I’d say “plays slow” is fair.
CW is an interesting design, but it was more fun in 1980. By breaking the turns into periods that represent one-fifth of a second (and it used to be one-tenth!), it just becomes slow and tedious, especially if That Guy With Analysis Paralysis is in the room.
That said, it has a devoted audience, and it’s very well-supported by SJG.
It’s been a busy month!
I posted two reviews along with an app review.
Nagaraja is an excellent 2-player game that’s kind of push your luck, where you both play explorers trying to take relics worth a certain amount of points from a temple (you each have your own temple to explore).
Also the latest Smash Up expansion, World Tour: Culture Shock. Another great selection of factions (though if you hate the game, this one won’t do anything to change your mind).
Finally, wasn’t sure where to put this one but the Steam (and iOS Arcade and Switch) app Neo Cab is actually a great game. Called an “Emotional Survival” game, you’re a Neo Cab driver (think Lyft or Uber) who is moving to the big city to be with your best friend but ends up getting involved in a conflict involving a big corporation and anti-technology zealots. Most of the fun of the game is in your dealing with your passengers, but the game is pretty well written and very fun (with multiple endings).
This has been a great year for board games. As always, far too many to play, and I fear the hobby turnover is such greats are not just not getting the chance to establish themselves as classics, they’re getting ignored entirely, but I’ve got my Dune and my Pax Pamir and I am a happy camper. I finally got my hands on Imperium (the best Dune game that isn’t Dune), and added so many good games to my shelves: Duhr - The Lesser Houses, Path of Light and Shadow, Lifeform, Chaosmos, Legends Untold, and others. An embarrassment of riches.
I am looking forward to next year, although it looks like that will mean a new gaming group as I’m likely moving.
Oh, my brother got a game called Champions of Midgard, and although it straight up calls itself a worker placement game, it was maybe the most enjoyable and thematic example of one of those I have ever played. Worked well for two people!
Yes, great game! The Valhalla expansion is also great. I believe there is an iOS version being made.
If I had a dollar for every time I heard that!
I posted my Top 10 Games played in 2019. Out of 107 games played, these were the best 10.
Thoughts? What would be in your top 10?
I’ve finally got a copy of Watergate, so I’m looking forward to that. The Networks is a really solid title. Terraforming Mars is still one of my most-played games, not even solely due to the expansions. It’s the robust, flexible design that keeps on giving. Tyrants of the Underdark is a gem. Pax Pamir is my GOTY. Time of Crisis I want the expansion for, badly.
My Dune group looks like a natural fit for The King’s Dilemma; a council of nobles steering a kingdom through disaster legacy game, so that begins soon.
Wow, we are totally sympatico, aren’t we? LOL
My group isn’t really good for story and legacy games, so the King’s Dilemma would be out for us. But I’ve heard it’s fantastic if you are into it.
Love this one.
Getting ready to teach and play my first game of Die Macher tonight. Worried about the teach. A lot to cover and my group generally reacts poorly to new games. I’m forging ahead anyway, dammit.
Best of luck, mate. New version or old?
The new one. Just arrived yesterday.
I don’t know this game, but BGG describes it (roughly) as a tableau builder where the cards you purchase can change the board state. Even though this is a vague description, it sounds like it has some similarities to Terraforming Mars? Can you give a nice pithy comparison, or describe how the “feel” different?
It doesn’t feel like terraforming Mars to me. It’s fairly unique, which is typical of a Cole Wehrle design. It reminded me of John Company mixed with something like Concordia. It’s obtuse, yet everything makes sense.
They can change the board state, but there’s nothing that’s permanent. Cards can be used to add armies, roads, tribes, spies, earn money, march, fight, take prizes and gifts, betray heroes, and even swap your loyalty between coalitions. It’s nothing like TFM, aside from the fact it has cards. It’s very mean, and intensely competitive. You can scrape the board clean of an opponent and he can return with spies and betray your cards, paralysing you. You can tax your opponents until they have no money at all and force them to only take free cards from the market. You can join an opponent’s coalition when a victory check comes around to avoid defeat, then jump ship to another coalition in order to win.
That sounds awesome!
It’s a regular stabathon. It takes a few games to learn to be properly flexible, but there’s all kinds of stuff you can do in response to any opponent’s strategy. You can win via force, or via your economy, or take cards hostage with spies and taking them prisoner if they don’t earn you anything, be a magnanimous ruler and let others play in regions you rule (for a fee), make alliances and break them just as quickly. Had three games today, I won one via strangling an opponent financially, won another by mobilising local tribes to fight alongside my armies, and lost a third when my opponent went all-out military and crushed everything I had and romped into a victory check.
Why more games with multiple sides don’t have faction-swapping I’ll never know. It’s an innovation lots of games should incorporate, and it’s really fitting here, where you’re playing local Afghans trying to guess which way the wind will blow.
