My FLGS got copies of Escape the Dark Sector in on Friday. I’ve read a lot about Escape the Dark Castle and was very intrigued when I heard about Sector a while back, so I immediately stress bought it because it was billed as quick and easy to get into, not to mention a solid single-player experience (I have limited time and even more limited ability to “people” right now).
Since then I’ve played it 4 times, and I am in love with it. It is very quick to learn and get into, just as I’d read. It gives a great adventure experience with some light RPG elements, and it tells a great story as you make your way through the deck. I have lost all 4 times. Three times in the first round of the boss combat, and once in the third chapter. It’s incredibly tense. Each of your decisions has serious weight and you often don’t want to make either one (it reminds me of The Witcher in that sense). Combat is easy to understand, satisfying, and has good strategic decisions to make. Managing your inventory is EXCRUCIATING and delicious. I don’t want to give anything up, but also, that slug pistol has jammed on me twice… I am absolutely going to be grabbing any expansions that show up for this, and I’m considering grabbing Castle at some point as well. I’ve not run into too many of the same cards, but even when I did, I wasn’t bothered by it, more terrified of the consequences it would inevitably throw at me. Just a great experience in 30-45 minutes.
I did, yeah. I mean, it was better than a similar Euro would have been. But The Great Zimbabwe is the “Splotter in an hour” for me, and it’s not even close.
I have played one game of each (base game only for GS).
I understand there are some rules changes (summary here) but if you don’t know either game I don’t think you’ll be saying “if only this rule were different”.
LB doesn’t have the expansions that GS has. One day it may get them, but nothing has been announced that BGG knows about.
For me, the generic Western fantasy setting of LB is much less inspiring than the magical kung-fu film setting of GS.
I haven’t played last bastion but I have heard one of the significant changes is how the solo mode is done. I’m not near my computer so looking up details is a bit complicated. if the solo mode is at all relevant for you, check what the actual difference are–original solo mode is quite good.
Personally, I really like the original art where the LB design does nothing for me.
I’ve now had three plays of A War of Whispers, and I’ve got to say it’s starting to become everything I expected?
Our first game was me, partner K, and their partner C. I felt like I got lucky in the way my allegiances fell at the beginning with three Naturalise strong empires at the top and the weak ones at the bottom. After a couple of turns out became clear to me that we all wanted essentially the same things, and then C made a switch to put the horse army at the bottom, which made their board line up closely to mine, but C was clearly behind at this point. I ended up winning 31-29-25.
I’ve had two more plays, one Monday and I’ve yesterday, with my partner H. The first ended 31-27 while she got to grips with it, the second ended 42-42, our boards ending up identical after we both made a switch. She switched her -1 and X3, I switch my x3 and x4. I spend about 5 minutes trying to figure out how to give myself the edge, but that decision would’ve had to come significantly earlier.
I’m excited by this game, now. We’ve not played with the advanced rules yet (using Agents as cities) but I feel like it will essentially be a tie breaker of sorts. It’s managing to artificially create this sense of a close game by being able to pick your score at the end, and figuring out how to get around that seems like the key.
Last night some of my old friends and I got together via TTS and played most of a game of The King’s Dilemma. Since it was our first game and no one had played it before, it took a bit of time to get started. A couple of us had read the rules (myself being one of them), so the host led the Teach, with a couple of us chiming in now and then if something was missed or incorrect, and then it took a little bit to get set up to play. Once we got started though, it was amazing!
We started about 8:30 and wrapped up just after 11. Figure something like an hour of chatting, setup and instruction, so actual game probably would have taken 2 hours if we hadn’t stopped, as we were almost to the “King Dies” section of dilemmas. It’s funny how during the rules explanation we kind of expected the stability marker to easily hit one end or the other of the track, meaning the King would abdicate, but in practice with all the resources moving up and down it does seem to stay relatively centered, needing multiple players to actively try to take it to an extreme, which in our first game here has not appeared to happen, but there’s quite a few more games to go yet.
It’s been a lot of fun, and it’s just been (most of) one game so far. We are all trying to find our voice for our Houses, one of us doing a great job so far in role playing it. Just a really great experience. So looking forward to next Tuesday when we continue.
It can actually be quite tricky to keep it near the center. It just all depends on the dilemmas you get and ongoing effects. We’ve had long reigns and Kings that lasted maybe three dilemmas.
I found people didn’t really care about the king marker until later games. Early on everyone was far more focused on their own in-game goal without thinking about wider campaign implications. After a few games, the dynamic changes considerably with different players focusing on different things, and losers trying to push to cut their losses.
Only issue I found was when multiple people were trying for the most coins objective, and spending an entire game passing to ensure they get it. It’s nice to encourage people not to try and win every game, but it does feel like it incentivises people to actively avoid playing once they’ve committed to it.
I have one of the most coins objectives, and I’m really close to meeting it in this first game, not from passing, but from selling my vote a couple of times.
A lot of it depends on the group dynamic. My team are quite stingy with buying votes. We had one game with crazy buy outs, but generally players realise others are asking them for money for a reason so why give in? You need a few players who couldn’t care less about coins for that kind of economy to start flying.
Player ability spoilers
I’m annoyed because I have the faction that gets free money to hand out to others… but to get that ability, I first need games of having lots of money myself! It’s created a chicken and egg situation
Not necessarily care less about coins, but just care more about the particular results of a vote. Especially if you are the last to vote before the leader and can give the final vote either way. I had a small bidding war going last night, which only got up to 2 coins, but was for me to pass and take the Moderator token, letting me break the tie in the person’s favor (which I wanted anyway), which also netted me another coin just for passing. Another time, I told a person I would put in 2 power towards their vote in return for 2 coins, which he felt was a bargain and paid right away. I wanted the vote to go that way, too, so I would have voted regardless (and had to vote more on the next go around to ensure the Nay vote won)
Definitely need to see how future games go, of course. It’s entirely possible people stop worrying so much over various dilemma’s to the point they don’t think they need to pay for votes. A lot probably depends on each group’s meta.
Looking at the game it seems like there’s a whole bunch of Azul in it. But it’s really miles off and miles off the quality.
The things that Azul has relate to strategy and parsibility. In this game you can’t know that a certain thing you did was a great move or a mistake because you can’t know (except maybe at max player count) what is going to show up. It’s not a bad thing but I would not consider it really worth anyone’s time either (unless you really like cats or perhaps if
You can guarantee 3/4 player).
I’ve been really enjoying playing Galaxy Trucker with my family lately. I think my favourite ship is the Death Star (Latest Model IIIC). We play semi-cooperatively, which basically means pooling all our credits together at the end and comparing the total to previous sessions. Our teenage kids bring in the most profits to our “Steady Boss Trucking Company” by a big margin… I tend to limp home, my ship so much space litter, with barely a credit to my name. Never going to get that “Employee of the Month”!
I know it’s not everyone’s experience, but for me, my incompetency makes the game only funnier. Telestrations is another game like that. Can’t think of any others actually… would love to hear of some more.
I’ve been waiting for it since life February. It’s an achievement it’s living up to my hype, TBH.
I did the KS for this one… so I’ll be waiting a bit more.