Card Kingdoms and Villages of Valeria are both very good games. They give me hope for the series.
Netrunner is getting a new core set and they’re finally rotating out the first two cycles. This might get me back on the boat. I really like Netrunner, and it certainly plays uniquely in collectible card games. But by the time I got on board there was just too much to absorb and buy to catch up. Maybe it’s worth trying again.
J-How will live on in my heart.
Has anyone tried Dice Forge? It seems to be well liked and the game is reasonably priced at about $30 dollars. It meets my family criteria of playing in under an hour.
Also have my eye on Stockpile.
Got my copy of Photosynthesis today. Anxious to try it this weekend!
Stockpile is awesome. It’s simple and light and my favorite stock market game.
Dice Forge is pretty fun and should be good with the family, but (go figure) is pretty luck-based. I’m sort of done with it after a few plays.
I can deal with the luck aspect on Dice Forge because I doubt we would play it so often that it would feel old.
I may be able to trade for Stockpile on BGG. I am thinking of trading Cry Havoc since it seems hot for trades atm, and it just will not come to the table that often in the home. Plus both sell for about the same price.
Let us know how you like it. I just think my family would be bored to tears by it. I can envision my wife’s eyes glossing over when I tell her we are going to be planting trees to get sunlight while blocking others with our shading superpowers. : )
May he rest in peace, then be shuffled back into life after the runner takes their turn.
It’s pretty remarkable, isn’t it? Which race did you play?
In my last game, I took a pretty hard kick in the nuts trying the Imdril. They’re the nomad race that can’t settle colonies and furthermore need fleet support for all their cards. They suckzorz. Don’t play them. Everyone else is racking up huge economies by collecting colonies, and I’m struggling to get enough information and industry to just launch another stupid support fleet. Bleh.
-Tom
I played the Kjas who get out those giant cardboard converters that have two really powerful converters per side. I traded really heavily with the Kt player who gets the cheap colonies so I could get the right colonies and resources to unlock and upgrade my cardboard converters really early. But in the process, I had traded away most of my economy so I couldn’t actually run my converters and was behind on tradeable resources most of the rest of the game. Late in the game I realized I could jump start my economy again by temporarily trading my cardboard converters for resources, but too late to make a big recovery.
When I played the Kjas, I only ever got out one of those empire tiles. Did you actually get more than one out? Must have been nice. :(
Seems the game suggests a kind of symbiotic relationship between the Kjas and the Kt’Rittle. “Hey, we’re bugs with easy access to lots of cheap planets. Anyone here need lots of planets? Oh, you lizard conquerer guys want them for your empire? Cool, let’s make a deal.”
In fact, I think the Kjas would be hurting a little in a game with the Kt’Rittle dudes. I guess they could buy them from other races, but I can’t imagine many players willing to sell their hard-bought colonies. But the Kt’Rittle have a whole deck of the things, and you can pick and choose whichever ones you want (although did you notice the food-hungry Kt’Rittle don’t have access to a pure food colony? hmm…). When we had a Kjas/Kt’Rittle pairing going, energy was at a premium because the Kt’Rittle use it for those planets. Powering their null space drive, see? One of the cool things about Sidereal Confluence is how the resource models suggest a narrative for the different races. In a game without people wanting planets from the Kt’Rittle, energy was no big deal.
I’m looking forward to finally being able to play with the funkier races. Unity seems like it would make for a unique game. Seems like they would be the belle of the ball, trade-wise, with those wild resources. The Eni squid/whale dudes with their multiplier converters, too. I’m particularly keen to try the Zeth, but as the rules warns, you don’t want to throw them in with new players. So far in our group, we’re all still new players.
-Tom
I got out all 3. I even upgraded one of them. I also never ran all of them on any turn. And I never researched anything. I think I got a bit TOO excited about the giant cardboard pieces.
I’m really intrigued by Eni Et as well. It seems like the Unity and the Eni Et require a strong understanding of what resources are actually the most valuable at any given time, which is something I did not do a great job predicting last game. I want to play the Zeth as well, but I’m that guy everyone thinks is the traitor in those sorts of games and I’m worried the table would turn on me! I’m going to focus on helpful species for the time being.
I thought Dice Forge was fun. Sure there is luck, but the strategy in choosing Dice faces and combinations makes it not as annoying. I only played once, but intend on getting it for the family and maybe my group. I did like that you are at least minimally involved on each player’s turn. Relieves much of the down time.
Photosynthesis did look terribly boring, but I was convinced to sit and play it at Dice Tower Con and it was clever and I really enjoyed it. The way you all start from nothing and then slowly spread your trees through the forest while thinking ahead to the sun’s movement and the shade that will affect your trees and that you will inflict on others is pretty brilliant. It seems so simple, but the results are a lot of strategery. :)
Ok fine. I bought this weird Sidereal Confluence game because apparently it’s an interesting game ;) I’m a guy that actually enjoys cosmic encounter, loves eclipse and a wide variety of games. I am hoping this will be an interesting middle weight game of negotiation with a sci fi motif and some engine building. Keep those comments coming.
Tom Mc
Would 7th continent count as a boardgame?
I got a notification from DPD logistics that a parcel arrived, which can only be my kickstarted copy of said game.
I recall there’s a boardgaming group down London way? I should be available between the 19th-29th at some point should anyone wish to crack this open with me.
Failing that I might just ebay it if it ends up being the next big thing ™.
Indeed there is. See the end of this post by @Lykurgos:
Send him a PM of you’re interested in playing with us.
I picked up Rails and Sails, a Ticket to Ride game.
Overall, I liked it. I think it complicated the game in a few unnecessary ways.
There are two decks of cards: rails and sails. You keep three of each deck out. When you pull a card, you can choose which deck replaces it. For instance, if you take a sail card, you can replace it with a rail card. It is possible to have all 6 cards be one type of card. We house ruled it that you replace the card from the same deck. The only problem is, all of the wild cards are in the rail deck. I wish they had just one deck you used for all route types.
They also introduce harbors which are a way of getting points if you have a route ticket card that starts or ends in a harbor you build.You lose points if you don’t build all your harbors. We didn’t like this mechanic, so we will be skipping it in the future.
What I did like is the sail cards have some cards that are doubles. These cards count as two, so you could only need 3 cards to make a 6 space route.
The original TTR I gave a 10/10. This one I would give an 8/10. It’s not quite as casual as the original TTR.
Yup, @BloodyBattleBrain @Wendelius and other Londoners, ping me if you’d like to join a regular gaming group that meets at my place in Canada Water on weekends.
On our lastest game day New Angeles firmed up it’s position as a new favourite. I bought it within seconds of seeing it described as “Battlestar Galactica 2.0” on BoardGameGeek forums. It deserves the comparison.
The only worthy game I can think of which provokes a similar level of player interaction, discussion, suspicion, accusation, denial and passion is The Resistance. The combination of the Deal mechanic to determine what actions are taken, the asymmetric win conditions, possible hidden traitor (Federalist) and the need for both cooperation and competition are a fantastic recipe. It just works!
For the third time in our three games New Angeles was was saved by The Federalist. For the second time, that Federalist was me. Here is a crazy thing. After we got our initial secret objectivesI had The Federalist, which means I needed to bring the city to 25 threat and gain 25 capital. The other players needed to prevent the city reaching 25 thread and have more capital than some other Corporations. Because we thought that the remaining hidden goal card had been viewed we handed our cards back, shuffled and dealt again. I got Federalist again!
I performed miserably as a Corporation, lagging on both Asset acquisition and Capital growth. This may actually have helped me avoid suspicion as I did not actually do very much for the first 3 or 4 rounds. My worry during this period was that I wouldn’t reach the 25 capital needed. I started selling my deal votes for 1 credit each and just barely managed to creep up to 25 capital by the fifth turn. Delightfully, other players attracted some suspicion that they might be Federalists through their objective driven actions.
Then I was able to unleash an alpha strike. I had in my Asset set ‘The Fall Guy’ which let me propose both a Main and Counter offer. I had ‘Tanaka’ which let me choose the winning deal between the Main and the Counter. I also had an Asset that expanded my hand size to 10.
Together these are a game winning combination for the Federalist. They let me cue up two almost unblockable negative actions for the city and push it over 25 threat. Lesson learned for the group, no player should ever be allowed to hold this combination of Assets.
Incredible gaming and incredible game.
Through the Ages was released on iOS for ten bucks (also on Android but not sure on the price).
https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/69062/app-release-through-ages-yes-its-ios-now
I never played the cardboard version so not sure if it is a game worth trying.