I had two lovely solo games of Architects of the West Kingdom over the weekend. The first was a narrow 6 point loss by Terese against Helena when I was one turn shy of completing my last building before Helena jumped on the last Guildhall slot. The second game saw a 6 point win for Frederick against Helena, keeping ahead of her with my constructions and getting 5 apprentices on board to speed up resource acquisition. This game is the most fun of my recent purchases so far.
3 Likes
I have FINALLY played A War of Whispers I have been trying to get the game since February, and a kind soul managed to get it for me because I posted about that fact on here.
We played three players, and upon opening the box I was surprised at just how little there was to the game. I wanted it because it was straightforward, but the box is likeā¦ Even bigger than it needs to be. Once I took the board and the 4 player mats out of the box, I could hide the whole of the rest of the game under one hand.
The game played out shortly weirdly. I think either I got very lucky during the allegiance set up or likeā¦ Iām just absurdly good at the game? My order was Red, Yellow, Green, Brown, Blue. I spent a bit of time early making sure that Blue was promptly removed from the board and nobody stopped me. One of my plays involved another player placing 4 brown cubes on the boarder, which next turn I smashed 4 blue cubes into, annihilating both sides. I then invaded that area with red cubes and spent the rest of the game just making sure that nothing anybody else did actively progressed the game too much further.
I think I got quite lucky in that my partner had an almost identical board (with red and green swapped) which meant that my metamore just took a cue to ignore the brown faction completely and eventually made a swap, putting yellow second and brown last on the track.
At the end I scored 12, 15, and 4, with 0 points from both the other empires. Iām hoping our next outing is a little more clean, as there was some confusion about how certain cards worked. The language was a little vague about where you take a cube from and things. Some of the cards let you use the action from a different agentās location, but we had a small disagreement about whether that meant you use the same action but for this empire, or that empire essentially gets another action? We decided on the former, but weād have liked the game to be more specific.
5 Likes
I played Burgle Bros on Tabletop Simulator yesterday. Can thoroughly recommend the mod - very well done.
3 Likes
Finally removed Villagers from my pile of shame by playing with my partner. It was okay but Iām not exactly motivated to back their second KS running currently. My partner was frustrated once again because I grokked the game on first try and won a frustrating 134 over 101 points. Luck was involved though.
Followed by four solo plays of the always awesome Sprawlopolis featuring my new highscore of 10 and new lowscore of -10 (of tracked games).
3 Likes
Unimpressed with Villagers. Itās a game where you build a tech tree but so dependent on milling the decks. 7 Wonders is better at this, imo.
3 Likes
So am I. It took me over a year after receiving the game to finally play more than 2 handed solo. There are so many backers on that new KS, I had to check though if my first impression from a year ago still held and it does.
2 Likes
I find Villagers is one of those harmless light games. Hard to get excited about this level of game - they arenāt taxing, but their simplicity is at the cost of any interesting decision space. They do what they do, bumbling along, then go away. Epitome of āitās fineā.
Drafting games are a lot better at uniting the players, so you feel like youāre playing together instead of multiplayer solitaire. Especially with more players, there doesnāt seem much point watching the decks since itāll all be different by the time it gets to you again.
2 Likes
Got Tiny Epic Dinosaurs to the table, once with just me and the wife, and again with our 6 and 9 year olds. It was a great time with the kids, and pretty cutthroat with just adults (in a good way)
2 Likes
Played Through the Ages 2 with EnterTheWyvern. I defo enjoyed it more. But I cant fit this game in my collection. Im very happy to finally try it for real though.
Roadhog - a racing game while navigating through traffic jams. Itās awful that it does feel like youre in a traffic jam! The veto cards are a cardinal sin that significantly sullies the game and makes it drag so long, even on short game mode. This game should have been a funny and delighful trashy game of rolling dice and blocking your friends with traffic, but no.
Heroes vs Monsters - WHY!?
Men at Work - I have seen its rough edges, but managed to avoid them until now. So far, this is my go-to dexterity in a standard size box. Will be looking for some alternatives.
The Mind
4 Likes
Iām curious what youāve found?
Iāve played with a very fumble-fingered friend who knocked herself out of the game on her third turn. And Iāve ran into a position where extremely competitive players couldnāt agree on what items had to be removed after an āincidentā.
Despite those failings, I still adore the game.
Player elimination can be bad at 4 or 5 players is my main concern. This is ultra subjective, but I find it more difficult to be creative and daring if you want to. It is mostly āIāll play it safe to keep myself alive and try for the award if itās easy.ā
Regardless, I still love it. Im putting a high bar on a filler dexterity game here. Im fine keeping it if my search fails. Junkart will be my first stop, which I only played a few times spread throughout my board gaming years
2 Likes
Iāve had 2 solo runs at The Search for Planet X, and lost both of them.
Its a fairly simple game to learn. The board has 12 sectors (in normal mode ā there is a harder 18 sector map on the other side), and each sector has only one object. An object can be a comet, an asteroid, a gas cloud, a dwarf planet, and of course Planet X of the title. There are also 2 empty spaces. Some logic rules are always in effect, such as comets only being in certain numbered sectors, and asteroids being adjacent to another asteroid.
On your turn, you take an action, advance your player piece, and rotate the earth board (which makes available certain sectors while covering others). The actions possible are to survey for an object across a range of visible sectors, target a sector (which tells you exactly what is in that sector, but you can only do it twice), research a topic (which will reveal other logic rules about the objects), and locate Planet X. To successfully locate Planet X, you must also select what objects are on either side of it.
At certain points (on the board, as the earth board moves around), you can submit theories about an object in a sector. These theories move up until they reach the inner space, and then they resolve. If true, youāll get points at the end of the game for being first, as well as successfully finding the object. Of course, its also information to be used by your opponents.
I was playing at the beginner level, which gives you 8 facts about the board at the start (such as, there is no asteroid in sector 3).
I lost my first solo game very quickly, Iām still unsure how the bot solved it so soon. The second lasted a bit longer, I thought I had 2 possible solutions, but failed on both, must have missed something.
The game has been compared to Cryptid (which my group didnt really like), and Awkward Guests (which my group LOVES). So hopefully this will be a winner.
5 Likes
Sounds a little bit like an Einstein puzzle thing 
and I like Cryptidā¦ keep us posted on how group play goes.
2 Likes
Had my second solo two-hander of Nusfjord last night, with Yellow beating Green by 25 points to 21. Close yes and a few buildings came good for yellow for their victory, especially the one adding victory points for each forest. Managed to get over 25 fish in Greenās personal supply at one stage too: more of a challenge to buy another building but good to see that level of resource stockpiling is possible and without too many ships either. Still not certain that I get it strategically yet but working on it and hopefully getting somewhere.
3 Likes
Last night, after my partner and kids were in bed, I sat down for a low-key solo game. Eager to try out Leaving Earth after recently picking it up, I was amazed at how much table space it occupies despite its tiny box.
For my first space adventure, I opted to play just the base game and without Mercury. I did, however, fish out the orange player markers from the Stations expansions, because it is a superior color to any of those found in the base game box (though yellow certainly comes close).
Some of what occurred in my game may spoil the experience for others, like me, just getting into it, so Iāll
hide the rest
I opted for a Hard game, thus dealt 3 Easy, 3 Medium, and 2 Hard missions. They were:
- Sounding Rocket (1)
- Mars Survey (5)
- Man in Orbit (4)
- Ceres Lander (8)
- Lunar Lander (6)
- Venus Survey (6)
- Lunar Station (15)
- Mars Station (20)
Immediately, I knew I was up against a steep challenge. In order to obtain more than half of the points available, I knew I would need either a Lunar or a Martian Station.
I set out to get a bold start: my first launch (other than rocket testing) was a manned mission to the Moon for a 1 year lunar stay. In 1967, all launches were successful, but a minor malfunction damaged the Eagle lander while attempting to detach the Vostok capsule that would be rendezvoused for Jim Lovellās return to Earth after his Lunar holiday. Fortunately, with a mechanic Astronaut onboard, he was able to repair the Eagle lander with a yearās supply of food ā saving the cost of launching a new slew of components to re-attempt, but leaving him without enough food to survive a year on the lunar surface. Jim Lovell, leaving the bulk of the craft orbiting earth, returned safely home.
Jim Lovell was also selected for the second attempt, in 1969, for a manned trip to the moon. This time, upon reaching Lunar Orbit, surveying revealed the surface of the moon to be covered in vast oceans of dust, forcing Jim Lovell to, once again, turn around and return to Earth.
Later in 1969, Project Matt Damon launched Jim Lovell into space, once more, on a manned mission to Mars. He would venture only with what was needed to arrive and survive for 2 years, relying on a future launch to follow after him to deliver the components to return home.
In 1971, 2 years into his voyage, Jim Lovellās spacecraft suffered a critical failure in its life support system. The spacecraft and his remains landed safely on the Martian surface.
Two years later, another manned mission to Mars was attempted, but, as we all know, there was a worldwide embargo on Victory Points on 31st of December, 1976 and all production of VP stopped immediately, preventing Vladamir Komarov from attaining any value from his (would-be) successful landing on Mars in early 1977.
Thankfully, I had been burning my excess yearly budget on various components throughout the decades and had enough laying around and a bit of cash to launch a Ceres Probe Landing craft.
Discarded
- Lunar Lander (6)
- Lunar Station (15)
Achieved (24)
- Sounding Rocket (1)
- Mars Survey (5)
- Man in Orbit (4)
- Venus Survey (6)
- Ceres Lander (8)
Unrealized (20)
- Mars Station (20)
So, as I understand it, I won? When the Lunar Surface was discovered to be too hostile for landing, Lunar Landing and Lunar Station were immediately removed, thus lowering the total points required for victory.
I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I canāt wait to try it again, and maybe add in Outer Planets? Maybe just Mercury ā undecided at this point.
It kept me up until 2:30 last night, but it was worth every hour (probably about 3 or 3.5 of them)
4 Likes
Thatās correct. You win by doing what can be done, and arenāt penalised for not doing the impossible.
2 Likes
Played Marvel Champions, getting a game with Hulk out of the way before I start the new campaign box.
He plays exactly like youād want: a total monster, doing unprecedented damage, and then being forced to change down to Banner at the worst possible moments. I played Hulk Aggression and Black Widow Justice against Klaw, and even with Justice in play still got totally outpaced by the enemyās threat numbers early on. Thatās partly because Black Widow is tricky, most of the Preparation cards only trigger if sheās already in hero form, so balancing her roles can be difficult.
Anyway, Hulk won the day by doing 14 damage in a single hit (an average attack for other heroes would be 2-3) and was just hilarious chaotic fun. His other mechanism, where if youāre in Hulk form at the end of the turn you discard your entire hand, is great. You have to spend furiously, plan NOTHING, and get a blind hand of cards for the next turn, most of which are āsmash thingsā. So, so different from most of the other heroes.
That was fun, now on to the 5-baddie campaign box with Spider-Woman and Hawkeye.
2 Likes
Monday nightās virtual local game group on BGA:
- Dice Forge. Obviously you miss something not having the fiddle factor. In terms of mechanics, itās fairly straightforward: get resource A to improve your die, resources B and C to buy benefits and points, all quite standard. Interesting, though; I wonāt buy it but Iād be happy to play again.
- Colt Express. The interface is a bit fiddly, but I (barely) won by virtue of the only thing some other person canāt take away from you: the shootiest bandit bonus. (I thought there was a lot more loot moving around the table than when I play face to face.)
- Diamant. Nearly every first card was a hazard. Run away early, run away often.
- Potion Explosion, not the best choice for the end of the evening but it went well. (I made an error I think I remember making before, with the potion that lets you put ingredients from your pool into any slot - āpoolā is the flask, not the general ingredients area.)
2 Likes
Iām guessing, but do you mean Leaving Earth?
1 Like
It was commented that this was available from an online discounter for Ā£17 or so. Soemone quipped ābut then youād own Dice Forgeā
Which kind of sums up my feelings on it, lego dice aside thereās not much to it
1 Like