Undaunted NA is even better, it’s got the asymmetry that should have been there in the first place.
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Went camping this weekend and played some games. Broke out a bunch of old Magic decks, which never fails to entertain me; played some of the newer Neroshima Hex armies, which were hit or miss (in a 3-player game, which is a bit wonky already).
We also played Black Orchestra and while we all loved it we beat it way too easily. We won in the second stage and didn’t even get to experience the fun of gestapo raids or imprisonment and interrogation. We played on standard, too, so not even the easiest. We had a really strong turn with the one character that has an extra plot die, who also had the airplane card, and we were able to contribute a card that gave two more plot die, plus two cards that let you reroll a die. And Hitler was at 3 military. I’ll take the win but I wanted to see a whole lot more of the game.
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Twilight Struggle and Root. Had a solid game of TS teaching a new player. Not a lot in it for me, but I just enjoy sharing the game. Root 2P was still a blast but the Eyrie got into their steep power curve and ran away with it.
Perhaps I’m just not very good with the Moles, that’s certainly possible, but it’s easy to see why some combinations aren’t recommended.
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I love the moles, but I can never get even close with them!
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Way late, but here’s the latest installment of my look at the Top 200 games on BGG.
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Very happy to get some Hands in the Sea played. A 2P deckbuilding wargame, I got to play Rome and started immediately trashing Sicily with my legion (I only had the one) while Carthage dominated the seas. I was lucky in that their navy was wiped out twice by the event deck, but I still couldn’t retain naval superiority, and Sardinia/Corsica was entirely under Cathaginian sway by the time we finished. I never lost a land battle, although a few were stalemates, and I had a lot of fun digging out useful cards from the empire deck, and creating nifty loops and re-ups allowing me to draw more and dig through my discards. After getting pillaged by the Carths entirely too much, I also picked up some more ship cards and fortified some coastal towns to insulate myself, then boosted my hand size to ensure I always had a spare card to block pillage attempts, then bought up mercenary cavalry and light infantry in order to carry out widespread raids against Carth towns. Part of the genius of the game is allowing you a hand of 5 which you draw up to at the end of your turn, but during you can use other cards to draw more than that, and store cards in your reserve and bring those out for a price, enlarging your hand further, but you only have two actions a turn, and discarding a card is an action, so it’s possible to fill your hand with crap, or just the wrong cards, and then struggle to mill through them. The economic side takes some careful handling as lots of projects need funding, and most cards need to be purchased from your empire deck. Had a blast.
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I was at Target yesterday and saw Gloomhaven there! I was shocked, knowing how hard it is to find and what a special game it was supposed to be. Then I realized it was Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, a stand-alone game and expansion to Gloomhaven. It has a little simpler rule set.
Has anyone played this? Are there strategic decisions to be made or is it just hack and slash? Are the scenarios different or does it feel like you are playing the same game over again and again?
I’m thinking about getting this to play with my 15 year old who loves playing DnD with his friends.
It’s got a better introduction to the system than Gloomhaven, but neither is an RPG or even at all similar. It’s 95% tactical combat, more akin to something like Final Fantasy Tactics. Very good system and the scenarios are well-designed, GH’s got a little repetitive and didn’t have enough variety.
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4 playable characters who are well recieved by the community and who can be used in Gloomhaven.
Story is good. You have some choices in where to go, so from the 25 available missions you play around 20 in a campaign playtru.
The first 5 missions are a tutorial and people are very enthusiastic about it. Other games should do the same! After those 5 missions it is for 95% the full gloomhaven experience. You gain coins and xp which you can use to upgrade your character (buy items and unlock cards/attack deck modifiers)
Biggest change is the book you play on instead of laying tiles to play on. Set up is quicker, art around the tiles is more immersive and fitting the mission. There is a supplemental book so you can have bigger maps then 2 A4’s.
So it is a great game and well worth the money in my opinion. It teaches the rules very well. If you like it you can always buy Gloomhaven or the upcoming Frosthaven.
There is also a forteller app (paid) wich plays the story bits with some background sounds and people often use the gloomhaven helper app (free), but those are not needed if you dont want any devices on table while playing boardgames.
By the way, it was a Target-exclusive game for a short period of time. It is available world-wide atm, but out of stock outside the US most of the time because of the high demand, as far as I know.
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Three weeks in a row I’ve posted an installment! I think that’s a record for me lately.
#160-151 now!
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We played Welcome to Dino World last night. Roll and Writes aren’t my favorite genre, but my wife loves them and I can sometimes get my kids engaged. My wife, my 7 year old, and I played the basic version of the game and it was fun but not especially memorable. You roll the dice, draw little dino pens and paths, and try to meet your scoring objectives. I have hopes that the danger version, with power loss, outbreaks, etc. is a little more interesting.
That said, my son loved building a dino park, so that is always an automatic win in my books.
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That’s awesome that you can play a family game like that. I don’t really like roll and writes that much, especially if you’re drawing things and not just filling in numbers.
But I can see the attraction! Especially if family members like them.
One of the nice things the genre brings to family games is that usually everyone is working on something at the same time. Limited downtime is always a plus with the kids.
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Ohhhhh.
Played some Camel Up with the kids because teaching kids how to gamble always seems like a good idea. The game can be wacky but it is fun, and easy to learn that you can bring it to any family gathering for some laughs.
Also played The Crew…for about 6 straight hours. The game is so brilliant and it is mind boggling that it took someone this long to make such a simple but significant twist to the Spades formula. The biggest problem for me is that as a long-time fan of Spades, I really had to change the way I think to complete some of these missions. Highly recommended, and at $15, I anticipate getting way more value for my money than any other games I own.
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Picked up Omen and Shards of Infinity, either of which would be enough for any man seeking a 2P duel game. Very satisfied.
Looking at getting into Unmatched for more 2P goodness, anyone got experience, principally Cobble & Fog?
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Shards of Infinity is awesome, especially with the first expansion (which actually gives you a reason to have your main faction).
But even the base game by itself is very good.
Don’t know about the others, but Omen intrigued me when it was on Kickstarter last.
I got Relics of the Future as well, which we haven’t even touched yet!
Omen I was lucky to get as a bundle, with Gifts of the Gods, Fires in the East, all thrown in. It’s an exercise in how much you can pack in to a small box game.
My future looks to be 2P heavy until things change.
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Preorders went up for Wingspan - Oceanic today… so I ordered two 