They do, apart from the swerve cards are specific to bring them into the middle when facing forward
2 Likes
The Dark Quarter
Vantage, first play. This is the newest game from Jamey Stegmaier and Stonemaier Games. This is a cooperative game of exploration. Youāre all in a spaceship, but disaster strikes and we all end up in different locations on the planet. Each location card shows your view of the planet in front of you, along with the various tasks you can do at that location. The task options fall into six categories: Move, Look, Engage, Help, Take, and Overpower. You then lookup your location in the required book, which tells you how many dice you need to roll. You canāt fail at the dice roll, you always do the action. But the dice can indicate that you took longer to do the action, or that you were injured while doing it. Each player has their own tokens for health, morale, and time. If any of those drop to zero, it triggers an entry in the book which may end your game. We managed to do this, but had an option to keep going, so of course we did.
A lot of the game is about managing your dice rolls. You want to roll as few dice as possible. You can use skill tokens to reduce the number of dice, and other players can also contribute. Even after rolling, you can assign dice to slots on your cards so the dice donāt take effect. There are even slots on other players cards that you can place your dice on.
Thereās a LOT of cards in this game. Youāve got 800 location cards, and 1700 ānormalā cards. Itās a little fiddly, on every turn youāll be finding cards from the box. And because the box is so heavy, you canāt really share the card duties. The object of the game is to complete your mission (chosen randomly at the start). We didnāt achieve anything on our mission, but we also didnāt use the card actions on the actual mission card, so that probably didnāt help). You can also do destiny cards, and completing both type (mission and destiny) gives you an epic victory. We did manage to do a destiny card, but it was pretty straightforward to do.
Other things we did: got cool animal pets, fought a duel, had a race, and traveled on an airborne pirate ship. And I got stuck in a desert and kept losing health.
Biblios, still one of my favourite small box games. Easy to explain, good fun!
Skull Queen, still enjoying this, good twist on trick takers.
7 Likes
That looks interesting. Did a bit of searching and further readingā¦ sounds like something I might enjoy! So of course itās unavailable, OOP and confirmed by the designer as staying that way.
3 Likes
Bugger! Iāve had my copy forever it seems. Looks like it was reimplemented as For the King (and Me), might have more luck with that.
5 Likes
Not much time for games this weekend, but I needed to at least play Regicide Legacyās first mission ā which is essentially just standard Regicide, with a couple of differences due to some general changes between the two games:
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Jesters work differently (at all player counts). In the solo game they are now an attack with a value of 8 and a suit of the playerās choice which ignores enemy immunity. I canāt tell whether this makes things easier or harder than the old rule, as itās adding certain flexibilities and removing others.
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When taking damage, iff you are at your hand limit, you have the option of āFeigning Deathā to satisfy the requirement by discarding your entire hand, even if the sum total of those cards would not otherwise be sufficient. (I assume that this situation becomes more likely later in the campaign.)
Obviously you can play these rules as a variant for the original game.
That mission was a success, so I guess Iāll continue with the campaign next time. The next mission will be the one that I played at Wellycon, and after that Iāll be into the unknownā¦
Iām going to see how I go tracking the ālegacyā aspects in a non-destructive manner. The designers seem to think thatāll be difficult, but I feel motivated enough to try. Theyāve kindly supplied the rules PDF on BGG, so I expect to be making changes to a printed copy of that; and as the cards are all sleeved (the game includes both ānormalā and ācorruptā sleeves) I imagine that the stickers for cards could be substituted with paper in the sleeves. Iāll see what I run into down the trackā¦
6 Likes
Played a lot of Marvel Champions, the X-Men campaign.
The second scenario was brutal for my choices (Cyclops Leadership and Storm Aggression). Mind you, every time I get a rule wrong itās always in a way that makes the game MUCH harder, and it turns out I had more time than I thought if Iād just read the icons properly.
Storm is very fun, Cyclopsā deck is fine but his ability to recruit X-Men allies from any aspect is fantastic. (Unless youāre in a scenario that punishes you for having allies, um).
Marvel Champions looks like an entry level game, but the complexity halfway through a run is so high Iām not sure Iād be able to teach anyone else all the rules without several playthroughs. Itās really not far off the other LCGs.
9 Likes
1846: Race to the Midwest - amazing game!! This might be in my Tier 2, but a game like this is still better than 95% of games. Also, itās one of those ārun-good-companiesā and company dumping isnāt good. But the game is about managing your company and the decision on where to deploy your Capital is important - in contrasts with run-of-the-mill RGCs where buying shares on your own company is often the best option.
Indeed, Tom Lehmann even identified this problem and designed 1846 to get around this. Often times buying your own shares in 1846 is often a bad idea until you reach late game.
Also, I brought my own dumb calculator (no i dont want to use my phone) and a notepad for notes. Very useful!! Calcu cuts mental maths and notes to record revenue runs. So I dont have to recalculate everything. If a city is upgraded, I simply noted the difference. Very useful late game with all the sprawl and long train runs
5 Likes
It was not.
A few plays will reveal this if it was not immediately apparent.
For one, you may be playing with the right or wrong rebalancing errata, because there is no effort to balance the factions and it was all forked in later based on who was complaining loudest on reddit.
Second of all, there are too many single points of failure and no way to control them. In my least favorite game of Tapestry, Iād worked toward a payoff the whole game, carefully laying the groundwork, eyeing everyone else to make sure it didnāt fall in anyoneās reach (as my entire strategy required grabbing this specific thing). Someone else, of course, noticed. When I was ready to close it out, they just played a card and took the thing. This wasnāt a matter of me waiting too long, I could not have moved any quicker and could not have protected or prevented in any way. This is, apparently, not uncommon for the game and entirely unwelcome in a game of this size and duration.
3 Likes
I also just played Istanbul! Two player and just the base game. Which isnāt bad, but I know how much better the game is with neutral assistants and coffee and such, so I considered this an investment in the future. I won handily despite (silently) handicapping myself by requiring me to get all four upgrades and finish my wheelbarrow before I could go to the Palace or Jeweller. Itās just that kind of game.
There is nothing else like Istanbul. The light touch of engine building / upgrades, the spatial puzzle, the toe stepping - even Yokohama just feels like itās doing something else with a lot more mechanics and a lot less player interference.
Itāll never be GREAT, but itās agelessly GOOD and still one of a kind over a decade later.
Other roundups:
Donuts: I continue to hump Bruno Cathalaās leg. Well, not completely. I played a second game of Sobek 2, which was barely fine the first time, and the second time I was trying to gnaw my leg off to get the game to end. Donuts, on the other hand, is like Sobek with all the faff and boredom pared off. The game is way too smart for how simple it is, and each game gets a little smarter and a little tighter. It plays well on BGA and is currently only $9 on Amazon soā¦ yeah. I get why games donāt get a ton of play/circulation, but I really canāt understand the low ratings here. The game is sharp.
Carson City: Xavier Georges. Iām playing a round with randoms on BGA and so happy. What I love most is how dirt simple (and boring) the game feels on first play, and then on second play you realize how wildly open the system is. Right now Iām going for Ranches and General Stores and some early scoring. Someone else has bought up half the city and I have no idea what their play is. Still a third player isnāt playing at all, saving up cowboys presumably for a massive raid of everyoneās property in the final round. Canāt wait to see it all play out. Gonna get some more guns for my general storeā¦
GWT:NZ A second solo. Iām going to stick my pin in, Original is best. Itās harder, it takes several games to get the focus and economy under control, but once you do the game is really tight and satisfying. NZ also came into focus a bit - things like after the first game I had no idea how to get border collies into my deck, and in the second game I saw that you get them by clearing hazards (tiny icon on hazard tiles). I also saw on the boat board that thereās kind of a shearing route and a shepherdās route, with appropriate upgrades along each way. Thereās a definite logic here, and itās fun, but itās such a mechanics soup that youāre doing a bit of everything, and scoring a bit of everythingā¦
In that way itās easier. Even if you donāt play well, youāll get a bunch of stuff and score a bunch of points and feel good about yourself. But by cutting off that downside, it also loses upside.
Keeping it, but I can definitely see a future where itās gone and I only have one GWT on my shelf.
Splendor: Duel Iām not sure how far to take this Cathala metaphor. Probably already overdid it. Iāll just leave it here.
Gatsby: Tried out this pretty 2p box on BGA. Itās pretty good. Itās sharp at what it does. Itās got a feel of tug of war, and of 5 fires and 4 buckets, which I generally find stressful rather than invigorating. So I liked it but donāt need to chase it down for any more sessions. If it looks of interest, Iād definitely say give it a go.
Lorenzo Il Magnifico: So this is a bit like GWT and NZ. Lorenzo and Austria have always been compared and used to be nearly adjacent in the top 100. Austria has proven as the winner, and I think thatās right. Itās like GWT, insofar as itās harder, more punishing, harder to unlock. But also more exhilarating and variable when you do. Lorenzo has less upside but also less downside, itās hard to really crash. So itās easier to have fun on your first couple of goes but youāll never reach Austriaās heights.
Unlike NZ, though, it in the end is quite different, and also pretty damn good in itās own right. Super excited to have this available online now. Itās sharp, difficult, satisfying, and interesting.
8 Likes
All three players
Nusfjord Itās decent, but Iām not sure if I like itā¦
Iāll play with my son to decide
Ride the Rails, good fun but it needs 4+ really
SNCF, also fun
8 Likes
It takes some time to grow on you. This is expected. Definitely a āplay five times and then decideā game - if you can muscle up five plays.
3 Likes
Aye, for itās length itās great.
It will all come down to if my son likes it
2 Likes
Put Earthborn Rangers on the table.
Fascinating. The Prologue is utterly useless as a way to teach the game, and even worse at building a starting character. But we ran through it, and then when we finished used the pregen characters.
Took a little while to come to grips with the rules, but eventually it all clicked. By the end of our first day we managed to find Quiet and convince her that maybe eating humans isnāt the best. Barely. But we managed it.
Neat game. Potentially very neat. But after one play, it seems good, not great. But we will see, we will see.
8 Likes
Iāve mostly played 2-handed solo and it feels a little stressful because I am always on my way to leave a location rather than doing something at a location. That focus seems unfortunate -.-
I was unable to construct āworkingā characters on my own and ended up copying decks from the website.
4 Likes
Last night with nearby friends:
We started with Beez, a remarkably thinky positional game. Your bee on the main board has a maximum of nine hexes to which it can move, at different distances in different directions. Youāre trying to collect nectar of various colours, and the rows in which you can place it on your home board depend on how far youāve moved. I was just about starting to get the hang of it by the end of the game.
Then we played VOLT, in the Tokyo arena. The final point of the game came down to a matter of sequencing tiles. and as always I had a great time. I ought to get this out more. And paint at least the mini bases (each one has a matching coloured set of screen and other bits).
Finally, an introductory partial game of Snapshot: Wildlife Photographer. This suffers from a rulebook thatās slightly out of order and makes things seem more complicated than they are (guess what Iāve done), but I think it has potential, and weāll definitely try this one again.
6 Likes
Game Night #2
Hot Streak X2 Gobbler continues to amaze with his antics. We had Mum moonwalking towards the finish too.
El Grande (5 player) was well out of contention but it was 102-102-101 at the top end
Sweet Takes, itās OK but there are much better trick takers such asā¦
Schadenfreude. OK, I got 33 in the first round (scoring 41 ends the game and you lose if you go over 40). Took zero in the second round and gave the 10 to second placed player to propel them over the line. Giving me the win.
9 Likes
Marvel Champions again, to enjoy a simpler game this time (with one secret goal).
After playing the X-Men scenario which has a load of extras, and choosing to use Cyclops (up to 5 allies out at all times) and Storm (weather affects everyone on the board) I thought Iād try a less complex game: Colossus and Wolverine vs Klaw. No big calculations, just bashing and slashing at a lone bad guy.
And Iāve gotta say, despite Klaw being the 2nd boss ever and most peopleās first experience after the intro āRhinoā, he nearly won. His deck is small and those acceleration tokens add up the threat really fast.
Luckily I was able to do enough damage in the last round, helped partly by my secret goal which was to useā¦ the Fastball Special.
Some pairings have a āteam-upā card which (if at least one of them is a main character and the other is a main or an ally) lets two specific characters work together in a signature move. And since the Fastball Special exists in the game, I just had to play these two and try it out.
Itās good! Villains donāt like having Wolverine launched through the air at their face claws-first, who knew?
Anyway, definitely not the simpler game Iād intended, and Klaw is trickier than I remembered, but very satisfying.
6 Likes
- Iāve finished about 10 games of solo Cascadia in the past few days. Because solo challenge modes make for quick repeats after I lost them. I did the #15 scenario from the base game in 7 tries. Now I am on #14.
- I played Sub Terra twice. I lost the first and two of my meeples made it out on the 2nd. This is a game where I am glad I have no expansions. I play it rarely and the expansions just make it harder. Itās already likely to kill me off halfway out of the cave.
- Red Rising I know itās not super-popular but I have the nice CE with the metall cubes and itās just a nice experience handling the beautiful cards and the cubes. It looks so pretty on the table (sorry forgot to take a pic). As a solo I think itās a solid keeper. The automa is super easy and keeps interfering in the worst ways with my card picksā¦ I donāt play often but I keep going back to it every once in a while and enjoy myself. I really need to re-read the first few books (I stopped after book 3 or 4, the stakes got to high for my taste). I tried playing this with 2 once and it ā¦ wasnāt fun.
8 Likes
Had a few friends over for a social and games. Ended up playing 6Nimmt, specifically the Hasbro released edition Beat the Heat which makes way more sense (avoid chillis)
6 players is an absolute blast
9 Likes
Chicago Express - CHOOOOO CHOOOO!! Very interesting play! All 4 Blue shares were bought between 2 players 50:50 and sent it all the way to Chicago. Yellow and Green were monopolised by me and Player 4 respectively. I should have known that that is risky play. Oh well.
LOVE THIS GAME OMG OMG
Taluva - MEGA TALUVA!!!
Scout - a ubiquitous item in the clubs I go to
Vaalbara - okay. I genuinely had fun on our first game, but I consider that to be the āfirst play dopamine rushā. But I donāt see any legs with this. Takes too long and it has rules weight for what is a filler set collection game. You pick a type of terrain, boom, stick to that terrain. You canāt see one but itās in the 2nd row? Use a character to do a swapsies. Otherwise, pick another one that is helpful to you, which also helps with the end game scoring.
Thatās it. Itās rather derivative. But I do love the art of the characters.
Goodcritters - the Boss (me) kept his throne while all these good-for-nothing suckers kept backstabbing me. I kept a loyal coterie enough to keep the votes pass while the rebels are too divided. I was actually concern because as the Boss I kept getting the lion share of the loot. I kept pointing that out but hey-ho. They are too divided and the loyal lackeys remained waaay too loyal.
Wroth - the new hotness from Chip Theory Games. Beautiful production, and to the point that it actually hinders the user experience. 
Iām glad to play it. I need a 2nd game, but I definitely donāt need it. It is an area control game in 1 hour and the factions are asymmetric. The asymmetry isnāt too boring, but they arenāt too exciting either. Good game and would like to play again. Remains to be seen if it has legs.
Barony - classic Barony again. Okay. I donāt need this in my life. Good abstract game but felt samey for me.
HOT STREAK
RISKY!
RISKY!
SAUSAGE!
I implemented a house rule where if you went risky on a main ticket, you lose -5 if they went last - normal rules is that you lose none. And so, on our first race, I risky bet twice on Hurley the Hotdog aka Double Risky Sausage. And take a fucking wild guess what happened.
VIVO - same guy brought it along. itās okay
Welcome to the Dungeon - good fun, but takes too long. Stew is better
Senators - glad to play this again. It does take a bit but itās fine. The decisions here are always painful
8 Likes