I finally forced folks at my monthly boardgaming night to try Concordia and I think we all liked it a lot! Definitely a well-put-together Euro, with a lot of choices coming out of some pretty simple systems. Took WAY longer than the box said–that’s never a surprise, but it wasn’t even close (3 hours instead of 1 1/2). I came in third out of four, but I did better in the end than I thought I did, by going heavy on the cards with scoring based on the number of provinces I was in (Prefects) and trying to spread myself around (which I was only semi-successful at). I got 63 of my 100 points from that.
Concordia is great. The expansions are good as well, some interesting map variations and some good new mechanics in the Salt one.
Did you remember to remove cards? We didn’t notice that you are supposed to remove some cards when playing with fewer players the first time we played, so the games were longer than expected at first.
My Pandemic Legacy Season 2 group finally got together again after a couple months, so we made it into March. We are finding season 2 much harder than Season 1 which is fun and the story beats are definitely entertaining. I like the way the game opens up in this one, it feels much less like vanilla Pandemic at the beginning than Season 1 did.
Does anyone have any tips on how to better explain games to new players so they technically have all the information, but won’t understand it well enough to beat you every time?
That’s a problem I have, too. I have yet to win a game of The Castles of Mad King Ludwig.
I find that if I’m the person explaining the game that I spend too much time thinking about the newbies potential strategies and explaining them to them. When it comes to my turn, I barely have an idea about what I should do. Also, I follow the simple gaming dictum ‘If you want to play your new game more than once, don’t win when introducing it to the group’.
There’s also a perception that because you’re explaining the game, you’re the best at it, and therefore you’re the biggest threat. So everyone beats up on you and someone else wins.
-Tom
I often try out unusual strategies in a game when I’m playing with a bunch of newbies, just to see how they work out, but knowing they’ll probably break down and I’ll lose. It’s a win(but lose)-win!
I got the Rising Sun Kickstarter last week and had a particularly rough play of it last night. I think unfortunately this game is really not for me. In theory, it’s a dudes-on-a-map negotiation game but I didn’t find too many interesting things to negotiate about. I don’t want to dwell too much on why it’s not working for me, but more just to complain about how sad I am to be disappointed by this game I’ve been so excited about for the last year. And also how strangely alienating it was to be playing a game that everyone at the table was loving besides me. Boardgames can be a big bummer, man.
It’s better than the inverse!
And also one of the reasons I’m really into solitaire boardgames. I can grouse all I want about how Gloomhaven’s gameplay is fundamentally flawed without alienating anyone.
-Tom
I got Nemo’s War to try solo gaming out. I’ve only played it once and liked it a lot. But I also spent the whole time whispering to myself and loudly grumbling like a mad-man. At least playing a video game I’m usually absorbed enough to not hear my own mad ramblings.
I bought 2 of these library ladders to store board games, my VR setup keyboard and photo gear. Love the look flanking my TV
Ladder library by Sam Posten III, on Flickr
$99 each at Costco
Well, I remain very irritated by Fantasy Flight not providing adequate storage solutions for their games and the woeful failure of the minis for Mansions of Madness to stay attached to the provided bases (and sometimes, tokens to stay in said base), but for all that we had a great time with Second Edition and its integrated app. It’s really cool (if slightly slow) to not have any idea what’s beyond a door until you take an action to explore through it, all the monsters have very flavorful attacks and combat and horror checks, and there’s lots of fun narrative threads to tug on. The puzzles return from the first edition but feel much better as an app. Insanity is particularly neat (when you go insane, you get a random version of the condition that gives you a secret new win condition), but there are a bunch of other ways the game simulates stuff that’s quite cool. And we didn’t even set any fires. Which you can do whenever you feel like it, as long as you have a light source…
We lost, as I was eliminated due to double-insanity and the others couldn’t quite put the finishing touches on the final objective in the single round that left them (the game ends the round after any investigator bites it), also there was the minor matter of a Star Spawn in the study. But you know, details. But we had a great time. Next time we’ll know not to search every nook and cranny, though. Things are happening in the background and while you can still win (for a while, at least, and in this scenario and this version of it) if you let them happen, it definitely puts you on the back foot.
I’ve had a lot of trouble getting these minis to stick to the bases as well. I’ve also begun replacing them with their pre-painted version from FFG but this is a slow process when they occasionally re-run them. Plus I don’t think they make all of them in pre-painted varieties.
As far as storage, the Go7 Gaming storage is really quite nice. You need both the main set and the extra boxes once you start including the mini-expansions.
Great game, and I think we have about a 35% win rate which feels about right.
I got together with a friend the other night to play through the new Imperial Assault co-op app, and this was our impression of that. It’s a pretty neat system, just a tad slow, but pretty manageable, and full of flavor.
We played the tutorial with two players, and will probably jump into the campaign in the next few weeks. I’m curious to see where it goes- there’s only the one campaign right now, and from what I understand there isn’t a lot of side quests or anything in there, though there are a few difficulty levels?
Went to a boardgame group at this craft beer bar + gameroom + FLGS mega combo venue.
We played 4 player Star Realms with the one direction attack rule. It effectively turns a fast paced 2-player deck builder filler into a long slog. Can’t recommend.
Then we played A Study in Emerald Second Edition, which I like. I was in second place in points at the end of the game but dropped back to 2nd to last because the other player on my team was dead last.
After that it was some press your luck airship game in which I forget the name but where you try to fly the furthermost using dice/card matches but passengers can hop off in-between if they think you don’t have the match because that results in a crash. Simple and kinda entertaining (when you crash on the first space or knock someone off or make the ship crash lol)
Ooooh!
Eeeew.
I’ve only skimmed an online manual of the second edition, but as a die-hard first edition enthusiast, I’m positive the second edition is the worst thing since bubonic plague.
Seriously, though, how is second edition compared to first?
-Tom
Fourth game of Eldritch Horror and I finally beat Cthulhu. The only reason is a combination of lucky clue, portal, and mystery placement. I had a Rumor that seemed ok at first but I quickly figured out would be just brutal, so there was no improvement or dilly dallying. Got some good weapons and straight after that bastard. Won by 1 Doom point, with everyone but my last guy going mad. The Horror!
Celestia.
Nice little filler game and one family members who don’t play a lot of boardgames enjoy too.
So played Rising Sun and I was kind of bummed. It played in under 90 minutes and it just felt like I didn’t do much. Then I started thinking about what I hadn’t done. How I could have exploited war buy buying card that gave me 6 money. I could have gotten points in one territory by using betray to swap out figures and lose just enough honor to make my demon worth 3 force giving me a victory in another territory and then it all just kind of clicked. I kept thinking of devious ways each clan breaks the game and I loved it. I’m not sure if Rising Sun is a great game yet, but it is a game worth your time. It’s beautiful. It plays ridiculously fast. It can handle 6 players. You can negotiate or not and still win. I would say if you like Cosmic Encounter or even the idea of that game you’ll enjoy this.