I’ll just leave this here.
Well, it may not be pretty, but those charts do a really good job of telling you several salient bits of information at a glance. You’ll be able to see the current demand for the four goods, how close the workforce is to going up or down in wages, and everyone’s current goods quality. The game does one of the best jobs I’ve seen of modeling supply and demand on a board game.
There are also the individual player boards, equally as pragmatic in art design. Don’t let that fool you though just about everything you do has an impact on the economy and the other players should be very engaged in what the others are doing or else they are going to be in for some nasty surprises when production is tallied.
Arkwright is really well done. I enjoyed my play of it. I was worried it was going to be overly difficult but it wasn’t. I think the book keeping could be little overwhelming, but the person who owned the game handled that so it wasn’t bad. I only played the baby game even though I had read and watched the big boy game. Think it will be a better experience when you add everything in.
With excellent write-up like this I would actually want to read more! Thank you to everyone who has shared your experience here :). This is why this thread is better than all BGG threads combined. You peeps should get a fair share of commission when I buy Vinhos/Gallerist/Escape Plan.
I’m also sold on Arkwright. Looks like a fun tax filing session to do… right after I get back my tax refund.
Totally agree with all of this, including it being one of my top 5 games. BUT, when I got my copies of both games (Lancashire and Birmingham) from backing the KS, I kept Birmingham and gave away Lancashire, even though I think Lancashire is a tighter, more strategic game. The subtle changes in Birmingham make it slightly more open, slightly more comprehensible thematically, and slightly more consistent rules-wise. It’s easier to teach and easier for new players to understand strategically, thus it is also easier to get to the table. For online play, give me the tight strategic puzzle of Lancashire every time, but when sitting down around a physical table with friends, I’d rather have Birmingham.
I’ve always put my preference for Lancashire down to a soft spot for Preston North End FC.
I’ve only ever played the single player Brass app. Anyone here it play it at Order of the Hammer?
New for this week!
I think I’m going to pick up Space Gate Odyssey. I like the weird hybrid of worker placement/resource/puzzle thing they are going for. Cool looking pieces too.
Wow, I had no idea Ashes was still putting out decks. I really enjoyed the one game I played of it, and came really close at one point to jumping off the deep end and grabbing everything available at the time. But I had other stuff to play, and I’m always hesitant to grab a competitive LCG because I just don’t get many opportunities to play them.
Picked up LOTR Journeys a few days ago and haven’t had a chance to properly play it yet. Halfway through the first msision, things are pretty fun, and I like the variability you can get with the app. I’ve watched a few games of this first mission and none of them have the same map setup and there are multiple different search and exploration actions. Seems like there will be pretty good replayability not just for the party setup, but the actual missions.
Board games are Amazons dotd. I grabbed nyctophobia tho it wasn’t the best sale
Space Gate Odyssey looks interesting. I looked up the rules on the publisher’s website, but I got to page six, and they spell “lose” as “loose”. So, you know, obviously I can’t support that.
Charterstone digital up on Steam for early 2020 release
local MP only. What is this, the stone age?
Whaaaaat?
Yeah. If I want to play Charterstone against people in the same room as me… I can already do that. I use this clever technology called “Charterstone”.
Played Feast For Odin with The Norwegians expansion the other night. Overall, I liked it- there’s now variability in the islands, so that’s nice. And the new action boards (we played 3-player) seem like some nice balance changes, especially making livestock more viable. In fact, the pigs seem almost too good. They reproduce every turn, and their shape (ranked up to blue/green) makes them absurdly easy to slot into various boards to ensure bonus spaces aren’t covered. In fact, that ended up being my (winning) strategy- get pigs, ranked them/their offspring up, hit the new 3-Viking space that gives 2 U-shaped blue tiles (and a little 2-spacer to go between them) over and over, and then just messed around getting other stuff- raiding, trading, boats, etc. Final scores were 134, 99, 78.
I was pretty skeptical of Blood on the Clocktower earlier, and I’m not a social deduction game fan in general, but the BOTC crew put up some live playthrough videos (with helpful onscreen annotation) here:
and my goodness, the appeal became so much clearer, especially after they demonstrated the Sects and Violets playset. I’m still not going to buy in because it’s too expensive for a game that demands a group larger than I can field regularly (or probably at all, outside of conventions), but it sure was fun to watch.
There’s a solo variant for Fallen Land.