Because it’s a great game… duh.
Dominion is pretty easy to pick up I think, base set. You can explore the whole deck-building idea at least.
Obviously I disagree ;)
I get why people love it, but it is the worst of the co-op games for me.
That said I really want to try Captain Sonar. Looks so fun…
For co-op I prefer Dead of Winter, but the backstabbing element can make it hard if you play with someone who is f this I’ll bring us down just in case one of you is a betrayer (not a common problem with my group).
Dead Panic is on the too play soon list so it might soon enter the co-op cycle. I’ve played Castle Panic and it was fun.
CV is super simple, but I’ve only played it online and I’ve only played online so far. I hope to change that this weekend though.
Played a few games of Santorini today while snowed in. Great fun for a filler game. The basics are simple, but the depth is very impressive. There is a lot going on for such simple mechanisms. Definitely a home run for people who like filler games and abstract game mechanisms.
Welp. My Kickstarter copy of High Frontier 3rd Edition arrived today, complete with an issue of Ares Magazine (Ares ran the Kickstarter and copublished) from 2015 when it was originally supposed to be delivered. It’s got four rulebooks and two quite large boards that on one side can be set next to each other for a truly table-dwarfing game board (or you can just use the regular size version on the other side of one, which I think I will have to because there just isn’t enough room otherwise.) And there are icons all over EVERYTHING.
Yeah I saw the US shipments were sent. I’m guessing the AU shipments are lumped in with the EU, which have been delayed.
Boo!5
I don’t know why the Central Intelligence Agency was at SXSW this year, but they were, and they were showing off board games they use for training exercises. I think they look really fun.
(And after reading former CIA member Lindsay Moran’s memoir “Blowing My Cover”, I thought a game where one nation tries to turn a team of assets in another nation, with that nation’s counterintelligence taking a dim view of that, would be terrific fun.)
So, Star Wars Imperial Assault comes with campaign and skirmish rules, so I cracked out my first skirmish game last night:
The gist with skirmish is to build an army (this one is the recommended learning one), then draw one of several skirmish cards to determine what map and special rules apply.
This one was “Smuggled Goods”, ostensibly two groups (rebels and imperials in this case), both hired by the Hutts to retrieve smuggled contraband on the outskirts of Mos Eisley. Violence inevitably ensues as both groups make a run for the crates (green) and try to return them to their deployment zones.
Skirmish uses slightly different rules, as there is no character advancement built in and unit abilities vary slightly. It also adds command cards into the game. Each side has a 15 command card deck of varying strengths and abilities (anything from seizing initiative, to increased movement allowance, to combat abilities), constructed a certain way and drawn after a shuffle each turn and played anytime to various effect (card permitting). Controlling terminals (blue) permits drawing additional command cards each turn.
It’s pretty cool, actually. I always wanted to dabble in Star Wars Minis, but never bothered collecting any and this sure as heck scratches that itch. Solo Analysis Paralysis aside, it plays pretty quickly, units seems to have nicely differentiated abilities, the combat system seems interesting and there seems to be a lot of ways to play. Each skirmish map specifies two possible missions to run on it, with differing objectives and victory conditions (though ultimately, victory is defined by collecting 40 VP through enemy kills and objective completion). Combine that with flipping deployment zones and custom warband construction and there is fair bit of variety. Though in fairness the variety for skirmish mode is improved though standalone figure acquisition (Boooo?! But it is FFG, after all…). The box comes with Vader and Skywalker, but the wifey also got me Han Solo, Leia, C3PO/R2D2 and Chewbacca standalone. Each comes with a sheet outlining a skirmish map and some missions that use the character - only one of which necessitated one of the big box expansions, so that’s pretty good. No doubt by now there are also dozens of custom skirmish maps and missions available online.
Back to last night’s game:
Troopers make a run for the outlying crates, but the rebels have the slight movement advantage. Vader beelines for the middle crate, but ultimately moves further towards the rebel deployment zone to cut off the rebels returning the southern crate unopposed. The northern Troopers, realising they won’t get through the door and to that crate before the strong melee rebels in the north, instead double back to the centre crate, using Vader as cover. The early fighting is in the south as Luke and two supports make relatively short work of the troopers down there, but not without suffering wounds in the process. Vader’s decision to press the rebel deployment area pays dividends as he dominates and forces the melee brawl. A lone trooper retrieves the center crate, while the rebels sneak the southern crate home and return the norther crate unopposed. But the rebels suffer too many losses to Vader’s imposing presence, boosted by a command card and supported by trooper fire.
Imperial win, 41-36 in round 4 or 5.
Rules errors were made, no doubt, and I forgot to use a powerful rebel command card (though I recall it would have little difference). Good fun, even playing solo. Just played each side to what I thought was their optimal strategy at the time and it worked fine even with no hidden info. I was even convinced mid-game that the rebels had it sewn up, as their abilities are strong, they had a strong command card advantage after capturing two terminals and I just could not see the Imperials holding them back. But then, Vader…
Good fun, recommended!
We played a game of Inis today at our local game group. My wife and I have really been enjoying it with two, and this was our first time playing a full, four player game. I have to say, it was a mixed experience. My wife and I enjoyed it, but the other people we were playing with got really frustrated towards the end. One of them even said “it is impossible to win this game”, and suggested we abandon it. Eventually, I set up a turn in which to win, and to top it off, one of the others playing handed me the Geis card (which cancels any action) through a card exchange action. Once I had playing my winning move, my wife shouted for someone to play the Geis card, which that player admitted to giving to me. My wife then proceeded to verbally abuse him, while I couldn’t help but smiling (he wasn’t offended, though a little shocked that my wife could be so angry).
In short, while I enjoyed the game a lot, and I think my wife did (with the exception of the end), I worry that some of the other people we played it with may think the gameplay is a bit too opaque and frustrating. Anyone else have any similar experiences with this game?
BGG does not list this as either officially or unofficially solo-able. Did they create an AI to replace overlord player? I would love to play this solo.
Great write-up, btw.
Apparently FFG are working on an app similar to the Descent one that will automate the campaign mode and make it solo/co-op-able. No idea if it will offer AI for the skirmish mode.
There is already a couple of campaign automation tools on BGG, which you can find in the files section:
RedJak’s Automated Emperor Variant
Redjak’s Automated Imperial Variant
Done by the same guy (obviously) and do kind of the same thing slightly differently. One is apparently a little more complex that the other. I have not read their rules yet.
The emperor variant has been webified and appified
So, solo play is possible now, if not official, but it will be official sometime in 2017, by best guestimates.
I thought your write-up above was a solo playthrough. Is that incorrect?
Yeah, but that was just the usual ‘play both sides to the best of their ability with no hidden info’ type of solo game. Nothing automated. I still think it worked ok.
Ah, I get it. Nice job.
On BGG it seems like there’s a common a narrative of it taking a few games to click. I’ve played Inis once and did not like it, but I’ve resolved to playing it at least 3 times with an open mind before making a firm decision on it. Given that, it seems like a game that might end up less fun for new players, which is too bad especially if it grows to a great game.
I think some of the strategy is quite subtle and didn’t occur to most of us in our first game until over halfway through. For instance, how important passing is. If you can pass a few times and build up a big card advantage, you can have much more control over how clashes unfold. Before I understood that, the card abilities and their appropriate timing felt really hard to grasp. Also, discarding cards for combat is a lot less interesting when people just play a card every turn. Finally, our group in our first game undervalued the tiles with the harps on them (that make the end game conditions easier). As a consequence, I think the game went on much longer than it probably would among experienced players, which can be a problem when a game has variable game end conditions among new players. That part seems like it would be resolved by a single good player going for them which would encourage others to as well.
Despite my dislike of the first play, I’m quite excited to try again with a better grasp on it.
Inis has a chess-like quality to it in that new players can do a lot of fumbling around unable to set up a checkmate. The key to successful early Inising is the teaching.
Exactly this, Mr. Napkin. There’s also a bluffing element to passing. You have to know the cards well enough to have a sense for what actions are still outstanding, and when to play them, and when to risk giving up the rest of your turn. There aren’t a lot of games that lets players pass and then play when it comes back around to their turn. So this mechanic – which is fundamental – isn’t very intuitive.
The harps are a game clock. Each of them is 18% of the way to victory.
When you teach Inis, which has relatively simple moment-to-moment gameplay – you just play a card and do what it says, then the next player goes – you need to immediately lay out two concepts as the sort of gameplay bedrock:
-
The victory conditions. It helps to theme them for players. I go with political (rule six clans), religious (worship at six sanctuaries), economic (live in six territories). And, of course, harps are wild cards that apply to any (but not all) of them.
-
The cards. There are 16 cards. These are the 16 things that will happen every turn and Inis is about the timing of those 16 things.
I feel that’s the most important thing to get across when you teach Inis. You then explain each of the cards by category: moving, building, fighting, and miscellaneous. Make a player aid that new players can pass around to remind themselves of the cards, grouped by basic function. Heck, let them each use a cheat sheet to mark off cards as they’re played each turn! This is the key to new players wrapping their heads around the game. If you just explain the rules and let them learn the cards as they come out, Inis will be obtuse, frustrating, and seemingly arbitrary.
-Tom
Gloomhaven is so freaking good.
Our Scoundrel retired a couple scenarios back and we got our first unlocked character class, who is pretty cool (a warrior-type with high mobility and item refreshing abilities). Then tonight I got to level my Mindthief up to five, unlocking a card that let me run two augments at a time, plus I got to select two perks (between checkmarks and level) to add 4 rolling +1 damage modifier cards to my attack modifier deck, which I had already pruned of basically every negative card but two, and most of the +0s as well. I proceeded to take up my role as a whirlwind of carnage and debuffs for one glorious scenario. But only one. Because you see, our City event gave us a map to a scenario that fulfilled the last step of our Tinkerer’s personal quest, and his character retiring fulfilled my personal quest. So we blew our remaining cash on a couple of permanent enhancements to level 1 cards for our old classes and checked our newly unlocked classes, which of course we couldn’t resist taking for our new characters. ( I got a bard-type with fantastic ongoing party-wide buffs and a penchant for curses and other debuffs (in areas!) on the offense, with hardly any one-shot powers at all. Our Tinkerer was replaced by a mage specializing in crazy effects using the element board, which has hitherto been heavily neglected.)
It will be interesting to see how we get on without the Tinkerer’s massive ranged heals and ability to refresh other people’s cards, but on the other hand he was slow and not very offensively powerful, and we’ve got some other options in terms of support.
My wife just kicked my ass at Love Letter 2 games to 1. Kicked. My. Ass. First time playing. Stupid RNG. Stupid bluffing.