Welcome to Qt3 and thanks for the write up.
I’ve been curious about Victorian Masterminds and now I really want to play it. Fun, approachable and in pursuit of villainous victory? Sounds awesome!
Oh, Wingspan looks interesting, thanks for sharing. I’ve got a brother who is a bird watcher/photographer. That might make the perfect gift for him.
Wow, you really do hate Wingspan! If no one else takes you up on that, which they totally should, put me in line for the offer.
-Tom
I’ll flip Tom for it! I’ve played 3x and would love my own copy.
More Nemo’s War, this time on Officer difficulty. Defeat!
I’m not sure I see how it’s possible to win with the two “peaceful” motives. You’re under the exact same pressure to keep the board clear of ships, only you have half the notoriety limit. I don’t see any way to avoid losing to ships filling up the board unless you sink so many that you hit the notoriety limit and lose. You can get -10 notoriety for uprisings but then you’re out of cubes. Do you just hope you get extremely lucky with the 11+ incite roll for -2 notoriety each? Intentionally go for lull turns to crush uprisings and get more cubes back?
I’m finding it weird that the monstrous design upgrade (whatever the one is that avoids notoriety from attacks) goes with the “War!” motive, but you desperately need it much more for the peaceful motives.
You agree with Tony!
I think he said the peaceful motives can’t reach the same high point totals that the hostile motives can. I can’t even finish the game with the peaceful motives.
The only strategy I can think of is never clearing a single civilian ship (except slavers), waiting until they’re all flipped to warships. A space can “absorb” up to 3 placements (empty -> hidden -> civilian -> flipped warship). You can try maximizing “placements per notoriety” by only targeting warships, but that’s a huge additional risk both in being damaged and in waiting until the last possible second to clear oceans.
The hostile motives are just so much simpler. You’re not at the total mercy of ship draws and adventure draws the way that peaceful motives are, and have a much clearer picture for long term planning.
I think every Stonemaier game has a solo variant included. They seem to be quite keen on that.
Has anyone played Uboot yet? I WANT, but know it won’t get played enough.
RE: Champions of Hara
Okay, now that I’ve played it once, I see what you mean. It’s a lot like Mage Knight, but minus the stuff that makes Mage Knight one of the worst games of all time. I’m still trying to process the “economy” here – all I can tell at this point is that each character’s color determines his or her main attack spells – but it’s full of personality whereas Mage Knight is just dry Teutonic clockwork. Ooooh, that artwork, so much color and character! And you’re right about the flow. The rulesbook is a bit obtuse, but this flow chart helped quite a bit. Thanks for bringing this one up!
-Tom
I just finished punching out the components for Brewcrafters.
I guess I should have sorted the enormous amounts of tokens a bit better, there were 10 bags left after I finished. I have no idea if it is a good game, but it was on clearance and seemed like a good thematic game for when we brew.
I have gotten saddled with so many bad to middling games because they were on clearance. What I need to keep telling myself is that it’s on clearance for a reason. I hope Brewmasters turns out to be one of the exceptions!
-Tom
Preach it brother.
Me:
I’m looking forward to your review! There’s a copy on the shelf at the FLGS, and every time I have to stop myself from snagging it.
Glad to be of service! I’m sure we’d all love to hear more of your thoughts if you ever have the time to share them. I’m hoping to get in more play tomorrow!
EDIT: The other “economic” thing, which you may already know, is that when you max out your fighter’s main color, you get to grab a use of their Ultimate ability. For anyone who doesn’t know, Ultimates are powerful 1-shot abilities, but they can be earned in multiple ways. You might earn one use on day 2 by maxing your preferred ability color, and then your scenario might give it back on day 3, for instance, allowing for multiple uses. This can be very powerful, and is the sort of thing that should play a role as one of the factors that governs what you go after on the board.
I took him up on it but happy to bring it up your way sometime for a game night if you want to try it out!
I have tried it out! I wasn’t as crazy about it as a couple of the others in our group, but it’s pretty charming and it’s got a lot going for it considering it’s one of those barely interactive economic tableau games. But if you ever want to play boardgames with us, feel free to bring it. @ChristienMurawski will jump up and down and clap his hands with glee.
-Tom
My buddy 3D printed me trays for Everdell. They rock.
Finally got to play betrayal at house on the hill. Loved it. Will do betrayal Legacy soon.
Tried Broom Service. Had seen raves for it. Haaaaaated it. The map sucks, doubly so for the colorblind.
In a second Charterstone group now. On to final game with the first and we did first three matches in one night with the second. I know it’s not everyone’s jam but I really dig it
We finally got around to playing Pendragon: The Fall of Roman Britain. I played one trial game while I was in Canada, but this time I played the Barbarians. I failed my reading comprehension test on some all of the actions, though, so it really didn’t go well.
It felt a lot less fiddly this time around, and I really enjoy the flow of the game that the event deck makes. The asymmetry is also good. I am looking forward to playing a 4 player game or using the NPC rules instead of each player controlling two factions, that will probably feel like a completely different game.
Anybody played Feudum? I love the look of the game and there’s a new kickstarter up, but I want to hear some opinions from trusted people before I jump into it.