Oh, and I got my brain in a complete knot about how you gain cardinals. Is it only through cards/events or can you use the influence action to get them as well?
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I played my first two games of Trailblazers today (without any goal cards). I scored 47 points legitimately in the first game, and 51 by cheating in the second game ā going through the rest of the deck until I found the one card Iād been waiting for (for what seemed like half the game), to fix that one wrong-coloured bend in my biggest loop. I conclude that my initial attempts to score 50 points while also achieving additional goals as well are liable to go poorly :).
Iād hesitated to pick this one up on the basis that I felt Sprawlopolis occupied a similar niche in an unbeatably-small package. So far Trailblazers feels comparatively clunky with its much larger deck of cards to shuffle, and that whole drafting process (Sprawlopolis is 18 cards in total, while Trailblazers has you looking at 18 cards every single round ā and only playing 6 of them).
Iāve enjoyed my first games, though, so Iām keen to find out what the Goal cards are like. And then there are the animal expansion tokensā¦ and I have no idea what those are about yet.
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is this related to Palm Island?
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Yes, Palm Laboratory is a new variant of Palm Island. I havenāt played the older game, but AFAIU the main differences are:
- Theme and artwork, naturally (although itās very abstract)
- Island plays either 1p or 2p, whereas Lab is purely 1p.
- Island is entirely score-based, whereas Lab introduces win/lose conditions (with score as a secondary factor)
- Island has a single play mode, whereas Lab has three variants
- Lab has some additional difficulty tuning options (helpful āminionsā which you can opt to play with or without)
Looking at BGG comments, some folks prefer the old game and some prefer the new one.
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We finished Threads of Fate.
It involved each of us doing some properly hard deductions and then having to decide the fate of the Universe as a family before the final puzzle.
This last puzzle felt more solveable than the others; I donāt think we used a clue. I feel like weāve left it on a massive high, whereas some of the earlier puzzles felt unfair (we did think weād have to go stargazing at midnight at one point!).
I think weāll have a look at some more Post Curious stuff now.
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Played our first game of daybreak with 2 players.
Managed to achieve draw down after 4 rounds. Need to do some checking on some rules that I may have messed up including resolving the new dice rolls after thermostat increases. Not sure if we would have survived another 2 rounds as it was all about to kick off.
Overall enjoyable for a learning game. Would probably increase the difficulty next time as the puzzle is fun. I do have some concern about luck of the card draw (I had one round that I got a very powerful card and was able to spam it to victory every subsequent round) but time will tell.
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Ahh ā¦ too long ago to remember sorry!
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I got to put this to the test today, and: success! I managed to play and win the basic version of the game whilst on the train (with 2-3 minutes to spare even, although the trains are often getting in a few minutes late, so in fact I donāt know exactly how long it took).
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Daybreak is a lot about compounding interest 
At the end of the round you collect emissions from players (plus any from the previous roundās die rolls) and distribute them on oceans and forests. The leftovers are then added to the temperature bands.
Then you roll the dice for the tipping points however many there are next to the temperature bands you have created. If in the course of rolling dice you add another temperature band (there are some tipping points that go directly there and do not wait for the next round), you roll another die if the new band indicates to increase the number of rolls.
Then you resolve the number of disaster cards as indicated by the current temperature bandāadding as many cards as needed.
Yes, there is some, inevitably.
There are also mitigating cards like the research cards that let you exchange cards. Or the various cards that let you draw more cards. Drawing more cards isāas usual in such gamesāvery powerful. There is also one global project that allows to exchange cards with the lightbulb tag to be used for āresearchā āthe best thing about that one is that it doesnāt take up a project slot on your personal board AND that any player can take a card tucked under there and sometimes it is just so helpful to be able to hand an extra card to another player that way.
When I play solo as āglobal governmentā and do not introduce any challenge cards, it has become quite rare that I do not win by round 3 or 4. When I lose, it is often because I was unable to draw enough cards that let me reduce emissions. But having so much bad luck is rare enough that I donāt think it is an issue.
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Finally got Reavers of Midgard punched ā¦ this never happens. I punch games as soon as they are inside my door normally. That was a bad sign.
I bought it half a year ago or more because it was cheap and it has dice. I got through 2 of the 6 rounds in my 2-handed test game before I had no desire to continue.
Itās a game with locations that will be activated by players. 4 locations will be activated each round regardless of player count. The lead player will get a bonus. There is a cost to activate locations and then you can do a variety of point salady things like plunder villages, attack fortresses etc.
The dice represent your viking crew and their abilities.
The game is pretty light I think. The decisions what do do can probably be optimized a little. But they lack tension and it all feels a bit too generic.
This may be a better game for someone else. But not for me. There is no combo-tastic move, there is no tile-laying puzzling. There is no tight balancing of resources or a huge variety of interesting cards or abilities. Even the cards you āhireā gave a very limited set of abilities. And there is no solo-mode. The theme is just a very thin veneer and this is riding the success of its bigger predecessor Champions of Midgard, which I havenāt played.
I think if I wanted to play a game of Viking Raiders, Iād prefer Raiders of the Northsea with its interesting worker placement mechanic and more complex actions and interesting cards I only ever played the app a few times but it left a far better impression.
This one will go straight to the ālesson learnedā pile: I solemnly swear I am no longer buying games only because they are on sale.
On the plus side: it was pretty easy to learn and to set up. The production is not bad and the dice are nice and chunky. The card backs are really pretty. But thatās not enough when you made Generic Euro Gameā¢ #23āand I love a lot of Euros.
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But what if they have dice?
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the dice thing was a yearslong attempt to find games my partner enjoys. Iāve given up on that. it seems to be less about finding what he enjoys and more about finding games Iām enjoying that do not have elements that he actively dislikes.
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Thanks. Thatās how we played it but I wasnāt sure if adding a temperature band triggered a full set or just the difference of die rolls. Thanks for the clarification.
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Arcs last night, single game mode.
I need another play. I got boxed in by a player that could blow you to pieces when you attacked, didnāt like the action selection too much either.
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I reset my game because last time I played was so long ago there was no continuity.
For the longest time it looked like the Chancellor was just going to keep hold on their lands. They got Alchemists and Fire Talkers in the first round of the game along with Taming Charm in the Mountains that seemed like a winner right there. They also grabbed the Darkest Secret and the Peopleās Favor soon after.
But then Exile White started taking over a couple of territories in the Provinces and war was on. All the while Exile Blue seemed to be doing nothing at all. They were probably really bored by the game and surfing on their phone. Who knows (this was a 3-handed game, just in case I need to state the obvious).
So the crucial moment of the game happened when the Chancellor decided to strengthen their position by taking the Standing Stones Province from Exile White. Because of Exile Whiteās Wolves eating reserve units the Chancellorās army was pretty small. But since they had both Archers and Fire Talkers they felt like they could overwhelm Whiteās army easily. Well, technically yes. But I checked the Law of Oath a few timesā¦ and a phyrric victory remains a victory even if the land goes to the bandits after the Exileās army was destroyed. Rolling a lot more orange dice than you have units on your boardā¦ is maybe not the best idea.
And that seemed to be the end.
The bored Blue Exile swept in and quickly conquered a bunch of territories with the army they had quietly been preparing to build up with cards that let them recruit without spending supplies.
The Chancellor panicked as they lost the title of Oathkeeper and couldnāt get it back. That round nothing happened and Exile Blue graduated to Usurper. They held 4 territories to the Chancellorās one. So after some deliberation the Chancellor went groveling to Exile White and offered them a relic and Citizenship. White agreed because their only chance at victory was now succeeding the Chancellor as a citizen because all the Visions had vanished deeply into the Hinterlands discardā¦
Things were still looking badly. Even with their forces united, the empire was now just 2 Provinces and Exile Blue had left the cradle well defended. If The Plains could not be taken back, they would win as Usurper.
In their desperation the Chancellor looked to the Darkest Secret and went to the World Deck and behold they found the āKey to the Cityā a card that was so situationally perfectā¦ it basically guaranteed victory. With the Key in hand the Chancellor took over the Plains easily. Now all they needed was to take one more territory from Exile Blue. But out of supply it fell to their new vassal to decide the outcome.
Despite having 3 artifacts now, there was no way white could take either the Peopleās Favor or the Darkest Secret from the Chancellorātheir affinity for magic with the Alchemists and Firetalkers as advisorās had made them rich in both favor and secretsā¦ and the Chancellor had also retrieved 2 other artifacts from various places in the realm. So Citizen White went for the best option that might yet keep them in the game: using the Dowsing Sticks they had obtained from the reliquary they found a hidden artifact. Then they went on to conquer the territory from Blue as demanded and hoped for the best on the roundās die rollā¦ but the Chancellorāonce more keeper of the Oathārolled wellā¦ and the game was over.
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A first go at Wayfarers of the South Tigris, solo. A bit fumbling of course, and lost comprehensively to the AI - but on first impressions this is a very, very good game indeed. And not nearly as complicated as Iād been expecting.
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Last night was my first play of Eclipse Second Dawn in a fewā¦ years? Surely not that longā¦ maybe? First play of 2024 at the very least. Two new players, and three others that had played with me the last time we playedā¦ Iām going to say years ago.
Terry played the Eridani (Lots of money to start, but -2 Action Discs), Scott played the Hegemony (Cruiser to start plus shields, but awful trade rates), Justin played the Mechima (cheaper ships, faster upgrades), Eric played the Planta (fragile species but explore twice as fast), Mark played the Hydran (Research twice as fast and start with Super Labs), and I played humans because I like playing humans.
Turn 3 saw the Hegemony research a Wormhole Generator that linked to only 2 of Terryās systems (undefended), and the Hegemony struck out with a Cruiser fleet armed with Plasma Turrets, but the Mechima immediately attacked the now-exposed Hegemony worlds and Scott chose to fall back with his ships to protect his own systems, sparing Terry. Turn 4 I launched a Dreadnaught, Cruiser, and Interceptor at the GDS, but got my butt kicked. Turn 5 the Hegemony took the Galactic Core and the Hydrans discovered Monolith tech and began spamming those.
Turn 8 was a fuster-cluck, with three empires (Planta, Mechima, and Hegemony) massively bankrupting their economies to try and grasp last-minute systems. I managed to win a fight against a pair of Ancients and two of the Hegemony Cruiseres by spamming well-computered Ion Missiles (two Dreads with 4 missiles each), but lost a fight for the core when Eric landed some unlikely antimatter missile barrages, and then Eric lost the following fight against Scott.
Final scores were Planta 18, Mechima 19, Eridani 21, Hegemony 23, Humans 28, and Hydrans 43.
Not a typo. The Hydrans had 4 Monoliths and the largest empire at the end of the game, with nobody willing to risk tangling with their Rift Cannon equipped ships except me, and I didnāt have enough access to his systems to do much damage. That stated, gosh what a great game.
I have the two expansions now, and Iām looking forward to folding them into the game for our next playthrough in a week or two!
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Fields of Arle + Tea and Trade
Ares Expedition
Endeavor
Just One
The Great Zimbabwe - 3 players. I went for the God of the Drunks. It wasnāt that effective, because we didnāt do much bidding. (Granted, the other 2 players did say that the Drunk God made them reluctant on spending money on bids).The other players went for Transport God (increase range to 6) and the god that gives 2 cattle during income phase.
Player 3 comboād the 2 income god with the Builder specialist to spam buildings and made sure that they get income whichever goods we produce.
I lost as people try not to play ball with me. Still, I manage to nearly hit my VR with 2 pts short.
Teotihuacan - Awesome. 3 players still. I think I lagged behind by not taking more techs to build up my engine, but my score was respectable. Maybe 1 or 2 more techs to increase my tempo would have helped.
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I see you are not using the common TGZ readability house-rule, where number of shields on a craftsman indicates price.
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I used to, but forgot as itās been a while.
It was a smallish table so it wasnt a trouble for us to look at other players tableau
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