Friend’s bday:
Innovation - another day, another banger
Brass: Birmingham - weird 3 player setup where Boxes are worthless. Pottery is hard to pursue. And that only leaves coal, iron, and textiles.
6 Likes
Vantage, the new game from Stonemeier. Cool if you like a choose your own adventure reimagined as a tabletop game. I found it very flat. The lack of a fail state for your decisions made everything just meh. Does it really matter what action I pick? I’m going to get something anyway.
Also you can only use each location once, even if you return to it. We did complete it for a minor victory though.
Would not play again
Schadenfreude, I won by both other players going over 40 together.
Billabong, brilliant abstract race game
9 Likes
Last night was our RPG night where we usually play Deadlands where the dice truly hate me. This time our current GM didn‘t have time to prep and brought Deadlands: Battle for the Gulch (or something like that). Published in 2009 it feels like a throwback to the early 90s. Someone said the game would have profited from a couple more months of development and then someone else said: it would have benefitted of any development. I was on my phone asking perplexity rules questions about my character (Mad Scientist) all night. There are errata and most of it are about the Mad Scientist. There are holes in the rules you could drive a whole army through.
Somehow laughter and fun were had but a game it is not to blame for that. Super random. You have to bet that you can do your action on the turn and despite all that, we didn‘t even have a shootout. If this had not been a bunch of people expecting to roleplay Deadlands that evening it would have fallen flatter than flat.
Despite losing with 9 points to my partner‘s winning 32 points (and everything in between), I cannot quite claim that it was the most horrible experience. But it was only due to the players making the best of a mediocre game that it somehow worked a little bit. And I got to place and shoot my gatling gun during the final round—spending 2 VP to do it, too.
PS: the gatling gun debacle cost me a total of 7 VP and I wouldn‘t have been in last place if I had just kept gathering Ghost Rock instead of Mad Scientisten.
PPS: it is some kind of area control at work here with everyone having minis that look very similar in the same color that tend to fall over. But fallen over means they are wounded and… „who is that I am shooting at, is that you Shaman?“
9 Likes
Six of us for games with nearby friends, and the first game was Dixit: Odyssey On balance I still prefer Mysterium, but this does have the virtue that everyone gets to spend some time as the clue-giver rather than one person doing it for the whole game
We went on to Among Thieves, also known (by me) as “Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma, the game”. I don’t get to play this often because it really needs a large group; even with most players being Honourable most of the time, we managed to spread out a bit. Events provide a surprisingly large random component, though.
Finally Landmarks, in the team mode, always good fun with the right people and this time was no exception.
9 Likes
After buying it years ago with the intent to play with a specific friend, I finally got to have a go at Undaunted: Normandy. Played the first 2 scenarios and am looking forward to more. The second scenario is much more interesting than the first, where the Americans need to take a single tile but the Germans start in a much more fortified position. I found success as the Americans by
delaying my advance until I had taken out their scouts and filling their deck with fog of war cards.
Thematic and fun.
8 Likes
We played 4/6 of a game of Bear Raid last night, featuring @mistercrayon .
Finished early because it was getting a bit late. The box says 60 minutes (and BGG says the same), but we were at 2 hours and climbing.
I’m really into weird and opaque games at the moment and I was enjoying it, but it wasn’t a huge hit.
*Side note - I appear to have an issue when we get 6 players. I never stick to my guns and split 3&3 or play Guards of Atlantis. Part of the problem is that Kunal turns up with something that looks incredible (like last night) that I want to play and then no one can teach the second game.
Back to Bear Raid. It’s a cartoony art stock market manipulation game where dice control how each company performs. All I can think is that you’re supposed to lean into the cartoon and the slightly swingy game and make fast, light decisions which is how you get to an hour, but I thought it played as a crunchy, potentially mean game, where you could have lots of influence. Heavy Cardboard have done a stream of it so I don’t think it’s a filler.
I enjoyed it (@mistercrayon got utterly hosed by us calling it early - consider this a public apology), but I’m not sure how often it’s going to get played again. It wasn’t ideal circumstances - a couple of people turned up knackered and we’re quite a chatty bunch which meant it was slow but we were enjoying each others’ company.
I know I’m a bit defensive because I feel bad when I suggest a game that doesn’t hit.
Moral of the story - play Hot Streak
9 Likes
HC will play any game once a publisher have thrown money to them.
I’ve come to a conclusion with Bear Raid. It’s not a filler but set the expectations of a filler (my fault. Or maybe the publisher by misgauging things with production and advertisement - see Scythe). I would need to play again with new expectations.
4 Likes
I was thinking that, but I’d rather play Chicago Express or Fresh Fish for a high player count, opaque but fast game.
I’ve played For- Ex on BGA which had no cartoony pretensions and less luck. That’s a game I’d never get to the table, but I think it’s closer to what Bear Raid actually is.
*Tbf Kate insisted this morning that she liked it and I could see @Whistle_Pig enjoying it so maybe it’s one for Aire Con?
5 Likes
Had another meetup of our unemployed* games club today (last week I ran an RPG).
The King is Dead - Played a couple of times as the first time out, despite pointing at the image on the score card while explaining, the other players didn’t understand what I meant by “a set of three cubes”. So that ended with a French invasion and an easy win for me.
The second game was closer. Came down to equal control by Scotland and Wales (with France and England having one region each) and the tie breaking to Scotland, leaving me with the win from having a lot of Scottish support.
Concordia - First play in a long time. I didn’t think I was doing great as I hadn’t focused much on buying cards, but thanks to some really good Architect turns where I built in 4 cities at once (including my very last turn), I handily took the win.
Geek Out - Light one to finish off. Much discussion about what counted for “Mickey Mouse Universe” characters and do cyborgs count for “hybrid human characters”. I won again. Particularly proud that I named so many Robins (though I did forget about Duke Thomas and Jarro).
*Both my friend and I recently got made redundant and our other friend is between freelance jobs, so we’re taking advantage of being able to play on a weekday afternoon. Sadly shall be coming to an end soon as my friend got a call with a job offer during a game. (And fingers crossed I get something soon too.)
9 Likes
Opaque games at high player count
- Chex - 5 to 6
- Intrigue - 5
- Zoo Vadis (even with open scoring)
- Prussian Rails/German Railways - 5
- Paris Connection - 5 to 6
- the Estates - 5
- Splotter Three - 5. (I think FCM exp extends it to 6!)
- Fresh Fish
- Imperial / Imperial 2030 - 5 to 6
- Sidereal Confluence - loads (half of it is faction mastery but)
- Container - 5
- Pax Pamir - 5
- Goodcritters - 5 to 8 (not 100% sure if there’s legs here but choosing who is rewarded is hard to decide)
- Ride the Rails - 5
- Dominant Species - 5 to 6 (I havent concluded whether this game is deep or just fun BS)
- Irish Gauge - 5
Yeah. It’s hard to find these sort of games at 6. Deep games, then cou can expand to games like Guards of Atlantis
6 Likes
Fun games night
Pokémon: Splendor
Still fun
Sonora
Flick and Write, doesn’t work
Tornado Splash
I really like this, it’s fun. The leader ran out of steam on the line!
Magic Maze or Passive Agressive Dobber
8 Likes
Pub meetup:
Spots, 4-player, big hit
Diamant 8-player, the old edition
which I liked so much I just got a copy of that edition on ebay right now for about £15.
8 Likes
Until this point I was guessing 1980s wargame.
3 Likes
Last night I managed to get Mage Knight to the table. First time for the other 2 playerd, and I haven’t played since the BeforeTimes. Simple^ intro scenario.
I really enjoy Mage Knight, but the other two were less impressed. No mechanic to remove cards from your deck, not a lot of ways to get cards into your deck, not a lot of asymetry between the players, and the combat, while largely deterministic, didn’t feel elegant to them.
I wonder if it’s just a function of how old the design is. I still enjoyed it, but they aren’t wrong, and maybe I enjoyed it so much because it was revolutionary in 2011 or whenever it came out, but newer designs have come a long way.
I ended up winning by 4 points, but we were all quite close up to the end (although the intro is half as long as a full game).
I will have to think about when to play it again. I still haven’t tried any of the other scenarios!
Oh, and then a quick little game of Wormholes. Still very good, but next time the assembled gamers want to play Xia.
(Dramatic sigh) If I must… 
^“Simple” as defined by Mage Knight.
7 Likes
Played two games of Marvel Champions over the past couple of weeks, starting the neXt Evolution campaign. The scenarios have been fine, they’ve felt a bit more combat heavy than average with more minions showing up, but that could just be luck of the draw.
We’ve been having a blast with the included heroes though. I’ve been playing Cable, who revolves around a new Player Side Scheme card type, which allows you to play a card and then work on earning its effect over several turns, at the cost of spending actions that might otherwise have been spent thwarting the villain’s schemes. Several cards in his deck become increasingly powerful based on the number of Player Side Schemes that have been defeated during the game.
My wife has been playing Domino, whose probability affecting mutant powers are implemented by giving her the ability to manipulate her draw deck by swapping the top card with a card in her hand, combined with cards that discard a card from the top of her draw deck for bonus effects based on what card is discarded. In particular this leads to one or two ridiculous turns when her draw deck is nearly empty together with her card “Jackpot”, which gives lots of bonus effects and then shuffles back into her deck, making it not too unlikely to get multiple jackpots in a row.
7 Likes
Got back to Eternal Decks, we abandoned the last game (Stage F), but today we soldiered thru it. Definitely the hardest stage to play, which is fair enough, being the last stage and all. I think we made some mistakes (to do with skull cards), but we lost anyway. Still fun.
Nidavellir, thought it was time to play this again, it’s always good fun. For some reason it appears I have the Italian version of the game, not sure how that happened (either I made a mistake, or it was cheaper – I’m leaning towards mistake). I lost pretty badly, both the other players had big scoring areas (more than 100 points) and I had nothing like that. Which probably explains why I lost by more than 100 points.
Panda Spin, first play. This is a climbing game, with all the types of play you would expect – single cards, sets of the same number, runs of consecutive values, and formations (which are a combination of sets and runs, like QQ JJ). You can also play bombs which are at least four cards of the same value and beat almost everything. Cards can have special symbols that do various things, like adding a wild to a play, or taking victory points. To beat a previous combination, you have to play the same sort of combination, but with higher values. Or play a bomb. Each card has a white half and a blue half. You always start with white, but after passing you can take your previously played cards and flip them all around so the blue side is active. The blue sides are always more powerful, offering multiple values for example. Went ok for a first play.
Worst in Show, first play. This is a trick taker, and the gimmick is that you have to place an obedience card into your hand. Any cards on the left hand side can be played and led as normal, but the right hand side cards can be played off suit. You have two goals in a round – hit your target bid of tricks won, and also have no cards left on the right hand side. We did not do well.
9 Likes
A glorious day at the library!
Calimala - more Calimala at 4 players this time
Durian
Hellapagos - I have the gun and bullets. I try to help the colony. I TRIED TO BE NICE! We tried to save everyone. Yet I was screwed. With no path left to take, I kill them all, as I have enough bullets for all these troublemakers.
I was the lone survivor until I died of thrist.
7 Wonders ALL-IN! - Yes! All-in!! It was a good fun as we all know how to play (including the owner’s cute little daughter)
Leaders - excellent expansion. Doesn’t add a lot of faff but adds so much more.
Cities - good. I like that it’s there. And interestingly, it dilutes the power of the Armada expansion, creating an interesting trade-off
extra wonders - can’t comment much but I had the Manneken Pis, and there’s only one step in this wonder lmao
Babel - into the traaaaash!!! The Babel is just nonsense. But we all liked the Great Projects module that is in this expansion.
Armada - made the military more interesting and resources way more valuable. It also adds a lot of kick to the cards you play. Tolerable amount of rules and does make things interesting.
All in all, I had fun and it’s with people I enjoy playing with. I don’t see myself owning this ever.
Stephenson’s Rocket - 3 player. Epic and it hurts the brain. I’m so glad to get this played again. And playing this after playing Brass: Birmingham, I don’t see why would I bother with either Brass when the shared incentives here is more interesting and the gameplay is much more opaque.
Salamanca - an old game from Stefan Dorra. Tile laying game on a shared board and you buy up these estates. Then, you time it well when to sell these estates for money (aka VPs). There’s screwage in this game and it’s funny and fits well in the game.
Alas, it’s not a top game, while I do enjoy it, and immediately sold it to someone in there for a fiver.
Strozzi - Knizia auction game that is related to Medici. Stilll think this is better than Medici.
9 Likes
I said I wouod get Thunder Road Vendetta back on the table… and I did! Last night I finally gave the Big Rig (the Wartruck? The Furiosa-wheeler?) a try.
It’s neat! I was the player eliminated (through a combination of blundering into hazards and very targeted gunfire), but the race ended almost instantly afterwards with Andy coasting her final car (the Medium-sized one) across the finish line on the next turn.
Great little game. Gotta spend some time reading the expansions.
Before that we played Andy’s new Kickstarter-edition of Moon Bunny, which was… fine. She bought it because it’s part of her culture and she wants to encourage more diverse offerings from non-Western designers, and their previous game (Steamed Up) was pretty solid. Steamed Up is basically a fiddly version of Splendor, and Moon Bunny is kind of a fiddly version of Alhambra (although without the crazy 4-different-currencies problem Alhambra has). Nice components, not a bad game. The end scoring is a bit of a pain, but not so bad I wouldn’t play it again. Nice welterweight game.
8 Likes
I finally had a third attempt at Regicide Legacy mission 4, and this time I smashed it with no assists and no jokers needed. Happy with that!
I also played Foundations of Metropolis the other day. This is the affordable version of Foundations of Rome (with cardboard buildings instead of this). I liked it. It’s a competitive city-builder on a shared city grid. Each turn you’ll either get income, or purchase the deed to a lot on the grid, or build a building (which come in varying shapes and sizes) over one or more of the lots you own.
You need to own deeds to all of the relevant lots in order to build over them, but the deeds come out in a random order from a shuffled deck, so you can’t predict when something you want will be up for sale. New deeds are dealt to a market row with fixed prices – the newest card is the most expensive, and when someone purchases any deed the other cards slide down towards the cheap end to close the gap, and a new card is added at the expensive end.
Deeds are the only thing that costs money. You can place a building for free (maybe removing existing buildings first in order to build something better in the same position). You even get free money when you take income – but if you’ve built Commercial buildings, you’ll get a bit more. You can also build Residential buildings to boost population; and Civic buildings which give you victory points based on the buildings they are adjacent to.
You’ll start by building small cheap buildings anywhere for quick bonuses, and end up trying to build the biggest most valuable buildings you can – and hoping that you’ll be able to grab the remaining lots you need to carry out your plans for expansion.
You can’t just focus on the end-game, though, as the game is divided into three “years” with scoring at the end of each year, and there are valuable bonuses up for grabs. The victory points for population are interesting, because the number of points you get is the population of the player ahead of you on the population track. E.g. if populations are 3,7,8,11 then the points for those players are 7,8,11,11+X (where X is the bonus for being first, which increases each year). This means that you care about your position on the population track relative to other players more so than the figures themselves.
I managed to win thanks largely to two Civic buildings which converted adjacent residential population into victory points for me, and which by the end of the game were both almost surrounded by large residential buildings (mostly not built by me). I knew those Civic buildings were valuable at the time I built them (and I paid a lot for the deeds to do it), but as the game went on the surrounding buildings were progressively replaced by better and better residential buildings as we all tried to maximise our populations, and I believe this gifted me the win by side-effect.
A fair bit of A.P. happening at the end of the game, as we all tried to figure out which final moves would squeeze out the most points, but otherwise pretty light and easy.
5 Likes
Four Games Last night
Azul, it’s Azul. Played the non-prescriptive side of the board
El Grande, a full five. The eventual winner got s lot so 2nd places as seems to be the way.
Modern Art, came 2nd on the sell it all strat. Bought one painting in the third round for 51 that was worthless as it had two 30 tokens, so could have been worth 70 if Manuel was hot that season. Could have won
Seas of Strife, it’s great trick avoidance trick taker
5 Likes