| Title | Qt3 Boardgames Podcast: Lost Ruins of Arnak, Pax Transhumanity, Root |
| Author | Tom Chick |
| Posted in | Games podcasts |
| When | March 19, 2021 |
Mike Pollmann is raiding tombs, Tom Chick is syndicating Eternal Love, and Hassan Lopez is worshipping a lizard in the garden..
Saw Root and had to listen! While I don’t normally do this, i found a fellow who posted strategy guides titled stuff like “WA puzzle” or “Marquise puzzle”, etc. and was pretty impressed with stuff that would not had even occurred to me strategy wise…it made me load up the app and get some easy wins against the AI (i guess that’s were those “AI sucks! TOO EASY!” complaints came from xD).That said, I’m super curious if some of those high level plays, or just having 1 or 2 real solid strategic/tactical nuggets would make for a neat spin on whatever meta you’re currently in.
For me, the game’s always been theme 1st.One game, I think i replayed this weird quasi pre-romanized jesus period peace, where my younger nephew’s vagabond allied with the “cool uncle” (grumble grumble) who was manning the lizards (religious zealots and their messiah), while i tried to hold off the eyrie with the marquise in futility. Game was super tipped for the coalition (my blunted bro was just getting to grips with the game and had enough fun putting the pressure on me) and the lizards did this big reveal that scored them dozens of points (lol).
Super fun stuff! Lots of laughs for a game that was a bear of a teach. As the frontlines of the marquise/eyrie war where seeing cats deserting towards the call of the new messiah, as the death squads that i tried to send out to send him back into hiding failed…yeah, super memorable stuff.
Otherwise, the hirelings had essentially killed off my motivation to invest in the rest of the bots (clockwork 2) for lower player count games. I know that there’s a cooperative mode to be had, but I’ll probably just use the clockwork1 expansion as a means to teach the game for those who i think might have a misguided misapprehension for the game.
Ha! The AI for cats, WA, and Vagabond are serviceable, but the comp can’t play birds at all. Tells you something about how challenging it is to play the Eyrie! Lately, no one in my group has wanted to play them because they’re just so demanding/tiring.
That totally makes sense to me. It’s an incredibly thematic game, for also being mechanically intricate. The Otters especially are a hilariously thematic faction to include, since the Otter-player is constantly trying to peddle his wares and strike bargains, and some of the factions (e.g. Lizards) really benefit from their presence and will typically make a fast alliance.
I would recommend Pax Porfiriana to Hassan, but I’m biased. It’s one of my favorite games.
I’d like to have Tom teach me ‘Transhumanity’. I’ve had it since release and still haven’t played it, mostly because I haven’t had a group for that sort of game. The rules are a bit of a rough read for sure. Teaching it would really suck.
Enjoyed the Root talk. Definitely agree that the Steam version is excellent.
80% of the words I did not understand
I think i replayed this weird quasi pre-romanized jesus period peace
As the frontlines of the marquise/eyrie war where seeing cats deserting towards the call of the new messiah, as the death squads that i tried to send out to send him back into hiding failed
fun read nevertheless
Beyond Transhumanity, this is the Pax game that has called out to me - largely because my father is a historian with some expertise in Mexican history. Seems like a very interesting and unique time period to set a board game in. What do you like most about it?
I like the gameplay, which is tableau based, but there are plenty of F you opportunities against your opponents – it’s in no way just some multiplayer solitaire type of thing. (the downside is you have to watch the tableaus of the other players, but I find it’s a worthwhile tradeoff for this game)
Most of all, I like the historical period vibe of the game. A lot of clip art is used on the cards, but it all works for me. The design is essentially a faster and simpler card based translation of Eklund’s old “Lords of the Sierra Madre” boardgame. I liked the game so much that I started reading a lot of books on this subject.
I just think it’s kind of a genius design. I like all the “Pax” games I’ve played, but this is my favorite.
I think that probably just touches upon the fact that i don’t know what i’m talking about xD
That said, I did manage to find the book that informed my projection onto this particular game:
“Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus Nazarath” by Reza Aslan.
It goes something like: Two thousand years ago, an itinerant Jewish preacher walked across the Galilee, gathering followers to establish what he called the “Kingdom of God.” The revolutionary movement he launched was so threatening to the established order that he was executed as a state criminal. Within decades after his death, his followers would call him God.
yeah, very great chance that i didn’t get a good takeaway from it myself (especially when you factor in that this is a recollection from someone who hasn’t before or since read a book on the subject matter).
In my mind, I feel like it sort of showcases the brilliance of the game design in it’s ability to have players project their weird schemas onto what’s happening on the board. As another example, the moles are totally post ww2 United States of America for me xD. Again, probably another aspect of history that i have a weird schema about (for instance, I see western civilization as a quasi-oligarchy establishing bases around the globe in order to keep it’s position in the present geo-politics).
But i can totally imagine a more well read historian finding little nuggets from the gameplay. Which makes Root interestingly relatable to both those with an accurate and coherent view on history and those that are less so (me) :P
I’ve had Lost Ruins of Arnak for awhile, but haven’t had a group to play it with, so I decided to bust it out and try the solitaire game, just to learn the mechanics.
After reading the rules and punching/sorting the pieces, I started to worry that the game had a few too many elements–sometimes a sign that either the designer had too many ideas they wouldn’t get rid of, or the had holes they needed to patch in the design.
I was pleasantly surprised that the mechanics are actually pretty economical for as much… stuff as there is in the box. Most resources have one or two applications, and they’re pretty intuitive. The most unusual mechanics–the magnifying glass and notebook markers, assistants, etc.–are generally worth what they add in overhead. The idols are a maybe the one element that feels a little sloppy to me, but I get why they’re there, as a reward for exploring and an economic wild card when you really need it.
What’s really fun in the game is the way the turns unspool from your cards and the opportunities on the board. I’m sure it will engender some analysis paralysis from certain players, since the order in which you do things can be very critical, but you also make your moves one step at a time, so once you commit to something, you just have to do the best you can on the next move.
The solitaire bot is fine. Like most bots, it doesn’t play the game, but simply generates points at a certain rate and blocks you at random places on the board to force you to worry about the timing of your moves (“Can I wait two turns before I take that worker spot, or is he going to steal it from me?”). It’s not the same as having an opponent, but that’s because you don’t have an opponent!
Couple other observations: The board is LONG. Also, very pretty. And the turn marker that moves and changes the ratio of artifacts to items over the course of the game is really elegant and clever.
Anyway, looking forward to when game nights can resume because I think my crew will like this one.
If we’re talking about games doing interesting things with deckbuilding mechanics i’ll bring up Time of Crisis again.
https://www.gmtgames.com/p-704-time-of-crisis-2nd-printing.aspx
Because the draw really isn’t a draw in the conventional sense (you are allowed to pick which cards to use in the next hand from any in the ‘draw pile’) the cards are a stand in for what would be, in any other strategy game, a series of resources scattered over the player board. I really like it.
I’m glad Cole Wehrle’s name is coming up again here. I really like his designs and I think that Pax Pamir is the best designed game in the Pax series. I really love the ‘chrome’ in the 2nd edition and can’t wait to drum up some players for that. He also has a second edition of John Company on the way and I am very excited for that. Tom and Bruce did a great interview with him a few years back and If I had any kind of vote or editorial pull I’d push for a follow up conversation here. Cole’s career in games had come a long way since then and I really like his approach to design. Oh yeah there’s this Oath thing I have to check back in on…
In my first game of Pax Porfiriana, the FBI nationalized the ostrich farms.