That sounds pretty disappointing, honestly, especially for a longer game. Thanks for the write-up! Maybe I can play someone else’s copy.
Maybe ask Tom his opinion.He may have a more balanced view. That said, TI4 or Eclipse for me. Not a bad a game, but those are both so much better.
I got to play Inis today with two others. None of us had played before. There were several moments where we thought we must have read the rules incorrectly, because the game state seemed off or broken. And in each case, one of us suddenly said, “OOOOOOOH,” and explained what was about to happen, much to the others’ delight!
Only one play, but I think it’s brilliant. We all stood up from the game saying we couldn’t wait to play again.
It’s really not a longer game. Empires of the Void II is one of those game that’s over too soon. It’s far more manageable than Twilight Imperium and it has far more personality than Eclipse. And it’s got a ton of replay value. I wouldn’t let @Shieldwolf put you off it. He missed a few important things – might have been my fault for not teaching it well enough – that apparently frustrated him when he lost badly. For what it’s worth, I lost just as badly, but didn’t find it frustrating at all. Instead, it made me consider ways to play differently next time. Seems to me it’s a clear evolution of Ryan Laukat’s middle-weight charm, and I’m looking forward to playing it again.
-Tom
Your teaching was fine. I just had bad luck with dice, and with cards for influence…and with cards for diplomacy. Also, even remembering about the trader ship you have to have something to trade with him lol. I think the final scores in that game were like 60, 50, 34 and 34. Losing games is fine. I do it all the time. Something about the fact that the leader keeps getting better and better and can speed through the clock is what bothers me. It is definitely Laukat’s most ambitious game. Like I said, not a bad game, just not a great game. I’d still give it another try.
I’m pretty sure you could manage two credits. :)
-Tom
Hmm… Thanks! Let me know if that changes.
Any other opinions on Root?
That I would have to play it again, preferably as a different faction, as I think the asymmetry demands that people playing have a baseline understanding of the game flow.
I won, but it was more or less falling into a situation where it was going to be either me, or @ineffablebob would win, simply due to the way the win conditions were set and the other two payers could only prevent one of us, and I was the slightly harder target.
It wasn’t a grand master plan, in the sense I outplayed everyone, it was more of a ‘we all don’t quite how each faction wants to play, so we all made mistakes until someone won’ game. Interesting, need to see more of the concept for sure.
I didn’t bother with the Quarterlies for computer games, because I think I only played 1 or 2 games from 2018 (Two Point Hospital, and I’m leaving slot 2 blank incase I remember something). Or, if I played more, it’s because they’re smaller indie games, they’re not on that giant wikipedia page, and I can’t be bothered to find out when they were released.
But boardgames I’m much more able to deal with, because I track that stuff on BGG like some kind of colossal nerd. SO, assuming the release dates are correct on BGG, here are my top 2018 games:
ps I don’t care that @Brooksi has already added up the points.
Nor do I care that my BGG rating doesn’t reflect their order in this list. That probably means I should revise some ratings, but if I did that then “Dominion” and “Carcasonne” would no longer rock a 10 and I don’t think that’s fair.
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Space Base
Space Base (English first edition)
Rating: 9
Owned
Plays: 5
Comment: N/A. But a comments I typed just now is:Like Machi Koro, in SPACE! And you make most of your cash on other players goes. Plus, all the tiny cards keep sliding about, so it’s a fun mini game to keep them all lined up
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SEAL Team Flix
SEAL Team Flix (English first edition)
Rating: 8.5
Owned
Plays: 2
Comment: N/A. But a comments I typed just now is:Their design brief was “A board game with the feel of Call of duty”. I’d say it’s “Call of Duty on Vetern mode with endless hordes of popcorn mobs”
I’m tempted to make this the “best game” simply because of the pun in the name (Rainbox Flix would have been better, had they got the licence, and more appropriate to the theme).
But no one I know really likes Dexterity games so getting this to the table is too difficult :( -
The Quacks of Quedlinburg
The Quacks of Quedlinburg (North Star English edition)
Rating: 7.5
Owned
Plays: 6
Comment:Decent fun. It’s a 1D bag-building push-your-luck game. The variable ingredient powers really extend the life of the game.
The production is pretty poor, however:
- The bags are awful. All of the pieces fall into the corners which makes it difficult to shuffle them properly, which skews the results and also allows for cheating. Using cups or alternative bags really improves the game play.
- All of the stages, aside from card draw and rat tails, are depicted on the board… Why not include those two as well?!?
- The cards are worded quite poorly and it’s often not clear when/how to resolve them and requires a bit of house ruling to resolve.
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Architects of the West Kingdom
Architects of the West Kingdom
Rating: 7.5
Wishlist(4) (Thinking about it)
Plays: 2
Comment:Like Raiders Of The North Sea, the icons are well drawn, but very poor from an UX / information point of view. Reasons:
- Identical symbols differentiated only by colour to mean different resources, e.g. blue cards = apprentices, green = buildings, etc. Or bright red coins = tax, darker red coins = bank! They could have included a little symbol on each one to make them more obvious.
- It uses the exact same icons to mean both gain and lose, and it requires the player to remember the appropriate context for each action space, which kind of renders the icons a bit pointless. No plus, minus or arrows?
- The buildings are represented by words, rather than symbols, which makes the cards hard to read from the other side of the board. Given that everything else avoided words and went for colours, I don’t see why they did this!
Still, ignoring the awful UX, overall the game is quite a nice worker-placement that definitely pushes players to play to the theme (e.g. the greedy, smuggling merchant; the moral zealous; builder; etc), even if they don’t realise they’re doing so.
Comment I added just now: PLUS YOU GET TO LASSO OTHER PEOPLE’S MINIONS
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Cryptid
Cryptid (English edition)
Rating: 7.5
Owned
Plays: 7
Comment: N/A. But a comments I typed just now is:Not as good as Zendo, but a nice deduction-based filler.
The games below are obvious not in the OFFICIAL list
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Unlock! The Adventurers of Oz
Unlock! The Adventurers of Oz (English first edition)
Rating: N/A.
Owned
Plays: 1
Comment: N/A. But a comments I typed just now is:Including an Unlock game is surely as bad as including an EA game from 2015 that was 1.0’d in 2019, right???
Still, this was good fun. As usual, best with 2 or 3. -
History Of The World
History of the World
Rating: 8
Plays: 2
Comment: N/A. But a comments I typed just now is:It’s a tad too long and a tad too oldskool, but I gave it an 8 so I’m sticking with it being high up on this list
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Fireworks
Fireworks (English-only edition 2018)
Rating: 7
Owned
Plays: 5
Comment: N/A. But a comments I typed just now is:I only own and play this under duress, but it’s quite fun.
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Decrypto
Decrypto
Rating: 6.5
Plays: 2
Comment:Weird codenames-esque game were you have to hint to your partners something whilst confusing your opponents.
From the look of the box and the name of the game I’d except different rules from this. Strangely, the aim of the game isn’t to figure out what the words are, but to guess what the key was this game. Yet everyone playing it just wants to guess the words.
First played this at UKGE where we were given the worst explanation of a game ever. -
Thunderstone Quest
Thunderstone Quest
Rating: 6
Plays: 1
Comment:Better than Thunderstone advance. Still suffers from multiplayer - solitaire, even though it feels like it should be an interactive sort of game.
Why is there no party mode where we all join together to fight the evil hordes?
Also the ending just kind of happened. At least euro games have an excuse for that (the excuse being “they all do it”)
The design and text on the board were hard to read, and the minis were completely pointless. -
Luxor
Luxor
Rating: 6
Plays: 1
Comment: N/A. But a comments I typed just now is:I barely remember this, but it was a decent family game about robbing tombs and I’d rather re-play this game than the ones below.
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Disney’s Villainous
Villainous
Rating: N/A
Plays: 1
Comment: N/A. But a comments I typed just now is:I wasn’t impressed. The theme did not really shine.
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Century: Eastern Wonders
Century: Eastern Wonders
Rating: 6
Plays: 1
Comment:A bit of a dull ‘pick up and deliver’ combined with the classic ‘trade multiple types of wooden cube for those other types of cube’.
Other than cubes, I’m not sure how it directly relates to the original century spice road. Though I’d probably play this more than that, as this has hexes. -
Hardback
Hardback
Rating: 5
Plays: 1
Comment:I can’t word to save my life.
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High Society
High Society (Osprey Games English edition)
Rating: 6
Owned
Plays: 6
Comment: N/A. But a comments I typed just now is:This is technically a re-release of a game from decades ago, so this really IS like an EA game released in 1995 and 1.0’d in 2018! Also a game I play under duress
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The Flow of History: Deluxified
The Flow of History: Deluxified English third edition
Rating: 6
Owned
Plays: 1Comment:
Not very good as 2p. Feels too swingy with sniping. Also the card design makes the most important things tiny and the least important things large, making it hard to read. Plus wonders put their icons at the top? All in all not great design.
Plus this Kickstarter ‘deluxe’ edition has a printing error on a card used in setup (working animals). Given that every game must begin with that card out, how is such a thing possible??? DO THEY EVERN LOOK AT THE CARDS WHEN THEY TEST THESE THINGS?
Also the rules aren’t that great in terms of referencing things. Info is all over the place.
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Dice Hospital
Dice Hospital
Rating: 4
Plays: 1
Comment:Pretty dull. A multi-player solitaire puzzle game. Even ignoring the “multi-player solitare” bit, the puzzle aspect isn’t fun at all. It’s really obvious what things you should do with your board to get the most points. It’s rote.
Top add insult to injury it’s a game with “dice” in the title, dice on all of the pictures, and yet only one person is rolling dice each turn! (Well, you can get a few people/rooms that allow you to re-roll one dice per turn. Meh). I want to be rolling dice all the time, like in Space Cadets: Dice Duel or something. This is almost as bad as only rolling 6 dice in “Octodice”
Nothing about it makes me want to play it again, which is a shame, as theme wise I was looking forward to it.
Also: I’m not a fan of solely using colours to differentiate the meeples.
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Lucidity: Six-Sided Nightmares
Lucidity: Six-Sided Nightmares
Rating: 5
Plays: 1 -
War of the Buttons
War of the Buttons
Rating: 5
Plays: 1
Comment:A generic worker placement game with ugly production: Wooden dice and washed out visuals.
Also, having never read the original book, the theme is a bit weird. -
Gorus Maximus
Gorus Maximus
Rating: 4
Plays: 1
Comment:A trick tacking game with a user-hostile colour scheme.
The entire point of the cards is to have a number. But the numeral is tiny, and its white text on light- blue/yellow/red, which is difficult to read across a table.
But hey, at least the pretty image is the big and visible!! (I’m aware that you could learn what card value goes with which picture, but that’s only useful if our plan to play this more than once) -
The Lady and the Tiger
The Lady and the Tiger (English standard edition)
Rating: 4
Owned
Plays: 3
Comment:Rather than multiple mediocre games I would prefer one good one. Only played 2p.
Dude thanks for the awesome rundown and commentary!
Played Decrypto just this past weekend. The concept is a bit of a mindbender at first, especially if you’re carrying preconceptions from Codenames, but it’s a lot of fun.
I didn’t even know SEAL Team Flix existed (and, until I typed it, didn’t even get the gag in the name!). I love “flicky games,” as my group calls them, although I don’t get my current stash–Flick Em Up, Catacombs, Ascending Empires–out often enough. Typically because one or another player isn’t so into them. But one reason I do love them is because I actually think they are (or can be) highly tactical. SEAL Team sounds promising!
BGG did most of the hard work, I just copy + pasted the stuff I’d entered throughout the year ;) I’m surprised I’ve played that many 2018 releases, tbh!
But the word is the hidden bit! Surely that’s what we’re guessing??? :)
This one is quite tactical. Your troops position, noise, and turn-sequencing make or break the mission! Imagine nu-XCOM, or Invisible Inc! (or something with a ‘cover system’), but instead of clicking on baddies to shoot them you flick little disks instead!
The Wizkid stand at UKGE was right infront of the entrance, so it was one of the first places I went . I’d heard nothing about this game it until I accidentally walked into a copy sticking out from a shelf – the game has a humongous box. It’s like 2 Ticket-To-Ride’s in length. They had a copy set up, so I strolled over and took a glance. I pulled a rep over to ask them to explain, and when they were done I thought it was a godly mix of all of my favourite gaming aspects.
When I went back to the stand at the end of the day I got the last copy left. This was in June, and it wasn’t in the shops until September or so. I’m surprised I bought it: Even though Catacombs 2e is one of my favourite games* I never managed to get it to the table.
So I’m also really surprised that I went for the top tier of the Catacombs 3e playmat kickstarter from a few months ago. I seem to have a soft spot for tactical dexterity games that no-one wants to play with me :(
I didn’t get the gag until I was at home reading the manual, and thought to myself “why did the manual call them sailors? Are they normal navy. or something?”. The pun stuck as I typed in “Are SEAL Team Six called sailors?” into google…
* I think it’s it’s such a phenomenal idea! It’s such an obvious and natural extension of a dungeon crawler – what better way to show fireball spells than to flick them, or axe attacks by flicking your
barbarian into the fray! I had the exact same thought when I saw SEAL Team Flix.
I mean, you kind of have to guess the word, or at least it’s general semantic area, to get the code. What threw me when the rules were being explained was that you can see your own team’s words.
Yeah it looks like you have to be explicit enough that your own team can guess which word is which, but cryptic enough that the other team can’t figure it out from context.
Right - knowing the word is key. But you don’t get points for knowing the word, or instantly win the game as soon as you do. You get points for exploiting your knowledge of the word, as its still possible to not “intercept” the other teams message even if you know the word, e.g. if they’re tricky enough.
It just seems like people new to the game (including me) instantly think that discovering the hidden word is the be-all and end-all of the game :) And, like you say, are a bit surprised that everyone on a team can see their blurry words.
Isn’t Marco out there assuring the world that Lincoln is horribly broken, or something? Of course, I remember the Few Acres of Snow controversy and not being bothered by that at all. I still very much enjoy the game regardless of those claims.
Oh and i also played Root twice over the weekend and really liked it. When the say its a COIN game I see where they’re coming from, but the asymmetry is much more severe in Root. Not a hit as far as I’m concerned but it does make learning the game a little rougher. I don’t have the expansion but if this keeps up I may soon.
He had a pre-production copy which highlighted a legitimate problem which was that an early invasion of Washington had an excellent chance of success. The production version does not have this issue due to an increased terrain modifier if you attack Washington from the Manassas box.
So you didn’t like it? Was it a hit with your group?