Lucky duck.
I suppose I can’t complain, I got my hands on the recent edition of Mexica, which is lovely. Materialism assuaged.
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This week I got a regular Terraforming Mars opponent, and I skinned him alive using the power of my superior intellect and a late-game scramble for herbivores, predators, fish, microbes, and birds.
I ducked out of playing Time Stories because I think it’s a load of old shit, and tested the waters with some Twilight Struggle, Fighting Formations, and The Capitals.
Aside from the playing itself, I found a new copy of the OOP GW/FFG title Warrior Knights, new.
Christmas is real.
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Based on playing it or just the type of game it is? Asking because I bought it when it came out and still haven’t gotten it to the table because I’m worried I’ll basically waste a game night.
Based only on playing the first case, so for all I know it has grown more refined, the design made repeated play of the scenario mandatory. That is, it is impossible to succeed on your first go. I do not mean ‘very difficult’ or ‘too difficult for me so I am spitting my dummy out’. I mean you literally cannot succeed and need information gleaned from failures to win.
That said, the group who had it lined up have played through every case and greatly enjoy it, they only had a space for me because someone was ill.
Just found out Cohle Whehrlhe has a new game coming from Sierra Madre called John Company. Intrigued.
As someone who has now played through the first four missions, um, that’s kind of the point. You make a series of runs within the scenario in order to adjust or fix a problem in the time stream. The design of the game is essentially saying, “This is how time travel works.” You can disagree with that and not play, which is I suppose what you chose : )
The general idea is that on your first run, you are pretty confused about what’s happening at first, and then things start to fall into place just as you start to run exhaust the time units for that run. So you go back for run #2 armed with knowledge you didn’t have before and do a cleaner run, progressing farther, maybe even completing the mission. If not, you go in for run #3 on the mission and so on.
The repeated attempts are a big part of how you create an evolving strategy for the scenario. But if the game’s core mechanic doesn’t appeal, then you were wise to play something else : )
I have fairly eclectic tastes and the swing wildly from euro games to Ameritrash, almost like a sine curve. Just a few months ago I was loving Rum & Bones, but recently I’ve been more in the mood for Terra Mystica. After a game of Sagrada last night I tried to teach my wife TM but it did not go over all that well. I’m going to give it another go, however. Today I am running to my game store and I think I am getting a copy of Automania, which I have heard good things about.
I don’t know Automania. Fill us in on details if you pick it up.
Most people seem to love TIME stories but I was really disappointed. It felt like an attempt to implement a physical version of something that just works much better on the computer…
I hope Pax Porfiriana comes back into print. I have been playing so much of it on yucata.de that I feel like I might actually be able to run it on the table. It’s a lot fiddlier than Pamir, I’d say, but it really captures its historical period very well. One of these days I’ll actually play Renaissance.
It’s been almost 3 weeks since I’ve played an actual tabletop game, and I won’t be playing again until Thursday at lunch (Modern Art for the win!).
Really looking forward on Sunday to getting Time of Crisis to the table, though. This time the full 60-point game (same players as the 40-point game, so hopefully no more than a rules refresher is needed).
Then maybe getting my new game, Sentient, to the table after that.
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Automania:
Don’t judge a book by its cover, or in this case, a car by its bonnet (am I doing it right, my non-American friends?). Automania has a cartoony look that, I would imagine, could turn off a number of players who think their Euro games need the most solemn of men staring at maps or tables of spice on the box cover. It is bright and colorful, which, I believe, is part of the appeal. This is a medium-weight Euro, and one that you can use to introduce non-gamers to worker placement games, though it has enough depth to entertain regular gamers as well.
Like I said, Automania is a worker placement game, where workers are placed on a grid in order to obtain parts, for the most part, to build cars. Each player has a player board with a “factory” in which three types of cars move through the conveyor belts and are eventually sold to market. What is interesting about this game is that there are two markets, and each has a randomly assigned list of demands. The American market, for example, might have a high demand for safety while the European market has a high demand for handling. On top of that, the markets give slightly different rewards, depending on if you are trying to accumulate victory points or money. Market supply can fill up, though, as boats are loaded with completed cars, so there is a bit of a race to get your cars in the markets that you want.
This is less of a review than mere impressions as I’ve only got two games under my belt, but I did quite enjoy Automania. It is a very solid worker placement game and I like the competition for the various markets. There isn’t much here that is groundbreaking, but it is very well done. For some reason that I can’t put my finger on, the game that Automania most felt like is Manhattan Project, though they aren’t exactly the same.
I can update after I’ve played more, but I don’t know when that will be with Christmas travels coming soon.
Sounds interesting. Will look into nabbing a copy. I like worker placement and am always looking for medium or lighter games to play with my kids who don’t have the patience for things like Steam or Vinhos yet.
One nice thing is that you are doing g thing on turn one. Unlike other worker placements where you slowly ramp up production through resource accumulation, you can pump out cars on your very first turn in Automania. They won’t score you a ton of points without any modifications, but you’re producing from turn one.
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Speaking of worker placement, I was just notified that my copy of Charterstone is in the mail : ) I won’t get to play it until early next year, but it’s one I’ve been looking forward to.
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The wonders of the UK’s lone distributor: sent my local shop the Charterstone recharge pack, but not Charterstone.
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Mine is on the way, too. Hoping to break it out over Xmas break with the kids.
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I’m playing The Ruin of Thandar which is the campaign for Hero Realms, with my son. Does anyone have a good hit point counter app? I’ve used Epic Score Keeper, but it eats up the battery and requires tapping in just the right way to get it to work.
