My buddy is back from Afghanistan so I went over and had an actual game night with his family for the first time in ages. We played Revolution! (I won that one), War of Whispers (I finished tied for third in that), and then about a thousand games of Sequence (My team eked out a victory on the last game. Not because we were tied, but rather we had lost track of who was ahead in the match and all agreed to stake everything on a single game). It was nice having a somewhat normal game night again. 
5 Likes
Just had a go at online games of Scythe and Splendor from the Asmodee bundle and wow could the UI/UX use some work 
Scythe was at least good fun until two of the 3 players got booted out of the game for taking too long on their turns. It uses a chess-clock style countdown and 30 minutes is definitely not long enough as a default. Splendor booted two of us out of the game halfway through and announced the third player as the victor despite them not having the most VPs.
Theyāre both games I have experience with IRL so now I roughly know how the digital versions work, Iām willing to go back and play some more. The one upside of TTS I suppose, if you know how the physical version works, all you have to deal with is the TTS interface.
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Iāve had two more plays of Obsession and can add some further notes to my earlier āreviewā. Iāve had two more games since my first post: one solo and one two player.
Game reports inside
The Solo
I played a standard solo against the easiest āAIā. Itās mostly a beat a certain score kind of solo mode. With each of the opponents having separate score sheets for each category and season that you have to beat in order to win the courtship. The courtship interest cards remain hidden (which is called Jane Austen variant) so you have no advance knowledge which of the 5 scores you have to beat that season. With the easy opponent I managed to win 2 of 3 seasons and the final courtship. There is also a die roll that removes a tile from the market each turn according. The easy opponent was too easy as I scored around 160 points where 87 were required. I think I need to go for something more difficult.
The solo was quite satisfying as a puzzle and the AI need very little handlingāone die roll per round and if you want the courtship bonuses you need to consult the scores to beat which you would also need to do with a human opponent.
The Two Player
Then I āconvincedā my partner it was time for a cup of tea and some other activities.
Did I mention there are two interactive components to the game? Well, he picked up the thing that steals prestige from an opponent in round 2 of the game (I couldnāt have) and used it nearly every remaining round, keeping my prestige low and low and low. I am not going to complain again that the game has too few interactive elements because this one is straight meannessā¦ spreading rumors about my family? Who would do that? (I really didnāt enjoy being on the receiving end of this).
I definitely considered taking one of his workers away instead of hiring two from the market at some point just to get back at him. I ended up not doing it which was smart because as I suspected the āNational Holidayā in the penultimate normal round of the game acts as a catch up mechanism. With the additional servant, I was able to score a huge amount of points in the last two rounds which won me the courtship and the game with 137 over 124 points.
While he hated the theme, once he grokked how a turn worked it went pretty smoothly, one can basically play everything except the market buying at the same time.
Final Thoughts
I was wrong about the teach: itās not easy and I need to get better at it. It didnāt take me two hours to learn the game for nothing. I should probably have played the base game without the new expansion with him.
For two player, I am considering figuring out the āchessā variant of this called āTableau Obsessionā that makes it less random and more strategic.
I canāt wait to play another solo and figure out a way to get a game with three or more players running who donāt hate the theme from the start.
5 Likes
Today I played a 3 player 18OE scenario. France/Belgium + Spain/Portugal. Itās very operational. The routes are pretty nuts And the long term planning that needs to go in to them on account of cities not upgrading with more token space was more intense than the other titles Iāve tried so far.
We had to call it early just as I was starting to get going. And more importantly had hacked at the position of first place. In 1 OR I went from about 1500 behind to 400 behind and so I think I could gave caught up. Especially with an imminent nationalisation that would have got me big bucks. That being said I was pleased to drag myself in ti contention off a wobbly start. More importantly to get my timing right to come out best in the train rush. Least withholding, most permanents Biggest single revenue with no potential to get blocked. Plus greatest weight in valuable shares
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So jealous of your 18OE. Iām still trying to justify shelling out $350 to get my own copyā¦ I just canātā¦ It canāt be done ā Iāll have to wait until someone wants to give away a copy for $200 (or, hopefully, less).
It seems the scenarios are what makes the game even remotely viable outside of weekend-long marathon sessions. Itās actually been touted, in a couple of places, as one of the best 2-player 18xx games.
Iām curious how you feel about the variety of scenarios provided?
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My guess is that the upside and downside of the scenarios is all using the same rules set. So when you have it down the play time should be quite snappy. The variety will be in geography and the abilities in the privates and minors so it remains to be seen what the life in that is.
As I said earlier, the game is squarely on the operational side of 18xx. The novel approach to track laying is interesting though. The route building is complex and looks to me to be require the most strategic planning for them to work in time to be competitive in early income as well as ensuring late game bonanza payouts.
For all it being designed as a weekend long epic itās probably quite a good one for learning route building in 18xx. Plus because I got it while it was in stock at the publisher it was cheaper than 1817 
4 Likes
Had some friends over for masked garden games yesterday ā itās definitely starting to get a bit chilly for that now.
VOLT, first time with a physical copy after many games on yucata.
Project L, in which the puzzle solving is assumed and the real game is in choosing the puzzles to solve.
Letter Jam, in which I keep locking on to the first option I see and having trouble spotting others.
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Played a game of Aquasphere at the weekend. Surprisingly breezy for a game that looks this complicated:
I genuinely almost fell asleep whilst watching the rules explanation video (twice!)
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Iāve seen Aquasphere knocking around in a few different bargain bins, but it always struck me as āyet another soulless euroā (YASE), though perhaps the āsoullessā was not apt, as it appears to be a passion project for someone, with such a vivid art direction and setting (certainly a bit out-of-character for a Feld)
I believe my friend bought it for the princely sum of Ā£5! I thought it was pretty good, rules-induced brain ache notwithstanding.
There is a German boardgame channel called Hunter & Cron who had a branded edition of the game. They are probably Germanyās biggest youTube boardgame review channel, they even have a pretty big booth at SPIEL every year (bigger than the DiceTower anyway). I used to watch them before I discovered SUSD and NPIā¦ one of them I like, while the other gets on my nerves a bitā¦ ā¦ Their videos are usually long ā¦ so I rarely get to the end. They do a lot of top 10s like the Dicetower though and those are the most interesting to watch.
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I only had small screen android devices to use, so Iām wholly committed to the PC version. Local online is pretty great, if you have someone that can share your router. Best of luck against the TIE Interceptor swarm when it shows up.
We finally managed to get back together and finish off our ongoing game of Spirit Island. We had the game pretty much on lock by the end of our first turn back and thanks to a Major Power Iād gained, on our final turn I managed to generate 14 fear - 7 from the Major Power (with a bit of element buffing), 3 from my innate, and 2 each from the other two powers I played. It felt good. With contributions from our other powers, we got up another two Fear cards right before the invader phase, and, boop, bopped over to Terror Level 3. Well, there was only one City left on the board, and Serpent Slumbering had a slow power ready to pop it. So all we had to worry about at that point was events and another city getting Built. Between Fear and the events and Ravage, it turned out that pretty well every explorer anywhere that was set to build died or ran away instead. (Or, in one case, turned into a beast from my Savage Transformation power.) No blight during Ravage, between our cleanup efforts and Fear and events. ā¦and then the next Explore triggered the English power of Building on the most populated space on every board, and sure enough, we had one Town left over on a different board from the City, and it Built another City. Oh no! ā¦well, Serpent was on top of the new City and had the elements to do his damaging innate for 3 damage in that space. And the day was saved.
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Iāve played another solo of Obsession, extended game this time with an intermediate opponent specific for the extended game still beat it by 20 points despite losing most of the courtship. My partner claims Iām obsessedā¦ canāt be. Iāve only played 4 games in less than a week 
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Played a quick little Street Masters today. Ronny and Murph took on the Oni in the Reign Storm stage.
This game is still fun. It does what it does really well. The combos are fun, itās occasionally tense and the variety is huge.
2 Likes
Just finished another very close Android: Netrunner with @Lordof1 ā after a game severely lacking in agendas, I had one ready to go, then drew another so that when I got HQ-hacked there was a 2/3 chance it would be accessed and stolen for a runner win.
But it wasnāt.
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For the first time since March, I got to play actual games with a real life person!! Got to try out some of the new stuff Iāve bought recently and proceeded to lose almost every game 
Started off with Roam, which is pretty abstract, despite the theme. But the aesthetics add to the relaxed feel. Definitely want to try it with more players and the full game with the special artifact powers.
Finally got a chance to try Unmatched, which Iād bought in The Before Timesā¢ but hadnāt had a chance to play. I played Alice against Medusa. I was doing pretty well until my opponent realised she hadnāt been using Medusaās special ability and promptly did 10 damage in 1 turn, taking me out completely.
Nova Luna was next. Lovely abstract puzzle that definitely shares DNA with Patchwork. Especially the bit where I thought I was doing well and then promptly lost.
I pulled it back with a round of Ice Team Bear Chess. Grabbed up most of the fish from the igloos and won comfortably.
Tea for 2 is a super simple deckbuilder thatās maybe a little too random when it comes to how you get to do actions. Though itās fun if youāre not taking it seriously.
Letterpress is another one I picked up pre-quarantine. Itās nice, but Iād prefer Paperback/Hardback if I have the time/space in my bag.
Finished up with good old Ghost Blitz, which I won despite a couple of mistakes 
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Iām assuming these two things are not related? Medusa can only do 1 damage with her special ability at the beginning of her turn, though she can easily do 10 damage with an unblocked Gaze of Stone attack.
Yep, that was what happened. I had no cards in hand so couldnāt block.
I am going to start using this phrase
2 Likes