You were right. You can affect something but something has an effect, if that makes sense.
2 Likes
Of course, English being what it is, effect can also be a verb, and affect can also be a noun :). (neither of which is equivalent to the verb/noun for the other spelling).
3 Likes
True - but not in the sense that Marx was talking about
3 Likes
Waiting patiently for a reprint 
4 Likes
On Mars - First ever play, ooosh what a game, so good. Canāt wait to play again! Also, first ever Lacerda. Bit ashamed to say that!
Kronologic - Another first play and another belter! Great little deduction game. Iām rubbish at these sort of games but absolutely love them!
7 Likes
Kids and wife all went to bed early, so I dug out Legacy of Yu, which I havenāt played since last year. Game three of the campaign.
It would really be nice to get good things out of the story book, but not much of that happened this game. However, despite all that, I got my first victory! Sure, I had to sacrifice a bunch of townsfolk on the last turn to get shells, which I used to buy food, which let me take out one more barbarian, making sure I would not get overrun on the last turn, leaving me with just two cards, but thatās a price Iām willing to pay (cue Lord Farquaad meme).
I thought I had no path to victory, being short one yellow worker and three food, but then realized the sack a townie for two shells ability must be there for a reason! Sure enough, sacked four cards, moving the flood marker to the last canal space in the process, but gave me what I needed to win.
Great game. And my reward for victory? Four more nastier barbarian cards!
5 Likes
you have to lose to get nice cards in this gameā
3 Likes
I just got this today and I already love it. Cascadia Alpine Lakes is a tile stacking sibling to the OG edition I have been waiting for simce it was announced. First game felt very thinky. As tiles go up, animals move up as well. Trying to score too many lakes severely reduces your options and with both types of scoring cards suddenly there are so many considerationsā¦ awesome but I dread playing this with AP playersā
edit: game 2 was even more fun as Iām starting to understand ā¦ 
a new favorite Iām sure. Iāve played the original a lot this will surely follow.
if you havenāt played the original Iād still recommend that first. this feels like āadvanced versionā
edit again: 4 games played now. oopsie
8 Likes
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Ofrenda (solo x2). After my initial game for 86 points the other day, I managed a slightly dismal 75 points in the next, but then an excellent 113 in the third (which could have been 117 ā I only realised while scoring that I hadnāt actually met the constraints for one of the last two portraits I placed, and thereād been another option I could have afforded to place which would have been just as good in that position while also lighting my only unlit candle for an additional 4 points). You do need to pay careful attention when scoring this game ā Iāve made several mistakes in my initial games, which I only picked up upon review. Itās a brain-burner as well, which is part of the appeal for me as a solo game, but it might well be an A.P. risk with multiple players (it plays 1-4 and I note BGG likes it best at 2p, maybe for this reason).
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El Grande (5p). My first time playing. I enjoyed this a lot. I was in second-to-last place for almost the entire game, and the very last change to the score track was for the last-place player to move one space past me :). I think I scored a little under 60, with the winner nearer to 90. I thought it was pretty neat, and the particular ways in which the Kingās position affects what you can and canāt do is something I couldnāt recall seeing in other games Iāve played.
7 Likes
This weekendās gaming saw two trials of a new game to me: Innovation 4th edition, played solo using the Singularity solitaire rules, where the automaton opponent cycles through the āI Demandā cards to attack my growing civilization. The first game seemed a little uncertain for a few turns and the singularity grabbed a few early achievements and was consistently attacking my developments before I had any sort of plan - or much real understanding of what was going on. I found a couple of cards with dogmas that gave me good quick scoring though, allowing me to collect enough of the mid-technology achievements to win. During the second game I was more focused and spent some more time developing and splaying my cards to protect against the Singularityās attacks, and although they got more of the early tech achievements, by board state allowed me to collect a couple of special achievements by mid game and spamming another dogma allowed me to double scoring cards and quickly acquire enough normal achievements to win. Itās a very enjoyable solo game although it definitely seems that this solo variant is more of a hectic race than I expect a normal multiplayer game would be.
7 Likes
Having not tried the solo variant, all I can say is that a normal game is very much a hectic race.
5 Likes
Quest for El Dorado - playing my Nordic edition copy. I bought the whole Expansion Collection bit and so I need to play them, and not just the Heroes and Hexes expansion. So far, I havenāt
Moon Colony Bloodbath
UPSP: the Great American Mail Race - funny filler. the rest of the table werenāt amused by it lol
World Order - bought my own copy to explore it more. Better than their previous title Hegemony mainly because the system is a lot simpler and so all the levers all service towards a narrow objective (El Grande style area control scoring). Indeed, I donāt see the appeal of playing 6 hours of shitty Euro gaming. And somehow 18xx is daunting in comparison.
There are still the concern of factions being blinkered to a few avenues. But so far, the execution avoided being āshittier version of Rootā Iād like to try the Events module next.
Dominant Species - good game, but not enough theme for me now. Either give me theme if the game is heavier or letās just play El Grande
Innovation + Artifacts of History
Rise and Fall - I remember that this was one of the best New-to-Me on the previous years (forgot which one) and I still stand by it. Simplicity of design like Concordia yet the decisions are really tasty.
7 Likes