Pretty much everyone I’ve seen talk about it says it’s a lighter, less varied Horrified. Gauge accordingly. For me that’s a 100% pass since I just tried Horrified yesterday and that was too light for me, with only the varied monster setups standing out at all.
Probably not.
It’s clever enough. I like the art they have on the cards and character boards. But it’s a really basic co op (that’s solitaire for @tomchick) game. It’s got some good decisions there and they do change up what the end goal is to keep it at least a little fresh. It knows not to overstay it’s welcome and the pacing is very good. You’ll get some vaguely cool stories out of it but it really is pretty light, for all the good and bad that is.
Man, that graphic design sure tugs at my middle school gamer heart!
I’d be curious to know how the new edition is. There was a reboot more than a decade ago now that felt like a step in the right direction–no grid maps, played on the table, bigger cars–but the designers failed their handling rolls and didn’t actually design car construction rules, so you had to play with their pre-made cars. LAME
That one came in small comic-size books, so it was super-inexpensive. I assume this is the opposite in that regard, since, you know, MINIS. But as much as I roll my eyes at minis, it does seem like a natural transition. Car Wars was always more tangible and physically present (in the style of Warhammer) than many of its contemporaries.
Anyway, I hope they did a good job revamping it!
You forgot the counters, Tom. Bags of COUNTERS…
Thanks for the warning, Tom. I had forgot that I preordered this until I got the shipping notification two weeks ago. I figured I would sell it on arrival. Now I’m doubling down on that. Too bad Fedex has had it sitting in a facility in Kent Washington for over a week, now.
I’ve been enjoying the puzzle of Arkham Noir (I have the first chapter). Curious to hear what you think about it. If you haven’t played it before, @tomchick has 2 videos to helped me a lot:
Is Captain Silver an expansion to Treasure Island? If so, I’m interested to hear what it adds.
The others are new to me. Nice haul!
I already have the first two parts of Arkham Noir. I’m also curious about this new one.
Captain Silver is indeed an expansion. There are two new modules, a whole new island and a better map for the base game (with the old one you couldn’t see very well what was drawn on it). It also tries to adjust the balancing a bit, as Silver really had a hard time winning the game (I didn’t mind. I saw myself rather as the game master when playing Silver, not as a competitor).
Amelia’s Secret is an augmented reality game. I don’t know how good it is but it was only 20€ and I liked what I saw.
Moon Adventure is an Oink Game. I would describe it as a coop variant of Deep Sea Adventure which I liked a lot as a filler game.
Dungeon Drop is different from everything I have. You drop cubes on the table which define your playing area. I played in in Essen together with the designer and it’s good light short fun.
The game between Silver and Amelia is Canvas. I don’t know if you’d say it’s a set collection game (I’m a bit fuzzy on the definitions) but it’s absolutely beautiful.
Then you see two promos for Under Falling Skies. They had a variation there, that I need at home;-):
And finally there are two decks for a french game named Cartzzle. In basic mode you have to lay the cards in different angles to recreate a picture. In challenge mode you have to show or hide special symbols while laying the cards.
Thanks for the write up! That Under Falling Skies set up is great.
Sounds like a great pick of games.
Our group tried Keyflower today and hated it. Nobody in the group remembered it that well, the rulebook is a study in bad translation, and Board Game Arena had a poor and confusing implementation with some wrong information (for example, telling us to “place a worker to activate this tile” on tiles that cannot be activated.) It was one of those bad gaming experience that caused the group to stop playing after 1 game instead of our customary Saturday 2-3 games.
Maybe it’s not the game b/c of our poor understanding but there are too many good games to waste time with that kind of crap IMO. I hated it.
As a counter-opinion, I think Keyflower is one of the best action placement games of the past decade, in a large part due to its innovation on the standard formula. That certainly comes with putting players outside their comfort zone for a few games, which will play very poorly if you have rules confusion and a bad online interface. I hope you have the opportunity to try it again without these problems at some point.
I really like Keyflower, too, but I had the advantage of a teacher who really knew the game well. It’s got some fundamentally weird abstractions, but if you accept those, it’s a top shelf Euro.
-Tom
I hate all three Key- games I’ve played. I don’t get the appeal of any of em
Getting into this hobby can be annoying. I read about a bunch of Deckbuilders to try (Dragonfire and expansions, Battle for Greyport, Renegade, etc). Most of them are ether out of print or impossible to get in Canada. They’re not that old too.
Plus with kickstarter in the mix, I get really confused when I see reviews for things that not in retail (Marvel United stuff). There’s no universal release list so lots of time you have to hunt for something that might suit your interest. I feel like I have taken Steam for granted for a long time lol.
Pretty good week. Still not sure what to think of Zurmat. The Monumental Edition for Clash of Cultures is significantly smoother than the original. Had a train evening, and the two picks were more complementary than expected.
Whoa. That’s a bit more than twice what I paid in the kickstarter and I am already feeling some remorse about that. I really need to stop looking at Steve Jackson’s kickstarters.
I just checked back to see when the Designer’s Edition Ogre Kickstarter was. Looks like delivery was supposed to be around Nov 2012. I’ve had that for nine years and can’t remember playing it. The idea is always much better than the reality.
Lol, I GOT it! Well ordered it, as soon as i get it, i need to schedule a game day :)