the game state for the one thing you couldn’t get to and punishes you for it. You’ve got weekly meetings that drive the employees to do things that don’t actually benefit the company because it’s a hot topic for management right now. And then the actual running of meetings and trainings.

“I built a grey car this week!”
“Ten points for gryffindor.”
“Wait, I built TWO!”
“NO ONE’S TALKING ABOUT GREY CARS ANYMORE CHARLES no one likes a kiss up.”

It’s all hilariously (but realistically) dysfunctional and I can’t get enough of the meetings. Scooping a “black car design” goal, which you didn’t do and gets you nothing, just so the guy who actually did it gets no credit…

Anyway, great game. Great puzzle. Great fight. Funny overlay of theme and mechanics. All the interaction ensures that once you solve the puzzle, you just start the meta.

Looks like I’m a Lacerda fan? And oh, The Gallerist is available used for $71… yoink.

[lalunaverde]

Yep! The trend on which upgrades and car models would score nicely is nice. the Gallerist is my fave and Wyvern’s fave is Lisboa. Never played On Mars or the newer more complex Vinhos rules but keen to grab them on a trade and play them

[Acacia]

I decided I’d try Kanban and, if I liked it, get one more. That’s the cap. The choice was Gallerist or Lisboa but the relative simplicity and shorter play time of Gallerist gave it the nod. I’d like to play Lisboa sometime but I doubt many people I play with would want to. I need to find someone who has that.

[Whistle_Pig]

We have On Mars. It’s quite complicated but not ridiculously so (or maybe I’ve just become immune…). I enjoy the whole mechanism of shuttling between the planet and orbit, and building things in a way that annoys everyone else

I’d like to try Kanban, but am concerned that it would lead to buying Kanban…

[lalunaverde]

Get to play the new Pollen - reimplementation of Samurai: the Card Game - from Allplay. The gameplay is good, but I am not a fan of how saturated the “board” looks like. Pretty and colourful art isn’t always a good thing! I was genuinely disoriented just looking at the cards in display. One of the players told me that he got a defect where the colours are muted, so he has an easy time reading the game state. That’s got to be cheating.

My issue with it is the same with Samurai the Card Game. You have this double randomness that doesn’t benefit in this implementation. You have a random personal deck of cards and you have a random deck of prizes to fight over. I just wanted to play Samurai: the Board Game instead.

Will be selling this game.

Babylonia - wow. I am falling out of love with this game. I have this just below T&E and Through the Desert, but I am now putting this below Yellow & Yangtze/Huang and Samurai. It’s still good, but I have too many Knizias.

Ticket to Ride Europe - we played with the 1912 expansion which adds depots, which is a nice addition.

Terraforming Mars - more plays of this game. 4 players and it took 105mins (one of us timed the game) with just the base game. I was the UN Mars Initiative and kept my focus on increasing Terraforming Rating as you can do its corporate action of only spending 3 Euros to further increase the TFR by 1 more. 1pt for 3 money is just nuts

Pax Porfiriana - 4 players this time so none of that “Diaz Senility” variant, which I always thought to be a band-aid to the 3 player game. So we are using standard rules.

Outrage cards littered the deck once again and someone has been racking them up. Which gives him a lot of incentive to call in Teddy Roosevelt and occupy Mexico. One player and I are competing for Revolution cards. The people of Mexico clearly had enough of the Dictator Diaz!! So we have 2 players always wanting to switch to Anarchy, while 1 player wants it at US Intervention. Mexico experience two economic depressions and a Red army take over of Chihuahua so all of our enterprises in the province were nationalised. It was really a struggle to keep oneself afloat, and so the income-stable ranches were very crucial. Anarchy often means that troops can roam the board between provinces and between US and Mexico.

We had a close call at the 3rd topple attempt at Diaz. I had enough to overthrow Diaz on a revolution, but the other 2 warlords decided to go against me and sided with Diaz. This left the 4th player to trigger the 4th topple and end the game with Cash Victory. The 4th player didn’t really gun for any topples and kept increasing their income. Always having American enterprises means that they are unlikely to be nationalised. Money was stored, and by the end of the game, with Diaz still standing, the 4th player won the game with the most money.

I think the ranking remain unchanged but Pax Porfiriana is seen on a better light:
1.) Renaissance
2.) Pamir
3.) Transhumanity
4.) Porfiriana
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5.) Viking

Fit to Print - real time game that is about building up your newspaper and it is pretty fun. I am always a big fan of real time games.

[Acacia]

@lalunaverde

Get to play the new Pollen

That doesn’t bode well. I can see it, though, the game is 90% flowers (player color), 7% pollinator (scoring) tokens, and maybe 3% icons (game state). I’ll give it a go at some point. The theme was the selling point around here.

[Phil]

@lalunaverde

Pollen … I am not a fan of how saturated the “board” looks like. Pretty and colourful art isn’t always a good thing! I was genuinely disoriented just looking at the cards in display.

Back when I looked at the campaign I’d commented “Pollen seems interesting, but I’m not sure that art work isn’t just a mess of colours. A nicely drawn mess of colours, for sure, but there’s something quite off-putting about it.”

I figure I made the right choice in passing on it.

[Simfers]

We had basically the same issue with Bitoku earlier this year. We both really liked the game, but the art is actually harmful to the gameplay by making the board very hard to parse. So many colours, the (fairly small) icons get lost. It’s super pretty, and once you get your head around it it’s really not that complicated (and quite good, too), but it’s just too busy.

[Captbnut]

@lalunaverde

It’s still good, but I have too many Knizias.

Say it ain’t so?

I would very much like to try Samurai