Maybe try Captain Sonar instead? Not solitaire, of course.
I don’t mean to be a punk in this, but I am confused. From this very thread my interest in Planet Apocalypse got pretty high but then I saw the prices were even higher. I played it a bit on TTS and enjoyed it, but the break moment for me was when I came to feel that the game was totally devoid of any art at all and looks like a prototype rather than a $600+ game. It seems like it is all text and giant blobby miniatures. Is this art praise for the monster design of the miniatures (which are definitely unique and weird)? Otherwise, I don’t see any art in the game at all. Like I said, I liked the game, but the lack of presentation was a turn off for me.
It’s mainly monster and character design, yes. Although personally I really like the graphic design on the various demon-related boards and sheets and such. The actual game board and the character boards (characters themselves aside)…yeah, those could stand to be better. But those demons are freaky as hell and I love it and it was why I bought the game, honestly. It turns out it’s also a better game design than I would have expected, although I certainly expected to enjoy it on a basic beer and pretzels sort of level.
Keep in mind that the fidelity on TTS is necessarily limited, also.
Finally, I pulled out Journeys in Middle-Earth. I like it good enough, but it happened, what always happens with games I like, that have miniatures. I have to paint them! But there are so many, 30+ I finished two orcs and a warg. I will play and paint as I need them. Next I have to paint Bilbo, Aragorn and Gimli, my classic party. How can they fight orcs unpainted?? And they are pretty good minis, even compared to Games Workshop minis. At least I did not need to assemble them. They are pretty sharp and have fine details. It will take me months to get through the campaign…arrgh
I never finished painting the new Silver Tower miniatures. Assembling them was so much work, never played the game, I heard it is great. But great, great minis, so many sharp, distinct details.
And don’t mention War of the Ring. Great game, but 100+ minis. I painted 20. Never played it. Winter cannot come soon enough, more time to paint…
My “does not require a lot of set up” solitaire cup suddenly runneth over. Gamers in my board gaming circles have been selling their solitaire games at prices I can’t quite pass up.
A week or so ago, I got Mythos Tales (mentioned in the other thread). I since learned that playing it after midnight when you are tired will make you miss obvious connections between clues and score terribly on case number 2. ;(
Today, these 2 packages were delivered:
So games requiring slightly less unrelenting focus, I hope. I now get to try and escape alive from a dungeon where my party wiped in Unbroken. Scrounging for resources, relying on a fair bit of luck and trying to survive the boss fights.
I also get to solve strange murders as HP Lovecraft in Arkham Noir: Case #1 – The Witch Cult Murders. Set collection, while keeping an eye on the in game clocks and investigator stability running out.
The real treat with this one was belatedly realising I missed 2 cool videos where Tom explained how to lose at the game and then played it. Awesome.
I’m kinda sorry I didn’t get to see the candlelit trench coat version though. :)
I had originally bought the Arkham Horror LCG for that purpose, but never quite found the time to play it much. And it turns out my wife has taken to it. So now we are going through the core box, and will soon be launching into The Dunwich Legacy cycle together. If it’s anything like the core box, it will end up with me dead and insane at the same time, while her urchin runs around town pursued by big bads.
Notice the candlewax impervious cards, Tom. ;)
But, hey, I hear The Dunwich Legacy is good. So we are looking forward to it.
One of the few silver linings to come out of this hellhole of a year is that it has brought to my attention a lot of games that can be played solo or as a couple. And I think game designers are paying a lot more attention to solo modes going forward.
And in the game
Ha! I think you have my 2020 year in review pretty well summed up.
Got to try it tonight and it’s a neat little game! I like the way the cards you play on a case tell a mini story that you get to build up in your head.
Alas, while I solved the case of Frank Elwood’s murder with a ceremonial knife, his friend Arsenath Waite’s disappearance from the Miskatonic library remains a mystery.
And the strain of my discoveries while investigating a child’s disappearance near Meadow Hill eventually proved too much for me when I met a monster.
I lost to a stability check, but getting there was a nice little puzzle.
Sundays are for going insane or dying to scary monsters.
My investigator dove back into Arkham Noir: Case #1 – The Witch Cult Murders tonight, determined to solve the case before the perpetrators of those seasonal murders disappeared for another year and the trail grew cold.
Unfortunately, he wasted time assembling the big picture behind the crimes (got 2 suspect puzzle pieces instead of a different type of clue). His frantic search for the final piece of the puzzle led him on a wild chase started by a mysterious phone call. The ensuing discoveries unsettled him enough that, by the time the dark man of the with cult showed up, his already frayed nerves gave up and the case ended in failure.
I enjoy the puzzle in the game a lot. But I find that I really focus on the icons, card links, set building and often forget to tell the accompanying story in my head. When I look back after, I can then appreciate the details of the case. So it doesn’t detract, but it keeps the game quite abstract.
Next, I travelled to a grim fantasy world where my party and I got attacked in the depths of a dungeon. With all my party dead, my equipment destroyed and only my bare hands and a bit of willpower left, I set out to emerge from the depths and avenge them in Unbroken.
The game makes such a great initial impression on the table. It takes no time to set up. the double layered resource management boards are great. The art on the cards is grim and evocative. And the sense of hopelessness and scrounging for every resource before time runs out permeates the resource management based gameplay. And it all fits in a tiny box.
The set up literally takes a couple of minutes and you are off for an ascent from the bowels of a murderous dungeon. Each floor is a race against time to find the resources you need to gather energy and equipment to fight the floor boss. Take too long, and they ambush you, leading to unpleasant consequences.
Your energy throughout the run is called Effort. It’s hard to come by, hard to upgrade to more powerful versions and will also deplete if you can’t feed yourself after a boss fight. Run out of effort and you die.
And I did. Twice. :)
My Sage character was cunning. Armed with her spear, she made it all the way to the final boss. But cunning is no protection against poisonous Wyverns. And so she died within a throw of the spear of the exit.
On my next run, my Huntress was good at making sure she was well provisioned with food. But, for 2 levels, she struggled to upgrade her weapon and fought bare handed. By the end of the 3rd level, she was finally wielding a frightful maul when a Minotaur (a creature which painfully counters advanced weapons) cut short her attempt to escape.
It is a shame that the game is mired in the aftermath of the Kickstarter debacle. It’s been review bombed on BGG. However, the game underneath all that controversy is gritty, easy to bring to the table, looks great and has some clever resource management mechanics with a dollop of luck on top. It plays quickly though. So I don’t see some swinginess as a terrible issue personally. It’s a game that will hit my table again for sure.
Unbroken just felt like rote slider management to me. I never got caught up or even sold on what it was trying to present. It was a thinly veiled exercise in “move this cube two spaces to the left to move that slider one space to the right”. I pretty quickly felt like I’d seen all it was ever going to show me. :(
-Tom
Yeah, this is my feeling, still pull it out now and then for a quick delve. And also feel its a shame about the review bombing. I met the designer at Pax Unplugged in 2018 and he was a real nice guy and very happy to chat.
Erm… What game is it?
Seems interesting. But I have no clue.
7th Continent! I am definitely about to die.
Interesting. I’ve only ever seen the box. Didn’t realise it was using that kind of cartoony art.
What did I say? Sundays are for doing in solo games. Hope you go out in a flash of glory.
GMT Games, makers of grognardian games and also Navajo Wars, announced yesterday that it has launched a solo-only studio, called GMT One. The announcement is strangely not on their blog nor on their main page or anywhere on their site but buried in the middle of their latest email newsletter:
I really like Field Commander Napoleon…
The announcement reads like they won’t be doing new games, just making solo add-ons for existing mutliplayer-only games.
You could be right, but that seems a narrow thing do create a separate studio for.
Command and Colours Solo Module available for P500 pre-order now…