Wingspan. What a wonderful game.
Nations (solo). I sold the game a couple of year ago, and regretted it since. I re-bought it recently, because why would you sell a perfectly playable, elegant civilization game?
The solo mode is OK. The army strength of the AI is a lot of times OP. So I usually buy a war if I don’t have enough stability to compensate. Doing an arms race against the AI looks kind of wasting workers.
Nations was regarded as a “Through the ages” killer/replacement. But it got quiet regarding Nations. TTA is still played (app mostly) and highly regarded.
I love the pulp feel of that game so much. But it’s such a table hog and long game that I’m not surprised to see it’s been since June 2020 since I last played it.
I’d love to play it more though.
Despite fastidiously avoiding the 'rona, my daughters tested positive this past week. So my first plays of the year have been more limited than usual. Also, I think they’re reflective of some life themes.
Fortunately, they were all good! I have an early copy of the third edition of Bloc by Bloc in hand. It’s one I’ve wanted to try, but never got around to. And although I haven’t tried the semi-cooperative mode yet, the fully cooperative game is quite good. I’m thinking of framing my review around “five life lessons for the modern protestor” or something goofy like that.
That Time You Killed Me is a little bit genius. Maybe a lot bit. It’s a time travel abstract game about wiping your opponent from two of three time periods, with multiple boxes that present their own systems and challenges. We’ve opened and played the first two boxes, and I can’t wait to give the next one a try later tonight.
Also, Final Girl is still going strong, although some of the game’s ambiguities are frustrating. I don’t think I’ve had a single play without some unresolved question. Sadly, I don’t want to ask the designers for a resolution — if Tom’s treatment is anything to go by, they seem rather defensive!
My sister and her husband - while probably qualifying as nerds - have never gotten in to board games. I brought a copy of Here to Slay to their place over the holidays and to my immense surprise, my sister, brother-in-law, daughters, and wife all really enjoyed it despite expressing doubt/exasperation while I explained the rules.
Even more surprising, they all insisted on playing again the following night. And THAT is an open door I will totally shove my foot into next year. What do you think: Advanced Squad Leader?
To their credit, they’re nothing if not consistent! So if you do ask a question about a rules ambiguity, you’re likely to be told to just think of yourself as a movie director and choose the resolution you consider the most fun.
That was literally their response to a question about a rules conflict between two event cards. The only worse answer I’ve ever read from a designer to a rules question was “it doesn’t matter”.
-Tom
This is a boardgame dammit, not a tabletop RPG!
It’s too bad this makes me not want to check this out anymore after almost pulling the trigger pre-Christmas, but good because it saves me money and shelf space.
I hate to say it, but their aggressive response has made me like the game less. Previously, I figured their solution was unorthodox but harmless enough. Now I suspect they responded to playtester input with the same level of auteur fury.
Nidavellir. Highly recommended
Diplomacy.
Finally got my copy of Mansions of Madness to the table with my wife and son on NYE. it was the first time we played so even though it said it was a 60-90 minute scenario it was a good 3+ hours over two days. It was fun, the app worked well and seemed nicely integrated though I wish it narrated more than it did. My son got an insanity that led to an interesting endgame.
It was only the first game played, and I’ve not played Eldritch Horror multi yet just the app, but my first impression it that I prefer Eldritch Horror. I know they aren’t replacements for one another or anything like that I just mean if I had to pick between the two I think EH would get the nod. Hopefully I can get it to the table one of these days too.
We also played our first game of unlocked. It was a greek myth story. It was with my wife and son again and we lost horribly. I think that was the listed as entry level but damn it was rough. We eventually made it but well over the time limit and with tons of hints. I’m not really sure I enjoyed it but they did.
I got the LeHavre itch … played a very relaxing solo game. Scored 104 Fr. After checking some solo scores on BGG, the median is something like 230 Fr. huh, I guess I am not done yet with the game … it’s quarter to three (local time), time to checkout.
So, Feast for Odin. I am looking into it, but is it really a good game with all the random card draws?
Short answer: Obsession.
Longer answer: At my prodding, my wife and college-age daughter have slowly moved up from simple fare like Ticket to Ride and King of Tokyo to somewhat deeper games. In the past year they both became addicted to Viticulture (Essential Edition), and our daughter has proven to be quite the strategic thinker, beating both of us regularly. It was our go-to family game during all of 2021.
So for Christmas this year, I wanted to get them something new, something at least as meaty in the decision making, and spent a good amount time looking at options. I settled on Obsession. My wife loves Jane Austen films and Downton Abbey, so I thought the theme would grab her. And the worker placement and engine building aspects of the design bear a general similarity to Viticulture. And I listened to a podcast with the designer, who said he designed it in order to get his wife to play board games with him. Still, you never know if a game will live up to the hype, and I feared it might fall flat.
And… they loved it. I had taught myself the game first by watching a couple of videos, then played through a two-handed game myself (not the solo variant). So when we sat down Saturday to learn it, I knew it pretty well, which also helps ‘sell’ a game. They immediately ‘got’ the concepts and flow of game play, and we ended up playing through to the end during that learning session. In fact, it was 10pm when we were about to begin the final season, so I proposed that we stop for the evening, but they both insisted we keep going to finish. They are planning on a second attempt this coming weekend. I consider the choice a success, and it is my first game played of 2022!
Okay, it’s official that my first boardgame of 2022 is D-Day at Peleliu:
Not my usual fare and, frankly, I’m not sure how it muscled its way to the top of my queue. But it’s one of the wargames I’ve been wanting to dig into, specifically because it’s not about the the Normandy landing or the Battle of the Bulge, which is what every single other wargame is about. Peleliu was the first time the US encountered the shift in tactics that made the Pacific Theater such a grind as the US advanced through landing like Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Prior to Peleliu, the Japanese had thrown themselves against any attackers at the beach, trying to keep them from establishing a beachhead. But the Marines had no way of knowing that’s not what was going to happen at Peleliu. Instead, with months of preparation, the Japanese had dug in all over the island, they were forbidden from launching suicide attacks, and they showed uncharacteristic discipline in terms of waiting to open fire until after their targets had advanced into pre-set killing zones.
I think you can say that it was the war’s single greatest instance of focusing men and firepower on one small patch of ground. From inside mountainous caves, the Japanese managed to hold an area the size of a few football fields for more than two months, and they even shredded and ultimately turned away the US Marines, whose General had anticipated the invasion would take four days. It was eventually left to the Army to come in and clean up.
Meanwhile, the entire Allied effort against Japan rolled right past Peleliu on toward Japan. It was arguably an unnecessary invasion that accomplished nothing on a strategic scale.
So now the game is set up and I’m about to assay a first turn, which means this will be my first boardgame of 2022.
-Tom
Absolutely. It’s a classic Uwe Rosenberg design despite the die rolling. :)
-Tom
From my 3 or 4 plays of Feast for Odin, I’d agree it’s very Rosenberg without being a near-clone of an earlier game like some of them. I particularly like having all the actions on the table from the start (though not all equally valuable, naturally) and the varying numbers of workers required to trigger different actions.
There are loads of strategic options, and the random occupation card draws mostly serve to give a bit of direction in which strategy to choose. The dice rolling is a more significant luck factor, but you get a couple of rerolls to cut down on bad luck and there’s a consolation prize if you fail.
Biggest downside for me is the slowdown towards the end as everyone is playing tetris.
Yeah I typically hate pick up deliver but this made it interesting and I like how player interaction. I need to play it with more players to see if it adds or just makes things a hot mess of randomness.
I was just joshing about the dice. If I recall correctly, the only die roll is for whale hunting, right? To model the idea that sometimes when you go out hunting, you might come back empty-handed? It’s a way to distinguish one resource from the others by having it work with a die-based risk/reward mechanic. Which I think is a great idea! That it might have galled Rosenberg purists is just an added benefit.
-Tom
There are a rolls on a bunch of different hunting actions, and also on raiding and pillaging.