Recent Boardgames (Your Last Played Game Volume 2)

[Phil]

@Benkyo

I get the impression that Tokyo Highway is really a 2-player game? It was re-released as a 4-player game, but given that a destructive collapse could basically end the game, I’m not sure if that really works. Just speculation, having never played it.

A couple of thoughts on collapses:

1. Because you’re not building shared structures, there’s little motivation to make things unstable. You might still do that and hope someone bumps it, but as the only player who must make contact with their own constructions, I think you’d be far more likely to knock over your own roads if you took that approach.

2. The version of the game I played had components which were actively designed to make collapses less likely: the road segments had a little rubber foot at each end, and the cars were also made of rubber rather than wood. I understand neither of these things were the case in earlier versions, so no doubt accidents were more common before.

I think with some dexterity/balancing games, the fun is predicated on everything coming crashing down at some point (or the amazement of that not happening), but I don’t think Tokyo Highway is that sort of game. We created a very messy system of roads, but not an especially unstable one.

[bort]

@Phil

I think with some dexterity/balancing games, the fun is predicated on everything coming crashing down at some point

In that case, I’m playing them properly…
,

[EnterTheWyvern]

@Phil

The version of the game I played had components which were actively designed to make collapses less likely

Which version did you play?

[Phil]

Looking at BGG, I can see it was:

Tokyo Highway: Rainbow City

In this edition of the game, the roadways have small tacky pads on each end, which makes the sticks more stable than in earlier editions when you placed wood sticks on wood columns.

[Benkyo]

I didn’t know that existed, so thanks for that. Might help explain why I see so many Tokyo Highway sets sold second-hand, as it does sound like a direct upgrade.

[RogerBW]

Our main game at Thirsty Meeples last night was Resurgence, on the “new arrivals” shelf though it was apparently published in 2022. You’re a scavenger band in the radioactive ruins of Moscow after the One Day War… well, mostly you’re playing a worker placement game to gather resources, then spend those resources to get points/
That’s the problem for me, really; I’m not wild about the theme, but apart from some of the Soviet-Realist-styled art, there’s nothing here to say “Moscow” or even “post-apocalyptic”: call the resources something else and you could say that this is about Stone Age tribes or factions at the court of Shaka Zulu.
As we have it here, you have to plan chains of actions: clear this room at your compound so that you can put a labourer in it to gain resources, but to clear it you need to get a Build action from the main board which will cost some resources, and eventually you need to plan a mission and then send one of your workers into the right part of the map and spend those resources to get victory points… it’s all parts moving in different directions, but it never feels as if it means anything.
If you want to use a placement space that another player (or a random mutant) is already occupying, that’s fine, just pay one of any resource.
The rulebook is long and verbose, though the actual gameplay is relatively straightforward; much of the space is taken up explaining the cards, even though a better symbology would have made their meanings rather more readily apparent.
Now to be fair I know this style of Eurogame is one that I tend not to enjoy. But the whole thing felt like too much: waggling these levers isn’t fun, but what if we give you a whole lot more levers ro waggle in different ways?

[lalunaverde]

Age of Innovation - 3 players with 2 new-to-this-game. They have played Clans of Caledonia and Gaia Project. Obvy won as I’ve played this around 7 times this year.

I’ve been told by one that he prefers this over Gaia as it is “more streamlined, for some strange reason”. And after enumerating on how this is more streamlined, it wasn’t so strange at all. I agree with what he said.

OPEN - one of them shedders I bought from SPIEL, by Mandoo Games. Rather underwhelming. Yes. I can see some cool moves like making yourself lose intentionally because you secretly bid on Player B to win, but it was really meh in a sea of trick takers/shedders.

Coup - 4 players. Filler to wait for people.

Tikal - 4 players. Two newbies in the club joined and glad to have this in my bag as it is easy to teach and looks good to play. Great game!!

Keyflower - 5 players. I went for Coal strategy. Upgrade my coal mine. Mine a lot of coal. Took the only non-home transport tile in the game. Send them to the Forge right next door. Oh and upgrade it as well so every coal now scores from 2 pts per to 3 pts per. Easy peasy. Even stole the Keythedral from someone else.

Man, how I fell out of love with this game. I will still be eager to play, but there’s other games now I’d rather choose and are more playful. This now feels like a nu-Euro with an auction bolted on top.

[Brattyjedi]

Monthly game group today. I only managed to play two games this time, because they were both on the longer side and we arrived late.

First up was Feast for Odin. I love this game. I came third out of four, but I got the English crown, which always counts as a personal victory for me.

Then it was Keyflower. I played it once many years ago and remembered not liking it but was willing to give it another shot after all this time. I hated it. I can’t handle keeping track of 6 total different boards of possible actions in the middle of the table and in front of each player (5 player game) plus figuring out at a glance which spots have been used, which have been bid on but not used, who is winning the auctions based on locations of piles of meeples around the edges of a tile, etc. If I truly wanted to play this game well, it would take me 20 minutes at the start of each of my turns to walk slowly all the way around the table to methodically read the entire board state. And I don’t want to do that. I came second and hated every minute of the game.

[Bondy034]

Games played over the last couple of weeks:

Fresco good game of this, one of my mates really disliked it though! He did come last but struggled to mitigate the luck factor. As a serious strategy game it has its weaknesses but as a lighter family game, I think it’s still good fun.

Sea, Salt and Paper x3, finally got myself a physical copy of this one! I really like it but I think it probably takes a few games for folks to see that there is strategy there, behind the card draws. I mean you can totally still have a dud game through no fault of yours, but it’s less frequent when you know what you’re doing.

Lowlands, got a couple of rules wrong with this one but still worked. Everyone had me pinned to win as the main dike builder with 3 failures by the end - but my storm surge scoring was pretty poor, and I just lost. Still an excellent game. As usual I want to play it again soon, particularly with the corrected rules - but who knows how long that’ll take, knowing me.

Belfort, great to get this to the table again. Still one of my faves. Came in second, largely because we let our eventual winner get away with too much unopposed in the early game. Hoping for a replay with the assistants and expansions from the first expansion, as I love how they shake things up and give more options. Maybe one day I’ll try the expansion stuff from the second expansion. I do really wish someone would reprint this one, as I think it’s excellent and it not being available is a real shame.

My Island x6, jumped back into our two player campaign of this after some weeks away, so was a little fussing over what the ‘previous rules’ actually were. But we got there. I think we’ve now finished up to the end of Chapter 4 and at this stage we both think it’s better than My City. Though I have heard from some that they think the wheels kind of fall off in the second half, so I guess we’ll see…

Scout, did poorly as I tend to. Still really enjoy this as a filler though.

Civolution, man I was apprehensive of playing this one - so much to absorb! Although, once you get over that, pretty easy to play (playing well on the other hand…). Definitely has some vibes of Castles of Burgundy with the dice system but there’s a whole bunch more bolted onto it. We all enjoyed it though, even with a massive runaway leader - three of us were within 6 points of each other, and he’d almost lapped us on the score track… Was his first time playing too! Still, I’d play it again (if only to try and plan better than I did this time). I didn’t really like the ‘beginner’ rules for set up - our winner definitely got cards that vibed with the round goals early and I certainly was left holding dud cards I started with at the end. I mean he still clearly played better than the rest of us, but would like to try the ‘advanced’ setup, as I think that would even out those initial turns. There’s still more luck here than some would like given the complexity, but that’s not a deal breaker for me and crucially - playing the game was rather fun - even if I felt like I was fumbling it a bit. Would love to see a pro game of this played, as it definitely felt like we never had enough time to do everything we wanted.

Our winners perspective of the end game (he was yellow)…

[yashima]

After baking lots of Christmas cookies on Friday together, we visited our friends on Saturday for Zwiebelkuchen and cookies I was asked to bring games. Caveat: while she likes complex games, he is more of the type: „new game? if it takes more than 5-10 minutes to explain, I am not keen“

So with that in mind, I packed a bunch of quick-teach games. I hoped for Zoo Vadis but my own migraine prevented me even pulling it out of the bag.

We played:

• Link City: 2 plays of good fun but we saw a clear generational divide here. I think this one will grow stale if played too often. But it is a small box and so easily taught, I am definitely quite happy I have it.
• Just One: because this is one of this particular group’s goto games and it is always fun. Last night we regularly ended with just 2 of 5 clues left on the table. We just couldn‘t get it right A few easy guesses though and quite a few impossible ones. Still loving it. This one never grows old. (Best clues were: chocolate and pizza as clues to guess „Domino“ because „game“ was there 3 times… unguessable. The other one got guessed easily by my partner: „4th Wall“ and „Wolverine“)
• Anomia/Blitzdings: I bought this on the back of the SUSD review before realizing it has a speed component (my bad). I hate Set and Jungle Speed and the like with a passion—I don‘t do anything well under pressure. I know my friend likes those a lot though, so I thought this would be the best table to try this on. The explanation was indeed quick and then we played. I didn‘t even do too badly. I am good with words. My friend won. With a good margin. She plays even these kinds of games with strategy. It was good fun but my partner requested I never put him through this again and I concur. Might gift it to our friends. I am glad we tried it though. This was one I wasn‘t going to let go without trying it. I think I prefer That‘s Not A Hat.

Oh and earlier my partner and I played game 13 in our Pink Dorf campaign (5th game he joined in) and got a nice 363 score. There are 3 achievements left and one unlock.

[Captbnut]

Had a boardgaming weekend in a very strange AirBnb in Reading (think old children’s home)

We played
Fast Sloths
Really liked this one. It’s a Friedman Friese and you have to move your sloth around the board using the power of different animals. Very language independent so I have asked my friend who is going home to Germany for Christmas to buy it for me.

Forks
I find this bafflingly hard to teach. And I’m rubbish at it, I think my nadir was -32!

Zoo Vadis
Noisy group, lots of table talk. I messed with everyone by filling up the 3rd slot in the star enclosure with a peacock after I’d jumped in. It’s an absolute belter.

Yokohama
Full 4 players, so much easier on the table than on my phone on BGA. Love the new edition

Guards of Atlantis 2
3v3. I cannot wait for my copy to arrive, this game is just incredible.

Boast or Nothing
Feels like a rare trick taker that held up with 3 players.

Mind Up
A newish 6 Nimmt/ The Mind kind of thing. It’s not world beating, but I enjoyed it. We swore at each other.

Stephenson’s Rocket
On the beautiful Japanese edition. My 3rd play and I finally felt like I had an understanding of what I was doing. Both want to go back, but not unhappy I sold my first edition. Can’t believe the same person designed this and ZV.

Mino Dice
Ridiculous nonsense. Love it

Sol
This just continues to be amazing. So clean, simple and gorgeous to look at. Much prefer it without the event cards.

Ankh
Hmmm. Glad I only paid £35 for this. I liked it, the merge is cool. I was leading a very close game when the merger happened and I came last with the merged God winning. I prefer Blood Rage. Would move this on, but I don’t think there is a secondary market at the moment.

Ready Set Bet
8 people shouting at an iPad? Sign me up every time.

The Gang
The hot new co-op Texas hold em thing. We got it right once in 10 hands! Only ever got it wrong by one bet though. It’s really clever, would happily have played it all night but not sure how it holds up. It’s nigh on impossible to rank something like Jack high versus someone who has 10 high and I’m not sure how you’d beat it without developing Hanabi-esque conventions of some kind.

Modern Art
We couldn’t breathe from laughing. Who cares about the game?

Insider Black
As above. 20 Questions, who knew?

Orleans
By George, I love this game. My friend has the plastic geek bits which gives it a lovely clack in the bag. Really, really want to buy this.

[raged_norm]

@Captbnut

Boast or Nothing
Feels like a rare trick taker that held up with 3 players.

Coming back as this…

[SteveB_uk]

@Captbnut

Ready Set Bet
8 people shouting at an iPad? Sign me up every time.

This is high on my wishlist precisely because in every single review every player was shouting, including the shy ones, and I want that.

[Benkyo]

As @Acacia expressed an interest, the breakdown of my Terra Mystica scoring in our just-completed game:

15 start
-9 power conversion
22 Darkling power
26 towns

38 favour tiles

24 dwelling earth favour tile
6 trading post water favour tile
8 trading post air favour tile

32 scoring tiles

2 shovel scoring tile
5 stronghold scoring tiles x2
15 trading post scoring tiles x2
10 dwelling scoring tile

18 end bonuses

12 cult track
6 expansion

140 total (must have double-counted something, because that adds up to 142)

By round:
15 start

1. +2
2. +7
3. +20
4. +24
5. +20
6. +34

+18 end

[lalunaverde]

I did not enjoy that experience. Maybe I need to get used to the UI of the game, but on the table, everything is laid out clearly and I don’t have to remember what was my next move.

[Phil]

@Captbnut

Forks
I find this bafflingly hard to teach.

I had a slightly cumbersome teach last time (not bad, but not as quick as I felt it should have been), and because the game is so fast to play I decided that next time I would teach it like this:

• Describe the theme of the game, and then immediately…
• Deal the cards and play a complete dummy game without explaining how or why to choose anything – tell everyone where they need to put cards, but get them to do it completely randomly for the 3-4 rounds (6-8 decisions) that the game comprises.
• I figure this should take about 60 seconds (and would make a point of saying this up front so that anyone questioning the process knows it’s going to be super quick).
• Do not separate the positive/negative cards after each round – that will take time and provoke questions and explanation. Leave it for the next game.
• Once all cards are played, work through the scoring, explaining the positive/negative split, and make sure that each player knows what their dummy hand scored and why.

My theory is that the players will then know everything they need to know – how to play, and how their choices are going affect the end of the game.

[Acacia]

Super helpful, @benkyo. Thanks for parsing all of that.

@lalunaverde, I’m used to playing on the app so I’m accustomed to having the information all hidden. Still higher friction than the real thing. I definitely lost my way in the middle but re-engaged in the last quarter.

[Acacia]

Took Outer Rim out for a spin last week. Oh boy, giddy as a schoolboy. What a treat!

So it’s Star Wars. But this time, Han Solo is wearing mandalorian armor and is working for the Hutts, hunting Greedo across the galaxy with Jyn Erso in the co-pilot seat (note: This scenario does not end well for Greedo).

Not a big fan of the solo. It’s serviceable and works in a logical way. It’s one of the “act chaotically but do everything fast and for free” modes, and for the most part serves as a game timer. And I think that’s the problem.

Outer Rim works on two levels. One level is a Tales of the Arabian Nights story game. And the other is a tableau synergy, money-fame engine, action efficiency game. What had me giddy was the chance to put Han Solo in Dash Rendar’s outrider and spam the Kessel Run to fly halfway across the galaxy. Yes, the “game” bit with resource management and planet pathing is necessary to give the game a beginning and an end and drive competition, but it isn’t what gives the game meaning.

The efficiency spamming of the solo bot forces you to lean into that side of the game, though. You have to be counting fame-per-turn and cycling cards in the bot’s market to keep them flying back and forth. And that’s not the game I wanted to be playing.

I found Chewbacca on Kessel but I had to leave him there mining Coaxium because there was no time to do a pitstop. Leia wallowed on Ryloth waiting for someone to grab the Prison Break job. Mandalorian Han Solo was too busy dropping a Sith Holocron off at Force-Knows-Where because it was two fame and he was flush with cash.

But in the end it was ok. I was still giddy. I still knew what I was doing. If the bot had beaten me, I just would have kept playing because the game I was playing ended with the grateful Hutts erecting a statue in my honor on Nal Hutta, and I didn’t need to win or lose to a bot to tell that story.

However, I did eke out a win over botty bot in the end, because Han Solo in the Outrider can Kessel Run 18 spaces across the galaxy each turn and that, baby, is thematic action efficiency.

Bottom line: Ameritrash at its best. Thematic rules up the wazoo, which is exactly what you need to get into the galaxy. I almost enjoyed manual diving just to remember what happens when I run into an X-Wing in deep space.

[gmwhite999]

Big question, from someone considering buying it: Outer Rim or Firefly?

[RogerBW]

If you love Star Wars and want to shake up the bits and see how they come out this time, Outer Rim is your boy. I enjoy Firefly more (both the show and the game), but I actively dislike the huge marketing empire that is Star Wars, and Firefly was cancelled early enough that it didn’t have the chance to get big and get bad. And of course there’s Xia, which doesn’t have the media tie-in at all.
Outer Rim clearly owes a lot to Firefly, and a bit to Xia, and honestly I’d rather play either of those than Outer Rim again.