The Big Board-Gaming Catch-All

Dreaded Gazebo wrote:

I need to give Obsession a go. Not sure I'm quite sold on it but I'm interested enough to give it a shot for sure.

Same. I played it in person and now I'm playing it on BGA to see how much I like it. Do I like it "a few games on BGA" much, or "I need to own it" much?

Dang, I haven't played Yspahan in ages. I'd join if you need another player.

+1 For Regicide! I love it.

I also built a TTS mod for it

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...

Dreaded Gazebo wrote:

I need to give Obsession a go. Not sure I'm quite sold on it but I'm interested enough to give it a shot for sure.

Dreaded Gazebo wrote:

I need to give Obsession a go. Not sure I'm quite sold on it but I'm interested enough to give it a shot for sure.

I am a big Obession stan. Let me know. I own it, have everything (need to play with the expansion hired help) and have played the base game multiple times, so have it down pat. Plus, I am 20 minutes away from you, as everywhere in Madison is 20 minutes or less away!

As I mentioned last week I played Europa Universalis - The Price of Power last Saturday and it has taken me this long to digest what I experienced. For those of you familiar with the likes of Twilight Imperium, then this is the game for you. The design of it is exceptional, with a lot of interconnected parts that are so reliant on one another that if the player does not appreciate this, they are doomed!

IMAGE(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52710020952_f4aebf5d55_k.jpg)

I played as the French and did not do terribly well I fear. Invading Burgundy was a fool's errand at best, but at least I got to experience the combat system a lot. Which is a little odd as the number of dice rolled has no bearing on the number of units being committed.

Hilarious! I just played a 3-player learning game of Europa Universalis - The Price of Power today and I agree that the design is freakishly elegant, albeit one where playing through an Age will take most of a day, depending on player count.

I, too, was France and, not knowing what I was doing, I just stuck to accruing easy points and victories. We played half an Age, and while I sort of came out on top, we weren't taking anything about today's game terribly seriously. I will quibble slightly the comparison to the similarly epic TI3/4, since EU: POP is far more elegant a design and momentous events happen almost every turn. And as you can see, it's gorgeous!

IMAGE(https://photos.smugmug.com/FCASL/i-9GjCFxP/0/078b1c4a/M/5C60FA63-8B96-4E40-BEC4-635F3FF86196.-M.jpg)

IMAGE(https://photos.smugmug.com/FCASL/i-bBBmDwP/0/0d682548/M/36BCC685-6FEA-468E-AA8F-415BD2A84FCD.-M.jpg)

IMAGE(https://photos.smugmug.com/FCASL/i-78Npcsp/0/8967a5c3/M/3362815B-794A-4828-ABE8-AC6422717D55.-M.jpg)

We were playing with the Deluxe version with the playmat. It was ridiculously pretty. All of the pieces are wooden and the player mats are all recessed, preventing the city and village tokens from sliding about.

With respect to the comparison with Twilight Imperium, the royal powers are similar to the three categories of tokens you have in TI. With the former having administration, diplomacy, and military where as TI has tactical, fleet, and strategy. These powers are expended based on the actions being committed and cards played in EU-tPoP. This is not the case with TI and is therefore not as fluid. But the action economy to both games is very similar, which is why I compared the two. The outcomes are, however, quite different as pointed out in the post above.

Aeoringas wrote:

With respect to the comparison with Twilight Imperium, the royal powers are similar to the three categories of tokens you have in TI. With the former having administration, diplomacy, and military where as TI has tactical, fleet, and strategy. These powers are expended based on the actions being committed and cards played in EU-tPoP. This is not the case with TI and is therefore not as fluid. But the action economy to both games is very similar, which is why I compared the two. The outcomes are, however, quite different as pointed out in the post above.

Absolutely correct, I'd forgotten that. But yes, I found taking actions much more fluid in EU than in TI. Fewer designer brakes on the system.

Earth is now available (beta) on BGA. I received my Kickstarter set of the game earlier this week, read the rules and watched the how to play video. I started a BGA turn based game, Dreaded Gazebo joined and there's one spot left. If you want to play: https://bga.li/t/361462294

Here's the How To Play

I got my copy of Wizards of the Grimoire today and immediately sat down and played a game with my son. Super easy to learn, very deep interaction between cards, top notch quality, and most of all the we both got a “oh yeah… we are going to play many many games of this” as he beat me in the first game. Most excellent game and highly recommended.

I’ve just had a couple of days of extreme board games.

First up, my copy of the solo Legacy of Yu arrived. I’ve played a few rounds, it’s a lot of fun.

Then two separate board game arrangements on Saturday.

In the afternoon I played a friend’s new copy of Distilled which was really fun. Quick and enjoyable, the way you gather ingredients and distill the liquor worked well. Also played a couple of quick two player games after: Red Flag Over Paris (good but really needs repeated plays I suspect ) and Fox in the Forest Duet (also very fun).

In the evening, visited some other friends and we played a five player round of Architects of the West Kingdom and some The Crew to finish up.

Phew! Today I will restrain myself and just play a bit more Legacy of Yu.

Nice! We also quite enjoyed distilled.

MikeSands wrote:

Also played a couple of quick two player games after: Red Flag Over Paris (good but really needs repeated plays I suspect ) and Fox in the Forest Duet (also very fun).

In the evening, visited some other friends and we played a five player round of Architects of the West Kingdom and some The Crew to finish up.

Red Flag Over Paris is 100% in my thematic wheelhouse and it's a gorgeous presentation, but I just can't with the Fort Sumter engine. I tried playing RFoP with my wife and she asked "what are we supposed to be doing here?" With that theme, Serval could have crafted a neat little 2-player CDG. This is a rare miss from both Herman (in terms of game engine) and GMT, but GMT is leaning into this series so I guess it's selling.

Clearly I need to research Legacy. I hadn't heard of it before.

Agreed on Red Flag. It’s definitely got some great stuff in there, but the play is a strange set of abstractions. That’s why I thought replays would help—I suspect that if both players have a better idea how the pieces interact and what cards are in the deck, it will flow better and the theme will come out. Also, Serval did a video on his Homo Ludens YouTube channel talking about the game that was very interesting.

Legacy of Yu really hits a sweet spot for me as a solo experience: quick to setup and play, a good level of tactics and difficulty, and the story/campaign side is pretty neat. I managed to finish my first run through yesterday afternoon with a success (seven wins, four losses). Quite satisfying, and now looking forward to getting it out again in a few weeks to see if I can manage with less failures next time.

Fredrik_S wrote:

I got my copy of Wizards of the Grimoire today and immediately sat down and played a game with my son. Super easy to learn, very deep interaction between cards, top notch quality, and most of all the we both got a “oh yeah… we are going to play many many games of this” as he beat me in the first game. Most excellent game and highly recommended.

Love to hear more if you’re willing to share.

MikeSands wrote:

Legacy of Yu really hits a sweet spot for me as a solo experience: quick to setup and play, a good level of tactics and difficulty, and the story/campaign side is pretty neat. I managed to finish my first run through yesterday afternoon with a success (seven wins, four losses). Quite satisfying, and now looking forward to getting it out again in a few weeks to see if I can manage with less failures next time.

Oh, it's by Shem Phillips? Well, that changes things!

Natus wrote:

Oh, it's by Shem Phillips? Well, that changes things!

Yes, and the Garphill style is all through it (interesting multi use cards, worker placement, and resource management here). Plus lots of icons!

After many games in the past week I can confirm Earth is great. If you like Wingspan or the mechanics of an engine builder type game you will love this. https://insideupgames.com/our-games/...

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/vY2Kp0u.png)

mrwynd wrote:

After many games in the past week I can confirm Earth is great.

After forty years playing this game I've got to disagree with you, Earth kinda sucks. Early advantages tend to snowball and even if you make it to the endgame, it tends to be a tedious bitter slog no matter who you play as.

hbi2k wrote:
mrwynd wrote:

After many games in the past week I can confirm Earth is great.

After forty years playing this game I've got to disagree with you, Earth kinda sucks. Early advantages tend to snowball and even if you make it to the endgame, it tends to be a tedious bitter slog no matter who you play as.

And there's no expansion packs or DLC to add new mechanics.

Fredrik_S wrote:

I got my copy of Wizards of the Grimoire today and immediately sat down and played a game with my son. Super easy to learn, very deep interaction between cards, top notch quality, and most of all the we both got a “oh yeah… we are going to play many many games of this” as he beat me in the first game. Most excellent game and highly recommended.

I just ordered this after hearing about it on the SVWAG podcast. Sounds really interesting.

chooka1 wrote:
Fredrik_S wrote:

I got my copy of Wizards of the Grimoire today and immediately sat down and played a game with my son. Super easy to learn, very deep interaction between cards, top notch quality, and most of all the we both got a “oh yeah… we are going to play many many games of this” as he beat me in the first game. Most excellent game and highly recommended.

Love to hear more if you’re willing to share.

Sure! So Wizards of the Grimoire is a two player head to head game where you draft 1 spell from 10 in the market. Each spell has it's own unique action that happens when you place mana cards on them. Each turn you get 3 mana cards. Each of the spells cost 1-4 mana cards to play.

Once you activate a spell it can either be an instant effect or it can be a delayed effect that happens when you remove mana cards from it. The way mana is removed is that after you draft a spell, you remove one card from each spell that has mana card(s) on them. Once a spell has zero cards on them, you can use it again. So in effect the mana cards that you use to activate a spell acts as a cool down to be able to use the spell again.

Once you have done a few rounds of this, you start to see synergies between the cards. For example; one spell gives you more mana cards, then you use those cards to activate another spell that deals damage. You still have a few mana cards on your hand thanks to the first spell you cast, so you decide to activate a timed spell which deals damage for every mana card that is removed during cool down phase.

The core of the game is super easy to learn, but the synergies will take awhile to learn. There are a ton of cards in the game, every one different, so there are a ton of combos you can pull. I played a friend the other day and he managed to get one spell that deals extra damage every time he casts that spell during one turn. So he matched that spell up with a bunch of cheap spells that allows him to remove cards from spells. This lead into a quick down spiral for me.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you can only have 6 spells active, so when it's your turn, you draw a card and you HAVE to exchange the new spell with one of yours that doesn't have mana on it. So you are often forced to think up new combos / strategies. The game has no healing spells so it's always damage or manipulation of mana cards which leads to quick matches and the "one more time" feeling at the end of a game.

I love it, my kids love it, and my friend liked it a lot.

Fredrick, wow. More than expected. Sounds fun and I may have to buy.

RIP Klaus Teuber

No matter what you think of Catan, it had an undeniable beneficial effect on the board game hobby. While I never look to play it these days, I won't avoid it if it means teaching someone new about the hobby.

hbi2k wrote:
mrwynd wrote:

Earth is great.

After forty years playing this game I've got to disagree with you, Earth kinda sucks. Early advantages tend to snowball and even if you make it to the endgame, it tends to be a tedious bitter slog no matter who you play as.

more on that…

I've now been able to find a store near me selling ISS Vanguard (at a not unreasonable price as well, for the UK).

Can those who have played it let me know whether it's worth picking up? I'll most likely be soloing it, running 2 or 3 characters.

Igneus wrote:

RIP Klaus Teuber

No matter what you think of Catan, it had an undeniable beneficial effect on the board game hobby. While I never look to play it these days, I won't avoid it if it means teaching someone new about the hobby.

I liked it when it was one of my first modern games and despised it when I realized I prefer thematic games. Then my daughter bought it with her own money, so I regrettably played it with my family, and discovered that if you love the other players enough, it can be a fun game!

Thank you, Klaus.

I played the new deluxe production of Ra this weekend, and it is gorgeous. I haven't played Ra in years, and the five us us had a lot of fun. My brother and sister both beat my score, so they were very happy.

We also played Earth for the second time. While there can be a lot to keep track of, my family is quite interested in playing it again. My brother rushed to complete the 4 x 4 tableau first, but ended up last in points, which was interesting since the player who did that the last week won.

Anyone interested in a game of Caverna over on BGA?
https://bga.li/t/365372216

I received my Kickstarter copy of the Deep Rock Galactic Board Game.

The pieces are overall good quality. Lots of cardboard punch outs and all of them are made with the thickest cardboard stock I've seen. The figures are large and have good detail, I've never painted figures but they really need it.

The game mechanics are nothing really new or unexpected. You're 4 dwarfs completing missions that consist of collecting gems, shooting bugs and escaping. The game's flavor is good but I'm not sure if it's interesting enough to keep the group playing for a lot of sessions.