I’ve actually played 4 of those 5. I feel like I’ve arrived!
No Thanks is an awesome game.
The only game I haven’t played is Unmatched.
1 Like
I’ve been playing Marvel Champions solo and am quite enjoying it. I’ve tried a number of LCG-style solo/co-op games and Marvel is this far the smoothest and least fiddly of the bunch, which means I can get a game up and running quickly and don’t need to reference the rule book repeatedly. The game doesn’t have the narrative of something like Arkham Horror, nor does it have the depth that came from some of the cool systems like the locations, so it definitely has a different feel - more like playing a quick game of Magic. I believe there have been some expansions that add a more narrative campaign but I’m still on the core set.
Speaking of core sets, I think this is the first time FFG has made an LCG where you really do have everything you need in a single box without the need to buy multiples of product to properly deck build.
Good stuff.
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Posted my review of Shards of Infinity. Not the app version, though I should do that soon.
This is for the game itself.
And I’ll be doing the expansion sometime in the next week or two.
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“Make sure you don’t accidentally banish the Infinity Shard, like I did one time. Oops.”
Been there too, my friend… been there too…
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I suppose that line would probably more fit the app review. LOL
The only time I’ve done that was when I got moving too fast and didn’t realize I had just played a “banish” card. I was trying to play the shard but instead it banished it.
Won’t happen on the table, that’s for sure!
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Yes, the app has gotten me like that before. Possibly more than once. I plead the fifth.
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Finally (after beginning the series on August 2), the final entry in the BGG Top 200.
So let’s start the Top 300! 
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The physical game I played most last year was honestly 42. We have a regular foursome that gets together monthly for beer, pizza, and dominoes. In fact, we have a game set for tonight.
Aside from that, my wife really likes Splendor. And Monopoly. LOL.
Got thrown into a seven-person game of Advanced Civilization. The first session (via VASSAL and Discord) went very smoothly, but now we have serious trading and calamities to worry about, so things will slow down significantly. Still a great game. Of course, Knossos hasn’t been nuked by an earthquake or volcano yet.
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Posted my review of the base game for Legendary: Marvel. The semi-cooperative deckbuilding game.
Mainly so I can review a bunch of the expansions and I don’t have to include the “how to play” part.
The biggest problem with Marvel is set up and tear down. But it is sure a lot of fun.
Especially when you have multiple expansions like I do.
I now have 3 boxes!
Played The Wars of Marcus Aurelius for the first time. In my research deciding whether to buy it, I ran across a little more strategy than intended. That, combined with good fortune in my card draw, made the first win feel surprisingly easy. I’ll give it at least a few more plays, because I’m reading Goldsworthy’s Pax Romana as a companion and it’ll mean more to me once i have more context, and also because I expect it to be harder most of the time. Even with a strong basic strategy, there are lots of tactical decisions which I found finely balanced, and the counters and board are lovely. The thickness and linen finish on the counters is so nice I actually enjoy them, whereas I usually try to replace cardboard tokens in games I intend to play more than a few times, I dislike them so. I don’t have a great table for solo gaming under plexiglass at the moment, and the paper map is so nice and thick that it holds a crease really well, so that required careful anti-folding, but it’s also got that pleasing feel.
Game does a great job of putting the complexity in the cards rather than the rules, though; not bad to learn at all, though I do feel like they could have done better with play aids. But there are good ones on BGG and I have a printer.
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I love Goldsworthy and Pax Romana is a really interesting book.
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Finally my actual physical copy arrived.
It’s not optimal at 2P but quite frankly I don’t care. Three months of waiting and I got to play with the cardboard version at last. It’s wonderful. Chaotic and messy and a lot of fun.
Also broke into Brides and Bribes, which is also not at its best at 2P, but is my favourite type of Euro, with lots of stabbing, betrayal, poisoning, and plan-ruining.
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It’s only my second my him, but the first struck me as really well done. I was looking to learn whether the tactics used during the Punic Wars were interesting enough that I’d want to play a game based on them. Ended up feeling like I loved reading the book, and it gave me just the sort of information I wanted and a whole lot more I quite enjoyed, but decided to pass on the game. Which, sadly, is great, because I still don’t have a game partner I’d have played it with.
That said, the pandemic hit at just the right time for me to appreciate that. For years, I’ve been feeling like I was just waiting for the kids to be old enough for me to start my life-after-young-kids for real. Now they are, and I noticed that what I was really aiming at this whole time was to be okay with it once they started breaking away from me to be with their friends (and thereby give them permission/encouragement to do so). But that can’t really happen right now, so I’m getting lots more time with them just when I’d have expected them to start wanting to abandon me, and it’s fucking great. Sure, I’ll try to have a decent second act career, and make friends with whom I can really explore the intellectual challenges and joys of the sorts of games I love best. Eventually. But I love my kids; I’ve never wanted anything so much as to be a dad, and now I’m getting a little more of that (without having to cope with another baby, which I understand is a technically possible way to get more dad years). If this had happened five years ago, the loss of relief from their needs would have driven me bananas. But, now, it’s the fulfillment of a wish I would never even have been willing to acknowledge because it would have been so selfish to want to stunt their social growth just so they would have to spend more time with me.
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I played a game of Indiana Jones - loot temples.
I think it’s called Ruins of Arnak?
Anyways, heaps of fun
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In WA, we had a 5 day lockdown for a single case… which ended on Friday, meaning we could play our scheduled game on Saturday!! Yay!!!
Not sure if you have heard of it, but it’s called Twilight Imperium and it was the first time my wife and I had played, in a group of 5.
We settled in, I took Barony of Letnev and my entire strategy was blitzkreig, and hope the table were so uselessly pacifist that I could get an insurmountable lead before they turned on me.
Turns out, 4v1 is impossible, so after getting within striking distance I crumbled, losing pretty much everything including my home system and settled for a lonely 4th.
That said, brilliant game that I can’t wait to play again.
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