I’ve tried making the tracks work and it’s a dangerous gambit. When you focus on the tracks, your allies benefit just as much as you do and you don’t gain an advantage over them. I think it’s mostly good for propping up allies you think are way behind in points if you end up way ahead. Also if your tracks are much higher, it’s more likely you can eliminate the other team from scoring just by not having a low scorer… but that still doesn’t help you beat your allies.
I also love Bismarck. If you get a chance to play with Cthulhu it can similarly be incredibly clutch and dramatic. The powers on the cards in this game are just incredible. So many fun and crazy effects. I haven’t played this in a year or two, but this post is convincing me I got to get it out again soon.
I’m still sad that a lot of that craziness apparently got reined in for the second edition and the real thing will never be available again. I’ve got my copy, but if something ever happened to it, or a friend wanted their own…blah.
Agree! I think war/rev track may be useful to push a (suspected) teammate or ownself away from last position.
I really like the all the cards thus far because there were no useless or underpowered cards to me. Every card has some clever ways to play from what I’ve seen. What matters is which card to bid given the limited actions and turns one player has to get a single card.
@porousnapkin Did you back Auztralia which is touted as the sister game of ASIE? After the session we were interested to late pledge Auztralia so we can enjoy the craziness once more despite having different game mechanics, as we now have faith in Wallace.
I like a handful of stars a lot. The most playable 4x I have tried by a pretty big margin that it’s not a random euro with a theme slapped in (although the theme could be better, but that’s a different issue), and it still feels meaty enough.
Tell me how you like Auztralia when you get it! I held off because I disliked the font they used and didn’t love the art. But I’d be easily swayed with good word it mouth.
Is that Insepctor Lestrade sitting unloved in Zurich??? How did no one take Lestrade??? He’s one of my favorite cards. So versatile. So many dick moves you can do with Lestrade. If I’m ever playing with you, I will not let you get Lestrade. And you better not let me get him either, or you will rue the day!
The opening can depend on which 15 cards are showing (12 cities, 3 permanents). An opening with a zombie or vampire card is going to be very different than an opening with a bunch of assassins. Sherlock or Moriarty have the potential to introduce a lot of cat-and-mouse with factions. Did he try so hard for Moriarty because he’s a Loyalist? Or does he want me to think he’s a Loyalist?
Since this is a deck-builder, I usually try to get an economy going with things like People’s Will, Freemasons, and Diogenes Club. Mrs. Hudson and Watson, certainly. I like to build up an “economy” and look at what the other players are doing before I decide whether to tip my hand about my faction.
But my friend @justaguy2 is of the opinion that you might as well just announce your faction immediately by going after whichever cards will help you in the long run.
It was unfortunate to see Lestrade late to the party because we… hardly anyone bothered about Zurich and the cards on Zurich just like in real life.
I also went with a misdirection early on to buy opponent’s agent (AR). Then I thought that was a silly ineffective move because I couldn’t do anything meaningful with it until I realized I could turn the agent into vampire and let him run amok. It was all these card synergies that made me fell in love with this game. There’s so much depth and meta to uncover!
Why there’s such a thing as second edition? Why there are people hated the intricacies and tactical nuances of first edition? I just can’t.
I don’t mind people knowing who I am usually… Can be dangerous if you’re the only out restorationist early, though. But if you rush you’ll be ahead of everyone on your team!
It’s terrible. I had a lot of trouble understanding my first play. It’s pretty easy to play once you get the basic ideas down luckily. I also think it’s terrible in part because the game is so incredibly weird.
I was reading the first edition book. Just finished reading the 2nd edition. It’s a little more clear, but not by much. Some things are actually more confusing (when Restoration/Loyalist points are scored, and apparently you can’t voluntarily reveal your secret identity anymore?).
One thing I’m bummed about is they went too far in some places and streamlined the theme right out. They took the neat looking and themed War/Revolution tracks from the 1st edition and turned them into generic Loyalist/Restoration tracks. No art or anything. Just a number “10” at the end of the tracks instead of masses waving flags or artillery pieces.
They also changed the rule that everyone in a faction was outright eliminated if their lowest scoring player had fewer points than the other team’s lowest scoring player. Now it’s just a -5 VP penalty. That seems like it would defeat the whole purpose of the thing. Wouldn’t that just make someone try harder to horde all the points for themself rather than lifting up their weakest teammate?
We got a chance to play Dice Forget last night. It’s a beautiful game, unique not just with the dice but they way it’s set-up. And oh my god, the insert is awesome. I really think this team needs to teach classes on how to do inserts. It’s just so… I mean aside from someone who just hates plastic inserts, it’s pretty amazing.
As for the dice part. Yeah that many rolls creates some randomness but it felt a lot less in the you’re screwed because someone rolled really well and more, well then I gotta make my dice better too which I liked. Long initial set-up… promises to be significantly less set-up the second time around. And my group wants to play again. We only lost one person to a cellphone during set-up. Once she understood the game, all in.
We’re finally getting around to a real Kingdom Death Monster campaign. No casualties in the opening fight, which was surprising. I’m debating about selling off some of the expansions though, as they’re worth quite a bit on eBay.
So my copy of Everdell has now been played 4 times, and I’ve only been in one of the games. It is easily my groups new favorite game of 2018 and I don’t see that stopping any time soon.
I also got to play a post campaign game of Charterstone twice this week. All of the stuff is basically spoiled for me, but that hasn’t dampened my desire to play a campaign myself. Looks like that might happen soon.
Yeah I had that same question 5 posts above. I haven’t played either edition but just reading the rules it seems like the 2nd took a lot out (most notably the faction with the lowest scorer doesn’t automatically lose…seems like it neutered an interesting mechanic).
Woops missed your post entirely. I trawled the BGG threads a bit for details but it seems like half the comments claim it’s barely changed and half claim it’s been completely gutted. Suppose I’d need to play it for myself if it’s that divisive.
