Junk Art, Condottiere, Dragon & Flagon, Flamme Rouge…
Skulls and Roses.
Just learn the rules and you can play it with a regular deck of cards. (I use number cards for roses and face cards for skulls. Keep aces and twos as score cards; upside down is no points, face up is one point; two points win).
Lost Cities is so good that non-gamers don’t even realize they have temporarily become gamers.
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I’d probably try a bluffing game, like Skull, Cockroach Poker, or Nessos. Very easy to learn, quick to play, and frequently dramatic. Roll-and-writes seem to be all the rage these days, and they seem like a good option because they’re fairly tolerant of table bumping and little hand interference. The only one I’ve actually played is Railroad Ink, but it was quite nice. Finally, Set is particularly interruption-tolerant, because people can join and leave in the middle of a hand without disrupting anyone else (and games usually only last five or ten minutes, anyway).
Finding myself a little obsessed with A Most Violent Year.
Rewatched it today, and found myself wishing I could design a similar opus in board game form: running a legitimate business against exterior threats like robbery, not just competition, and resisting the pull of bankruptcy, paying protection or otherwise invoking favours from organised crime, avoiding prosecution for crimes real or not, buying properties, making deals and just not getting murdered.
Thankfully, Forged in Steel exists and it gives me enough of the same feels to keep me happy for now.
The only economic CDG I can think of currently, you’re shaping the history of the town of Pueblo, Colorado. Made from a strong labour history perspective, you build the town, including industrial, commercial, and residential properties, win elections, try to keep unrest down or take advantage of it, build as few public amenities as you can get away with, and manipulate the headlines for your benefit. Events can chain, and you can draft and bank them for future usage. It doesn’t have the personal feel I’m after, as it takes place over decades, but it scratches most of the itch. The mixture of crime, business, and influence is what I like, I just want it on a smaller scale.
As of this week, Asmodee has changed their customer service policy:
https://www.asmodeena.com/en/customer-service-faq/
The summary is that they will no longer provide replacements for missing/damaged pieces in their games. A customer must resolve the issue via the retailer they bought the game from. And no, the retailers do not have any ability to provide missing pieces either.
Asmodee’s new “solution” is for the customer to return the entire game for a replacement or refund, for the retailer to request a replacement game from Asmodee, and when the retailer receives it, you can come on back to the store a third time to get your game (which may or may not be complete as well).
I think I’m all done with this company being in my hobby.
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Wow!
I don’t deal with Asmodee much on the table, but I’m immensely frustrated with their digital (lack of) effort. What a garbage move by a company intent on sinking the hobby via mediocrity.
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They can’t do that in Australia. You have consumer rights to resolve with the manufacturer as opposed to the retailer.
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Earlier this week I finally did my February 2020 “New to Me” games post.
I haven’t done a review in a while, but I’m glad I’m still keeping this series going. I need to get back to reviewing.
I’m in a similar funk to what Dave mentioned over at BGG, except that I haven’t lost my desire to write about games (and I haven’t lost the passion for euros). It’s just that I don’t feel the passion to work that hard at the writing part of it.
News posts are still easy for me, and the “new to me” posts are easier because I write them throughout the month.
Reviews?
Yeah, those are getting tough for me. I’m trying to get out of that funk.
We’ll see.
But until then, there’s the monthly “new to me” stuff. 
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Ok, after typing all of that, I decided to use my lunch break to actually get one of my reviews that’s been sitting in draft hell actually published.
It’s a Smash Up expansion review, so not the hardest review to do, but it’s a start.
I bring you…Smash Up: Awesome Level 9000!
Played Blood Rage tonight. Got thoroughly trounced. Then we played Champions of Midgard and I got thoroughly trounced. I’m starting to think playing against a neurologist is a little out of my depth…
Ecosystem - amazing little light drafter / table builder with a great nature theme.
Been playing with kids and wife. Even my 6 year old understand the concept, but gets clearly trounced. Games with my wife one on one are cutttroat!
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Clank! Legacy has been superb in my house. My son loves the game, and my daughter (who gets a bit stressed out by most games) loves reading the story bits and being the banker.
Also picked up Tank Duel recently, and have given that a solo whirl. First impression: it has all sorts of fiddle rules for unusual cases, but actually playing is usually super smooth and simple, and tells an engaging story.
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I’ve been wondering if that Clank! Legacy might end up being “The Gloomhaven my wife will actually play with me”.
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My very last game before I started social distancing here in the UK. Battlestar Galactica offers an intricate experience, slightly tricky to learn, but with more granular control than the likes of X-Wing. I’ve become infamous for my excellent piloting and terrible shooting in short order. The physics are surprisingly realistic, and it has plenty of optional rules if you want to up the complexity, including fuel limitations. Plays very quickly, so much so that I badly want to get more ships and up the size of the battles. The damage system offers a large pool to draw from, you can end up with anywhere between zero to 12 damage (when a ship’s damage limit is about 14 on average) from a hit, and things are never predictable as you can have an injured pilot, damaged engine, etc into the bargain. Rotating and shooting it out with someone on your six as your momentum carries you forwards is a brain changer.
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Plus it looks awesome!
I understand that the game is expandable, but it doesn’t reach the level of bloat/gouging that X-Wing does, does it? Fantasy Flight can be completely ridiculous…
It really does. The models are incredibly detailed.
Nope. So far I think there’s only 3-4 ship types per side, with few more to come, including the classic versions of the Viper and Raider. I’ve got the base set, Starbuck, and Scar, and that’s enough to have some really satisfying battles. I might buy some more ships, but I’d have to spend hundreds before coming close to my friend’s X-Wing collection.
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Still trying to keep up with the blog as much as possible.
Today’s post is a review of the Smash Up expansion, Monster Smash.
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Article in the New York Times from Matt Leacock, creator of Pandemic:
Yet every time you play, there’s one person who thinks they can.
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