by Khoodos

That's a reasonable approach. But the graphic in the rulebook is consistent with the explanation beside it, and the tile's image is different, so it makes me wonder why there are two different images? It indicates that a deliberate change was made to rebalance the monument at some point in the design process, but was the tile changed and they forgot to change the rulebook, or was the rulebook changed and they forgot to change the tile? I would have thought the former was more likely than the latter.

by stevozip

Khoodos wrote:

It indicates that a deliberate change was made to rebalance the monument at some point in the design process, but was the tile changed and they forgot to change the rulebook, or was the rulebook changed and they forgot to change the tile?

I mean, that makes sense, but the game has been out for 7 years. Surely within that span of time someone else on the development team would have made a clarification if it really mattered about the picture, don't you think?

by actuaryesquire

3.25 points. The rules mean what they say. When we score, we put a corn on the scoring marker for each quarter point above the integer score.

by PEdorido

My interpretation would be to score 1 point for each 4 corn. If I had 3 corn they would be 0 points, but those quarter points could be used for tie breakers.

by spartax

PEdorido wrote:

My interpretation would be to score 1 point for each 4 corn. If I had 3 corn they would be 0 points, but those quarter points could be used for tie breakers.

. . . which is functionally identical to scoring 1/4 points.

by PEdorido

spartax wrote:

PEdorido wrote:

My interpretation would be to score 1 point for each 4 corn. If I had 3 corn they would be 0 points, but those quarter points could be used for tie breakers.

. . . which is functionally identical to scoring 1/4 points.

Functionality, but not practically. If you end the game tied with X points, and you won on the tie breaker with 3/4, you would say I won the game with X points, not I won with X 3/4.

Well, it's just splitting hairs...

by Anfauglir

the player with the most points wins. In case of a tie, whoever has the most workers left on the gears wins.

It makes a difference. If you have 1 more corn but your opponent has more workers left on the gears, you would still win with 1/4th point.
If the rule is 4 corn = 1 point, then your opponent wins.

by John Kanost

6 May

Comix Connection Game Night

This week at Comix, Downfall got demoed again, but this time I didn't play. After a certain point, we decided it was time to put the game away since it became obvious that once again, the game would not be finished. We had a few minutes left afterwards...

Game: Mottainai

I taught Joe how to play; Zach had played before and also participated. Joe did quite well his first time and won, beating me be one point. I'd ended the game thinking I had the points to win, but then realized that Zach had sniped the back order points I was counting on by tying me up for the sales type I was going for.


7 May

Beermongers Game Night

First time back at Beermongers since March! Got in two plays tonight...

Game: Gentes

First up was my first play of my newest acquisition, Gentes. The game arrived in time for me to take it to Cabin Con a couple weeks ago, but it didn't get played there since I didn't know it yet. By this game night I'd had a chance to crack open the game, put the organizer together, and read through the rules a couple times while I played through a test round or two. Our game wound up being a three-player session with Brett, Don and me. Don owns the game too but hadn't played it yet, so I taught it as best I could. There were frequent rules referrals and both the rulebook and the card glossary got passed around the table a lot.

I would describe Gentes as a civiliazation-building-themed game. It's a eurogame with a theme of civilizations, but you don't really have named civs that you're progressing...it's really more about the progression of civilizations through history than a look at specific groups or empires. The game consists of six rounds of play divided into three ages, with each round split into two phases, a "heyday" and a "decline". The first thing we got wrong was misunderstanding how the round tracker on the game board worked; since it has two slots for each "age" of the game, at first I thought these were for marking the heyday and decline phases, but actually each of the six rounds contains both so that one Age in the includes two heydays and declines.

Each Age is defined by its own deck of progress cards that have requirements for building and provide points and various bonuses once they are in play. Each player begins the game by drafting two of the Age I cards to form an initial hand, or an initial beginner game card set can be used (we did). Each player has a personal board where actions and population are tracked, with cards being played in a tableau wherever one has space next to their board.

The main game board includes several action selection areas with multiple action tiles that are taken and placed on the player's board when taking actions. Actions in Gentes have two types of costs: money and time. Each player starts the game with 20 coins. In general, actions that cost less money cost more time and vice versa. When taking any action, time for that action is tracked using Hourglass tokens that must be taken along with the action tile and placed on the player's action tracker in the spaces after the tile. When placing multiple Hourglasses, you may place one or two in each action space, but only 1 token will "clear" from your board from each space during the end of round Decline phase. At the beginning of the game, the five rightmost spaces of your action track are "locked"; it seems very important to get these additional spaces unlocked. You'll get two free unlocks at the end of the first two Ages, but the remaining ones can only be unlocked via card bonuses.

Each player also has six city pieces that can be placed on the game board, either on a map of the Meditteranean subdivided into three colored regions, or on "hometown" spaces next to the Navigator action on the board. The Navigator action is the one that allows players to place these cities. Each city, wherever it is placed, is associated with a specific symbol (money sack, temple, or eye) that either grants money or a indicator cube. Each city placed in a region on the map activates its own bonus and those of each city already owned in that region, but during the Decline phase you get to reactivate one city in each region, so there are benefits to both concentrating or spreading out your cities. Hometowns provide improved or bonus actions associated with various other spaces on the board.

Another action one can take is training your population. Each player has on their personal board six tokens that track different types of population in their civilization: Nobles and Artisans, Solidiers and Merchants, Priests and Scholars. These are always grouped this way, and aside from whatever starting population you decide to take, will begin in the "0" spaces on the far left and right sides. As population of each type increases, the trackers are moved left or right from their respective starting spots. Once they meet in the middle, in order to increase one type of population one must decrease the opposing one. The costs to train various types are based on the positions of larger matching tokens on the main board. How training population costs work was a confusing point for us at first; what you can train is limited based on how much money you paid for the action and how many (1 or 2) population you wish to train.

The action to gain additional cards uses a similar mechanism. Below the game board, up to 8 cards of the current age are laid out below a chart that determines how many cards one can take based on how much they paid for the action. In general, getting more cards means you'll have less options to choose from (i.e., you may take 3 cards but they must be the three leftmost available ones, or you can choose from the entire 8 but only get 1). Once the game has progressed to the second Age, there is also an option for gaining prior Age cards from the discard pile. One must take care when taking cards as there are penalties exacted during the Decline of each round for cards in hand in excess of 3, and potentially at the end of the game for unplayed cards.

Playing cards is a separate action. This action never allows you to play more than one card; the "better" versions of the action simply cost less time and money. To play a card from your hand, you have to meet its requirements both in popluation metrics and occasionally city types placed. Many cards grant immediate victory points when played, as well as bonus action spaces or action modifiers. Finally, each card in Ages I and II includes one or symbols, gaining the player a point for the symbol and a bonus for each match among cards previously played.

The other actions available on the main board include taking the first player position, and a tax action that is always available for 1 time ($4) or 2 time ($8).

Don was the star of our game; he grokked it much faster than Brett or I did and pretty much led the scoring the entire time. He played more cards more quickly than either of us, and scored the higher bonuses for maxing his population and cards first (Brett got the first bonus for placing all his cities). I guess I get the #goodteacher award for this play since I came in last place at 74 points, even though I probably don't deserve it since I'm almost certain Don didn't win thanks to any coaching from me. Brett came in second place at 90 points, but Don blew us both away with 126!

Initial thoughts: Gentes is nifty. It has some unique mechanisms that I haven't seen in other games. It's not an incredibly heavy game; I feel like the complexity just comes from having to learn its new mechanisms, and hopefully I will do better on a second play. It does seem to be incredibly important to get those extra action spaces unlocked as quickly as possible; I think Don did so much better than Brett and me because he grabbed all the cards with unlocks on them and then got them played quickly. I'm looking forward to trying Gentes again soon.

Game: Space Base

Though it was pretty late in the evening by the time we finished Gentes, there were still a couple folks, Adam and Katy, looking to play another game, so I joined them. In this play, I expanded my board much faster than the others, but couldn't seem to get my income up very well and that hurt my endgame when it came time to start buying Colony ships. I was competitive in terms of points, but Katy was able to afford the Colony ships more easily and bought the one I really needed before I could get to it, then ended the game before I could save up enough additional credits to buy one of the remaining, more expensive ships. Katy won with 53 points to my 43 and Adam's 36.


8-10 May

I'm going to lump all these plays together rather than sort them out by day. This was a long weekend spent with my Uncle Gary and Aunt Annette & their family, including their daughter Lauren's boyfriend Dan. They had invited us to join them at their vacation cabin outside of Rexville, New York. Got in quite a few plays of Commander, spaced out over a few days, in addition to the other games we played.

Game: Magic: The Gathering

In fact, Commander was the first (and only) game we played when we arrived Wednesday night around 10:00 PM. This was a five player game including me, my two boys, my cousin Megan, and Dan. I don't recall which decks everybody played, but I won with Vorel of the Hull Clade after using a bumped-up Grindclock to take Dan out and everyone else conceding the match--mainly because it was almost 2:00 AM by that point and not so much that they were afraid of me.

Game: Diamonds

We played this in the middle of the day on Thursday. Diamonds is one of my cousin Michael's favorites, and this was a really close game. There were five of us involved, and the final scores were me at 30 points, Mike and his mom Annette tied at 32, and Amy and Dan tied at 34. Dan won the game on the tiebreaker, scoring more of his points from vaulted diamonds.

Game: Scrabble

I love word games, and play Words with Friends constantly on my phone, but rarely get a chance to play them with live opponents since I don't know many fellow gamers who also enjoy them. My uncle is one exception, and I think at least one Scrabble game might become a new tradition when we get together. Matthew also joined us for this one, but departed midway through the game feeling outclassed. My aunt took over his tiles and finished the game with us. I won, 200 points to Gary's 186 and Matthew/Annette's 131.

Game: Star Trek Uno

My cousin Lauren doesn't like a lot of games... she's into D&D, and MTG, but most of the games we bring and play aren't her speed. But she does still enjoy playing UNO, and since the Star Trek edition is what they own, that's what we played. They make a "real game" of it, and keep score--this time playing to 250 points, which took a bit longer than I like to play UNO. It didn't help that I wasn't even close to competitive in this game, continually getting stuck with some pretty high point-value cards left in my hand as rounds ended. I think I might have been the player to go out once? Matthew wound up winning in the end.

Game: Impulse

I played a quick game of this with Jonathan on Friday morning, since we were the first ones up and were just waiting around while breakfast was being prepared behind us. Jonathan wrecked me once again, first to 20 while I was still sitting at 16 points. I had a really good ship-building engine going, and was ramping up to try to knock him out of the sector core, but I couldn't get the Command actions I needed quickly enough to put my fleets into motion before he ended it.

Game: That's Pretty Clever

Dan owns this game now, so we didn't need to bring our copy. Apparently it's become a favorite at the Bellefonte Kanosts' household; Dan and Annette boasted that they'd played it upwards of 19 times in recent weeks. It showed; Annette defeated the rest of us soundly, 247 points to my 204, Amy's 182 and Dan's 179.

Game: Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar

We failed to get in our usual game of Tzolk'in the last time we visited the Kanosts in Bellefonte back in March, so it was definitely on the docket for this trip. Amy just didn't feel like playing this time, though, and Dan wasn't available when we started the game so it was just 3 of us, Gary, Annette and me.

Gary floundered this game, unfortunately, seemingly unable to pull together any kind of plan. The game was really tight between Annette and me though. I went for a combination Temples / Technology strategy this time, and it worked early on. Late in the game, however, Annette managed to cut me off of crucial actions that I needed, and I had to take altneratives that were less effective to get the resources I needed to buy the Monument I'd been planning for (3 VP per Technology level). Because of that, I didn't have the resources I thought I would to purchase the additional techs I'd been thinking I would, and that in turn made my monument less effective.

I also had to stop investing time and resources in the Temples to focus on getting that monument, and that allowed Annette to pass me up in the two better-scoring ones by the end of the game. That, combined with my getting less points than hoped for from my monument, allowed her to win the game by 1 point, 54 to 53.

Game: Just One

I'd say this was the big hit of the weekend for everybody. We introduced this to the family, and I think everybody played it at least once between all the sessions we got in. We started out rather poorly, only getting four cards in our first two plays, but by the end we'd made it into the 8-10 range. I have a feeling the Kanosts will have their own copy of this by the next time we pay them a visit.

Game: Rage

Our last game of the weekend was another family tradition, Rage. Amy, Annette, Dan, Gary and I all played. Gary was on a roll this game, and while I didn't record the actual scores, I think he may have outdone his personal best. I went negative very quickly and stayed there, only making my bid twice out of the ten rounds. Rage is a good name for this game; rage is precisely what I often feel in the heat of the moment when I think I've won the trick and then someone throws trump, or a Change Rage that flips the trick to another player. Still, I know now to go into this game expecting to get screwed, and that helps. Rage will never be my first pick, but I'm happy to play it with these fine people--every once in a great while.

View from the Crow's Nest Cabin in Rexville, New York

by Daphron

Does the monument giving you 3 VP/skull placed give you victory points for the number of skulls in the skull track at end of game or 3 points for every skull placed while you have the monument? I thought the former but some of the other monuments doing similar things specify "throughout the course of the game" in the rules but not the skull monument making me wonder.

by runtsta

Daphron wrote:

Does the monument giving you 3 VP/skull placed give you victory points for the number of skulls in the skull track at end of game or 3 points for every skull placed while you have the monument? I thought the former but some of the other monuments doing similar things specify "throughout the course of the game" in the rules but not the skull monument making me wonder.

All skulls on the track, regardless of who placed them.

by leej0hn

runtsta wrote:

Daphron wrote:

Does the monument giving you 3 VP/skull placed give you victory points for the number of skulls in the skull track at end of game or 3 points for every skull placed while you have the monument? I thought the former but some of the other monuments doing similar things specify "throughout the course of the game" in the rules but not the skull monument making me wonder.

All skulls on the track, regardless of who placed them.

I think the question refers to the timing not by whom the skulls have been placed. So does he count the skulls since the time he owns the monument or counts all skulls including ones placed down previously to his owning the monument. I think that's what hes meaning?

by adrim

The points are awarded at the end of the game for all the skulls on the blue gear (chichen itza) plus the skull placed on that expansion card (if you have it).

by CotB

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by Fuzzcrumbler

<div>Late in the game for painting gears, but I used a more subtle, less flashy approach...</div>

by Burning_Tyger

<div>Decided to leave main gear "weathered"</div>

by Jonathan Jordan

This update has been a lot harder to do than I anticipated. So many games to talk about, it has taken me a few weeks of whittling away to finish off. Sorry for the delay.

When I first came to this retrospective, I assumed the 7 ratings would be the highest number of games. I was terribly wrong. It turns out when playing games that are uniformly considered to be among the best ever, the ratings skew higher for me as well. Not shocking, other than that it didn't occur to me before now.

Anyhow, this update I will be talking about my current feelings on the games I gave an 8 to. Keep in mind that these ratings are based on my original impression and not necessarily indicative of my current feelings on these games.


A Feast for Odin
I have been a fan of Uwe games since I started paying attention to who was designing the games I was playing. He has done a lot of games I highly enjoy, so when this game came out I had to try it without knowing anything more about it. This game is great. It takes all of the hard decisions I like in an Uwe game, while still feeling less painful than in some of his other games. A solid game, probably deserving of a higher rating than I gave it.

Agricola and Agricola (Revised Edition)
One of the first heavy euro games I ever played. This is one of the games that directly led me to the hobby. I remember how overwhelming it was to learn the game. I also remember the rush of realizing a plan coming together. I didn't win, but came in solidly in the middle of the pack for my first play. I have played a few times since, and always somewhat enjoy it. The thing is, this is a game I have not had the urge to play for a few years. I think I may have moved on from this one.

Anachrony
It took me a while to find a copy of this to play. I missed the original KS for it, and once I realized I wanted to play it the game was prohibitively expensive. Lucky me I found out a friend of mine had a copy. This is a great worker placement game that has a very deep theme that comes through with the gameplay. I really enjoyed this, and understand there are a ton of optional bits to add in. It seems like this is a game I should purchase to get more plays in, with all of the bells and whistles.

Android: Netrunner
I remember when the original, collectable, version of this game came out. At that time I hated it. It was just too complicated for me to understand at the time, and I just couldn't get into it. This new edition of the game, with the Android setting, had me interested enough to give it another try. I am so glad I did. With more gaming experience under my belt I was able to better understand the mechanics of the game. I am a big fan of asymmetry in games, and love the theme. I am currently trying to get a hold of the expansion packs I never picked up.

Azul
One of the best abstract games I have ever played. It is simple to teach, quick to play, and beautiful to look at. I recently taught my non-gaming sister and nephew the game and they liked it. My sister ever borrowed my copy to take to her classroom where she could introduce it to her students. She's a teacher of gifted 5th and 6th graders, and felt this would be a great game for them to try that would challenge them.

Blood Rage
I like this game a lot. I love the combination of drafting and area control. The theme is great, and really shines in this game. The scoring for dying bit was a great addition to the viking theme. The miniatures are fantastic, though possibly a piece that could have been left out for counters and not changed gameplay. Not that i am complaining. While the minis are not really necessary, they do add to the experience.

Brass: Birmingham
My feelings about this are not much different than my opinion of the other version of Brass. However, something about the way this played worked for me in ways the original didn't. I like the addition of the beer, and the way the buildings upgrade. Not a lot more to add.

Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Played very much like Suburbia, with some interesting tweaks. I liked it, but honestly do not remember much about the game anymore. My one play was interesting, but not enough to come back to try again.

Caverna: The Cave Farmers
It's like Agricola that is more forgiving. That's how I always describe it. I like the dual building of cave and farm a lot. I like the addition of the rubies. I didn't have a great experience learning, as the guy teaching me wasn't great at teaching games. Even with that, I still gave this a high rating. So, it's gotta be good.

Champions of Midgard
Nice combination of worker placement and dice rolling. There seemed to be a few viable strategies while playing that turned out to not be valid. I loved this game enough to immediately add all of the expansion stuff to my Amazon wishlist. I will be buying more for this, and I will be playing again. The game just works.

Chaos in the Old World
Been a long time since I played this. Very asymmetric. Very fun. I love the setting, and the fact you are playing the villains. Not a lot to say here, since I don't remember the game at all.

Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure
Just when I started thinking deck building as a mechanic was starting to feel stale, this game came out. It takes some pretty basic ideas used in other games and makes them into a really fun dungeon crawl experience. I have not had the opportunity to try anything other than the base game, but I really dig this. The press your luck as you try to dig deeper the get the best treasure, knowing you have to get out fast if the end game is triggered. Knowing you may anger the dragon if you press on to fast, but needing to take that risk to be most successful. It's such a great game.

Codenames
One of the most interesting party games I have encountered. Considering I am not a fan of party games, and I ended up buying this after playing someone else's copy, should say a lot. I really like how out of the box your thinking becomes as you try to link a bunch of clues together. I also like how easy it is to mislead your team if you are not paying close attention to the other tam's cards as well as your own.

Concordia
As another reviewer has pointed out, this is a rondel game without the rondel. I like how out of the box that is. This game is wonderful. I don't have much more to say on this one. I just wish the game wasn't in such an unusual sized, lackluster box.

Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game
I like semi co-ops. I used to like zombie games. I love story in games. This takes all of that and combines it into one game. The general idea is really cool. I love how it recreates the all-for-one-but-me-first feel of most zombie media. I like the concept of how the crossroads cards work, but in practice they are mostly non-existent. I am curious about the sci-fi version of the system, and would love to see an update of the crossroads to make them more present in the game.

Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition) and Star Wars: Imperial Assault
I am lumping these two together because they are effectively the same game. Preference for one over the other really would depend on thematic preference. I prefer the fantasy of Descent to Star Wars. Both are enjoyable games, and I like how they can be run with or without an app to control things. Imperial Assault has a cool skirmish mode that is more fun than the campaign in my opinion. Solid thematic games.

El Grande
I remember my play of this was against two experienced players and an 8 year old. So, it was pretty much two guys competing against each other and me hoping to beat the kid. I think I may have done that, but it is quite possible I lost the game entirely. I do remember that the game was fun regardless. I think that is a good sign, where a game is enjoyable even though you have no chance of being even remotely competitive. I should pull this out to try again sometime, and try some of the expansion stuff I have.

Fields of Arle
I have mentioned my love of Uwe games. Normally I am not a fan of two player games, mainly because I do not have a consistent opponent and my game nights are always larger groups of people. It is hard to get a game like this to the table. But, man, was it worth the work it took to get the game played. I love how this is much heavier than most two player games, and feels like a bigger game than it really is. It is a bit of a problem that the game is such a table hog, but I can live with that. I need to play again, and soon.

Five Tribes
I really like how unique the mancala mechanic of this plays out into a much more meaty game than you would think. It is unfortunate that the game does lend itself to analysis paralysis. For a game with such a colorful and light look to it, the game is a lot more think-y than you would expect. I really enjoy this game with the additional tribe, but have not had the chance to try with the other expansions yet.

Great Western Trail
An interesting combination of race and deck building. Do you want to take your time to get the perfect set of cattle into your deck and hand? Do you want to run ahead before everyone else, hoping to get an ok sale fast enough to get a station built first? Should you take the more direct route, or the longer and more dangerous way? There are so many things you can do in this game, and so many ways to tweak it. I am amazed at how much depth this game has, while not being that complicated of a play. This whas the game that ignited my love for Pfister games.

Istanbul
I will admit I avoided this game for quite a while. I read the rules online and was less than impressed with how the movement and actions seemed to work out. It sounded too limiting to me. But, then I came up with the crazy idea to play the top 100 and I had to try this one. It turns out, that limitation I was concerned about is not as bad as I thought. It is very rare that you end up moving in such a way you are screwed over by it. That's not to say that you are free to do what you want My group has a very memorable anecdote about a 4-player game where one guy proudly announced "I have my next five actions fully planned out," only to have each other player take an action that inadvertently blocked his every move. I think he still managed to win. I have enjoyed every game of this I have played, except the one where I used the letters expansion. I didn't quite understand those and it made the game less enjoyable.

Keyflower
My first time playing this it was pretty difficult. Something about it just made the game hard for us to get through. I remember it being a very complicated and difficult game. Cut to a few years later, and I have played again. This time, it was a lot easier to explain and understand. I'm not sure if that is more gaming experience or just a better group of players to game with. Either way, I think this one should probably be bumped up to a 10 for me now. I love this game so much, I have gone on a quest to get as many of the other Key Series games as I can. Thankfully, I have been able to keep up with the new releases as they happen, and have found a couple of the out of print games online for reasonable prices. The very early ones are still out of reach for me, but they are also likely the ones least interesting to me. The entire series is great.

Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game
This took a game I was so-so with and made it awesome. I like the general mechanics of the Legendary games, but the theme just doesn't shine in the Marvel game. But, this is different. I got a much better feel for the Alien universe playing this, and liked how there are many different scenarios to play in this. I am on the fence as to if I want to actually pick up a copy of this. On the one hand, I loved it and would like to have it available. On the other, I don't replay games as often as I should if I was to actually buy this game.

Le Havre
Review is based on a single, two player game of this. It was a lot of fun. I liked how everything connected together. I have wanted to use the upgradable resources use in this and a few other Uwe games in my own designs, but it turns out to be harder than he makes it look. I hear this game is not nearly as much fun with more that two. Other friends of mine say the feeding your crew mechanic is too punishing when there are more players and less resources to be had. This is why I have not tried playing again. I would love to give it another shot to see for myself, though.

Lisboa
What a polarizing game this was in my group. A couple of us liked it, one guy hated it, and one guy didn't seem to care one way or another. I know we as a group played poorly, because we allowed one guy to build in all of the good spots without even trying to stop him. He had so much money, and good synergy with it, that he was unstoppable. I will admit, the game is a hard one to teach. There's so much going on, while still having vew mechanics. Typical of a Lacerda game. He's my current favorite designer for this very reason. Individually, each mechanic is pretty simple. Taken as a whole, they games are ridiculously heavy and complex.

Lords of Waterdeep
Worker placement for beginners. Originally got into this one because of the D&D theme. But, turns out the game is legitimately fun as a mid-weight euro. The game has soured for me a bit over the years, but that is not really the game as much as the people I was playing with. The guy I am most likely to play with does not really explain the game well, loved to play with new players, and always takes the first turn (with the same opening action) which really limits the enjoyability of the experience. Add in the fact that the last time I tried to play was with two very AP and distracted opponents to the point I actually rage quit (one of the only two times I have ever done that in a game). So, yeah. Good game, bad memories. Difficult to get past those.

Mechs vs. Minions
This took a while to get played for me. I have never the League of Legends, so the theme didn't draw me in. I generally don't care for programing games, so the mechanics didn't do it for me. I avoid buying games with minis due to cost. So, a lot going against the game. But, I saw it on the list so I had to play it. I was lucky enough to complain about the secondary market cost in a previous post, and a person from the publisher contacted me to point out the new print run. So, I bought the game for the incredibly low price they charge and found a League of Legends player friend of mine to give it a shot. Turns out, this game deserves it's rank. The game is ridiculously fun, easy to teach, and chaotic in all the right ways. I was able to teach my friend who is not a board gamer and his young daughter to play with no difficulty. Need to get this back to the table to complete the campaign.

Mombasa
I think this one was a purchase made due to advent calendar promos. Every year (except last year due to lack of available stock) I have bought the advent calendar and spent the next year picking up all of the games from it. It has prove to be a pretty decent investment. Most of the games have been pretty good, and those that I did not enjoy have made for good trades. Not that any of that is relevant to this game. I don't have a lot to say, other than I really loved how this game plays. I like the way the cards have multiple uses, how the different company tracks play out in their own ways, and how the are control aspect works out. A beautiful whole.

Orléans
I think I picked this up because I was looking at designing a bag building game, and it happened to be Kickstarting just as I was looking for games that used that mechanic. I ended up getting the nice deluxe edition with the extra player pieces. This is an interesting game, with some cool mechanics using the bag draws you have. I like the multiple paths to victory, which are almost a point salad but don't feel that way to me. I understand the expansion that makes it a co-cop is pretty good as well. That's a great sign, where a game can be altered to play well in a completely different way and be excellent both competitive and co-op. My only real complaint with the game is not the game itself, but with the deluxe components. With the resources, they are supposed to be randomly assigned to the places along the merchant paths, but the deluxe components are unique shapes so they are hard to properly randomize that way. I don't want to have nice pieces and not use them, but using them makes the randomizing problematic. It's mildly annoying, but not a deal breaker.

Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 and Pandemic Legacy: Season 2
I am not much of a Pandemic fan anymore. Just got burned out on it. However, I have been fascinated by the legacy thing for a while. This was my first legacy game, and it did not disappoint. While initially the mechanics of Season 1 were nothing new, the more the game went on the more interesting it got. I liked the story progression. Season 2 plays a lot like reverse Pandemic. It was interesting to see my friends who are veterans of that game struggling to adapt. The story progression for my group was slower in that season, but we realized our mistake in how to approach the game and fixed that in the latter half.

Patchwork
This is one of my all time top 2-player games. It is usually one of the three games I recommend when someone asks for a game to play on a first date. I absolutely love it. My only real issue is that the scoring can often feel kind of bad, with the negative points involved. But, the game is easy to teach and quick to play. Solid pick of a game.

Raiders of the North Sea
I remember when I first saw the Kickstarters for the North Sea games. The art and theme drew me in, so I backed for an all-in level. I have not been too disappointed. WHile Shipwrights of the North Sea is a little lacking and Explorers of the North Sea has not hit the table more than once, this game is a great variation on the worker placement mechanic. I like how each turn is a play one, pull one for workers. This opens up a new kind of strategizing as you are not able to block spaces in the same way as other games of this nature I also love the themening of the raids and the various tracks for points.

Rising Sun
As an old school Legend of the Five Rings player, I have a soft spot for fantasy Japan. I really like how each caln is very different in feel. I also like the alliance/betrayal mechanic. In the first game of this, I had a solid alliance going and was betrayed at the last second for a devastating blow. It was painful and beautiful at the same time. Every time I play, I learn a little more about what I should have done differently. My only real complaint is it is too nice. The minis and board and all of the stuff in it is just a little more than I need from my games. I'm definitely a euro guy at heart. I like lots of pieces, but prefer them to be wooden tokens rather than fancy miniatures.

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island
I don't remember why this is rated so high. I hate this game, and have nothing but bad feelings at the mention of it. I must have had a higher opinion of the narrative it evokes or something, because this is a game I would never willingly play again. Now I think I need to go back and reread my original review of it to see why I gave it such a high rating.

Roll for the Galaxy
I'm a fan of Race for the Galaxy, so was quite interested in this dice variation of it. The game is a lot more smooth and less punishing in feel to me than the card-based original. But, I still would rather play the card game over this one I think. I have had a couple sessions of this game that went very poorly due to bad opponents or bad teaching of the rules. Those definitely weigh on my feelings for the game. Overall, though, the big thing is this is more effort to get set up than the card game for a game that doesn't feel as deep. I'll stick to my deeper filler with cards.

Scythe
This game was not at all what I expected it to be. It looks like a more typical dudes on a map wargame than it is. In fact, combat is not something you want to get too involved in from my experiences. You make a strategic attack here and there as needed, but mostly you want to work on other areas. I remember after getting the first expansion I played a full game with all factions, and the game did not lag or slow down at all. It pulled off the nearly impossible eat of being fun and fast with a crowded full table. I definitely want to get the campaign stuff for this to introduce to my legacy group.

Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game
Not a lot to say here. I am not a huge fan of this style of game. I liked HeroClix back in the day, but that was more the superheroes than the gameplay. This game isn't bad for being what it is. I have a friend who is deeply into this game, so I know if I ever wanted to just throw down with it I could get a game in. I will stand by the rating I gave, as it is a good example of a game even though it is a style I am not normally into.

Stone Age
This is a good example of an entry level worker placement game. I like how the workers are better in groups at some places. The theme of building up a village does come through enough for me. I might have rated this a bit lower if I played it first today, as I have found Architects of the West Kingdom to give me the same kind of worker placement feel as this, with a more interesting strategy involved. Still, not a bad game at all and one I am happy to keep and place. Only real complaint is the dice cup smells just awful for some reason. I had to air out the box for a week when I first opened this up.

The Gallerist
This was my second Lacerda game, and still one of my favorites. It takes a lot longer than I would normally want. It is a lot more confusing turn structure at 4 players than I would prefer. But, damn if I don't absolutely love this game. One of the other guys in my group actually has a strange love/hate thing with this game. He always requests we play it, but whenever the game does show up he always complains about how long it takes. Really, though, I would love to try this again sometime with a 3 player game to see if the turn structure feels better and the game is a bit faster that way.

The Resistance: Avalon
One of the better social deduction games I have played. That said, my taste for social deduction has all but disappeared. I like what this game can do for the genre, especially the lack of player elimination.I just have little to no interest in playing a social deduction game any time soon.

The Voyages of Marco Polo
I'm not sure how I originally found this game, but I am glad I did. I really love how much is going on with this game, while still not having a lot of complex rules. The travel mechanic is really tough to master for my group. It seems you never have quite enough resources to get where you need to go when you need to get there. I also love how every character power seems game breaking, and yet none of them is inherently better than another. Just a very solid game.

Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization and Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization
Man, but this game is tough. Part of that is the unique format that VLada's rulebooks take. Part of that is just how much is going on at any given time. For a game that really doesn't have a lot to it, there is a lot to it. I can appreciate the game for what it is and what it is doing I can also safely say I will likely play again. The high rating is in recognition of how well this game is designed, not for my own personal feelings on it.

Ticket to Ride: Europe
Not a lot to say here. A solid gateway game that will stay in my collection just for family game nights if nothing else. One of the earlier hobby games I was exposed to.

Twilight Struggle
My favorite two player game I never get to play. The game is just too punishing to play with most of the people I would want to play two player games with. It is heavy enough that it doesn't make it to regular game nights in favor of games with higher player count. I am enthralled with the delicate balance of what to play and when, knowing every single action you take is likely to help your opponent as much as it does you. Having lived through the latter part of the Cold War, it feels much like I remember that time being. A very delicate balance of actions to hopefully "win" without causing total destruction of the world.

Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar
The game that takes longer to teach than it does to play. Having to explain every little nuance of every action takes forever, but is vital to making sure the play of this game goes well. But, once you start going, the game is quick and easy. I really enjoyed playing it, and should really try to get another play of it in sometime soon.

Viticulture Essential Edition
My second game from Stonemaier Games, and my reason for buying nearly every other game they have released. This is another in the soldi worker placement games I seem to love so much. Even having never actually played the game right, I have always enjoyed my time playing this game. The different seasons and wide array of strategies has this as one of my top games using this mechanic.

So, there we have my Top 100 Games rated at an “8.” Hopefully the last couple retrospectives of this series will not be so tedious to finish.

by mk20336

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by Red Tank

[MP3]http://traffic.libsyn.com/boardgamebarrage/18_12_13_BoardGam...|#46 - Top 50 Games of All-Time 50-41[/MP3]
:mintcamel: Subscribe on iTunes :orangecamel:Subscribe on Google Play :goldencamel:Listen on Spotify

You know what they say, a journey of a thousand miles, starts with steps fifty through forty-one.

We’re counting down to our 50th episode, and what better way than to give our definitive lists of our fifty favourite games of all time?! You’ve been asking for it, so we’ve only gone and done it. Brace yourselves, we’re just getting started.

Timecodes:

01:11 – Mark #50 – Dungeon Fighter
02:51 – Neilan #50 – Werewords
04:36 – Kellen #50 – Agricola
06:28 – Mark #49 – Chronicles of Crime
08:07 – Neilan #49 – Biblios
09:28 – Kellen #49 – Concept
10:55 – Mark #48 – Pictomania
13:02 – Neilan #48 – Mage Knight Board Game
14:54 – Kellen #48 – Hanamikoji
16:27 – Mark #47 – Kanban
17:28 – Neilan #47 – Splendor
19:26 – Kellen #47 – Ingenious
20:40 – Mark #46 – Samurai
22:55 – Neilan #46 – Clank!
25:09 – Kellen #46 – Evolution
27:54 – Mark #45 – ZhanGuo
29:23 – Neilan #45 – Innovation
31:39 – Kellen #45 – Mysterium
33:02 – Mark #44 – Ra
34:21 – Neilan #44 – Puerto Rico
36:48 – Kellen #44 – New Angeles
38:58 – Mark #43 – Wyatt Earp
41:29 – Neilan #43 – The Oracle of Delphi
42:18 – Kellen #43 – The Game
46:23 – Mark #42 – Blood Rage
50:04 – Neilan #42 – Anomia
52:00 – Kellen #42 – Lifeboat
53:51 – Mark #41 – Tzolk’in
55:39 – Neilan #41 – Panic on Wall Street!
57:56 – Kellen #41 – Diamant/Incan Gold

Board Game Barrage #46 - Top 50 Games of All-Time: 50-41

Discuss in Discord / BGB Guild / Instagram / Twitter

by anjovi154

I've got the following euro-ish games?:
-Samurai, RA, Through the Desert (simple knizia abstracts)
-Concordia, Istanbul, Troyes (the more mid weight euro stuffs)

I've really enjoyed Istanbul (with the mocha expansion), as well as Concordia (with the Salsa expansion) as the complexity and weight of decision making felt like a good balance, along with the time it takes to play them both. I particularly like Istanbul because of the tactical decision making and the luck mitigation of the dice rolls.

That said, Tzolkin has gotten my attention as I really like the emphasis on long term strategies that the game has, particularly with how you have buildings, technologies, skulls, etc. that all require a certain trajectory to fulfill your final goal.

I also like the idea of simple but complex. The whole putting something on or taking something off with the quick spin of the dial really appeals to me. I don't want to be manually running a computer (back pain lol)
My partner isn't a fan of games with too many steps/phases between each turn (Although a great game, spirit island is a good example of this, especially with the events in the branch and claw example)

The randomized buildings are a nice touch as well. The idea of building an engine seems to be a facet of the game that I'm not getting as much of in Concordia or Istanbul (there still there in those games, but their more race games than putting together engines imo)

Some of my reservations include:
-The apparent dominant strategies that would undermine the aspect of strategy that i was looking for, instead just making it a matter of choosing 1 of 3 paths and being rail roaded to the end.
-With that, I was wondering if the combination of using the different tracks would be limited. I'd like to know if you felt that the integration of various tracks in any given strategy was a thing, even if limited, as opposed to being...i guess more of a matter of being rail roaded down one track or the other.
-I did see a few comments that made 2 player out to be a no go. Others say that it's just fine, if not just as great as the other play modes. My partner and I've found Istanbul and Concordia to be just fine, so maybe this game would also be like that?
-I'm wondering how the game time compares to Concordia. Is it comparable? I can't quite remember how long games of Concordia take for us, except that it was fine. I ask as I'm not a big fan of big marathon games and the back pain associated to it.

With all of this said, do you think that I should get Tzolkin? Are there any other games that might fill the void a bit better? I also had my eyes on the Voyages of marco polo, but I have a feeling that I'd enjoy the gear system more than the dice.

Thanks!

by Faso74it

I don’t know if it’s a good suggestion, but you could play it on board game arena (iirc), and test it. The problem is that on bga there are very competitive & experienced players. I prefer to learn a game together with my group, starting from zero experience