FYI, a kickstarter for the second edition of Hands in the Sea is now live.
I missed out on the original kickstarter, but I’m on board this time around.
Terraforming Mars is super engine heavy. I’ve played 2 games solo and thought I would never come close to the winning conditions but you really build things up the last 3-4 turns and even though I’ve won it twice now with 2 different corporations I really enjoy the game because there are still so mary cards I have not seen and those cards are pretty cool.
We made a few changes to the catch-up rules because I was far enough ahead to make everyone else frustrated. I think we’re getting through the content pretty fast, so we aren’t getting as bored and frustrated as some are. But it’s definitely a weird boardgame experience.
Yeah, I’ve played a total of 3 solo games of Terraforming Mars and the last 2 went fairly smoothly: I focused on “core” engine building to pump up my direct terraforming abilities and once you get the various synergies going, you can crank out the win. My first game I won, barely, on the last turn (turn 14). My second game I got the eco-plant corp plus a bunch of good plant production cards and ended up blazing to Win Via Forestry, on turn 11 (!). Then today I tried a third game with the corp that gives you money when you play an event; I got fairly poor card synergy but plugged away at building a plant/energy engine and ended up winning on turn 13.
The solo game definitely familiarizes you with the cards and gives you a strong sense of the engine building. However, I’ve just been playing solo to win, not to max VPs. In a multiplayer game you have to additionally crank that engine into VPs. Bottom line: one of the better solo modes I’ve tried, if you like engine building.
We had a runaway for the first 5-6 games of Seafall, but I managed to catch up eventually, but that was largely to getting lucky in explorations and instantly picking up 4+ points.
Our problem with Seafall is that we hit a 5 game streak with NO story advancement. It turns out we needed to look at a very specific card and we never managed to draw it in 5 games. At that point, we just went through the components trying to figure out how we were supposed to progress. Once we saw the end game, we decided it wasn’t worth playing out.
Yeah, that sounds like something I’d like. I don’t care for luck-of-the-draw solitaire, but engine building is right up my alley. And I’m already on board for the theme. Thanks, Dan. For costing me $50. Jerk.
-Tom
So I’ve been on a real wargaming kick over the past six months or so. Combat Commander Europe, Napoleon Waterloo Campaign, Sekigahara, Manoeuvre, Washington’s War, Warfighter: WWII, and a trio of Quartermaster General games now sit proudly on my shelf, with Fading Glory and the US Civil War on their way soon. I have no idea why, but the idea of playing a medium-weight euro game seems really unappealing to me now, and I want more “meaningful” experiences out of my gaming.
That said, after playing 1846 a few times, I’ve really gotten into 18xx-alikes. Both American Rails and Imperial 2030 have proved immensely entertaining. Share-holding games are semi-cooperative games that work.
Is anyone else underwhelmed with 2017 game releases? Seriously, every one of the games I picked up this year are from last year and there is nothing at Gen-Con that says must buy. Possibly the closest would be Founders of Gloomhaven, still don’t know if I think it’s going to be good or not, and Crusaders: Thy will be done (ditto)? I can’t tell if it’s just they are just the new hotness or something more. Usually I’m pretty spot on with game picks, but just not feeling it.
On a plus side, Lisboa showed up yesterday. Oh boy is that a big box.
I tend to get excited about GenCon games a couple weeks after it’s over and the buzz has finally trickled out, so am probably not a good source. That said, I think Whistle Stop looks interesting! I’m excited to hear more opinions on it.
I’m also planning on getting through my first game of Lisboa this weekend and am super excited about it.
Gloomhaven came out this year, so I am overwhelmed by 2017 game releases. Or release, at least.
Randy, have you tried Unfair? It’s a 2017 release and one of my current favorites. It’s not a kid’s game and it’s not just a Euro - it’s got engine building and player interaction and a pretty good integration of theme and mechanics.
Also, my Tuesday night group has been going bananas for Tiny Epic Quest - it was delivered 2 Tuesdays ago and has been played a lot since. I haven’t gotten into a game myself but a lot of the folks are really positive about it.
I love the theme, but I’ve heard the screw you nature of some of the cards kind of takes away from it. I’m all for competition but it sounded a little iffy in that area.
It depends on the group and the cards you draw. Also, there are “Game Changer” cards you can choose to use to establish variants and some of those either outright remove the “screw you” cards or reduce their impact.
In terms of the groups I game with, the fact that the game segues into more player interaction (and the “screw you” stuff is part of that) as it progresses is a big plus.
Every group is different. Some folks really prefer player interaction, others detest confrontation, and so on.
Thanks. I keep looking at it. Maybe next time I’ll consider again.
I haven’t it was actually high on my list, but the price point and the fact that it sounded a bit long for what it was scared me away. That said it was 25 dollars at miniature market yesterday and I was sorely tempted to pick it up.
And yes I forgot about gloomhavuen. I thought ,for some reason,it came out last year but to be honest I’m not that impressed. Don’t get me wrong the guy did an amazing job self-publishing this Beast of a game. It’s just at that point you might as well Dungeons & Dragons.
Does anyone have the new Solar Quest Deluxe Version, it was a KS. I have a couple copies of the older game but I am hearing the new versions has some quality issues and I am not entirely sure what’s deluxe about. Yes, it’s basically Monopoly in space, but it doesn’t seem to get stuck or go forever when you play it right.
Burning Suns showed up today. I had given up on ever getting the game. Funny because I just have to pack it for our move to FL in two weeks.
So I taught Terraforming Mars to a table of 5 on Thursday night, with 2 complete newbies, 1 guy who played once, and 1 guy who had the game and had played solo but never played with others. I decided to use the “standard” (ie beginner) setup, which means everybody starts with 1 production in everything and we take out about 1/3 of the cards (the cards with the “Corporate Era” symbol.) It speeds the game up, but only reduces the complexity slightly. I think the full (ie “advanced”) game is better for a solid strategy experience, but for picking up the game and playing a little faster I like having the entry level option.
Anyway, I signed up for a new meetup of self-styled “hardcore boardgamers” and I am scheduled for an all day mega dose of Eclipse tomorrow. We have the facility for 12 hours. Woohoo! It’s gonna be like old times playing Twilight Imperium with Tom and the dudes, except I will get to play 2 or 3 games in a day. (Actually my brain will probably be mush by late afternoon but that’s what Starbucks is for.)
So, played an 8 person game of Eclipse yesterday. The guy teaching it was thorough but slow so the teaching took 90 minutes. We then played the 8 player game in 5 and half hours, which is actually pretty fast for that big a game.
My view is that Eclipse is similar to Twilight Imperium but required about one third or one quarter the time. The 8 player game of Eclipse was almost TI-level in terms of length and epic feeling. The 7+ player game I think is almost a separate game from the 4 to 5 player Eclipse game.
I also got in a game of Blood Rage, my second. I like this game in many ways and yet I don’t really have a handle on it. It may just be my inadequate understanding of the game but it seems like you can borked fairly early on and due to the fact there are only 3 true “turns” in the game, you will never recover. Both times I played I felt like I made mistakes in the first era and had no chance after that. There was no way to rebound.
Yeah, 90 minutes to teach is just wrong. No one will pay attention that long, and you’ll just end up having to answer questions you’ve already answered because people’s attention was wandering. Go through the basics, make sure you mention anything anyone will complain about not knowing later (they’ll still complain, but at least you’ll be able to say “yes, I told you that”). You don’t have to explain every tech before the game starts.
Did you use the 2 simultaneous turns rule? That is a really good rule and speeds up the game quite a bit. You can use it with any number of players, really, but it works especially well with 5+.