After a Wednesday night game of Lost Cities, my gaming for the week started in earnest when I actually managed to get Hilary to come to Just Awesome's adult board game night on Thursday. On Friday and Saturday I went to Kublacon, one of the bigger bay area gaming conventions, and got to try a whole boatload of new games. Finally on Sunday we met our friends Alana and Thorsten for dinner at their place and played a game of Ice Flow, which I'd picked up at the Kublacon flea market. This week, let's just try a series of reviews:
Lost Cities
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 22
A simple, elegant, and enduring 2-player card game with elements of set collection and press-your-luck. The connection to the theme of exploring ancient ruins is pretty tenuous, but it isn't really necessary anyway - Cribbage, Hearts, Bridge, and Rummy do just fine without any themes at all.
Forbidden Island
Plays this week: 2
Plays all time: 2
A reimplementation and simplification of the popular co-op Pandemic by designer Matt Leacock. The theme has been changed from curing diseases to escaping a sinking island with fabulous treasure to make it more family friendly (cue Indiana Jones music), but much of the core mechanics remain: players are trying to collect sets of cards from one deck (to cure diseases/find treasures) while another deck is getting drawn from at an increasing rate to make their situation more tenuous (spreading diseases/sinking the island). While both games are marked 10-and-up, the steamlining and simplification has taken this from a game that a 10-year-old could be taught to a game that a group of motivated 10-year-olds could pick up and learn on their own.
Brawl
Plays this week: 3
Plays all time: 3 (since I started keeping track)
A real-time fighting game that might have been the best thing to come out of Cheapass games, with apologies to The Big Idea, Kill Dr. Lucky, and Devil Bunny Needs a Ham. Players play as fast as they can to get down hits before the other player can find a block in that color. As one would expect, play is chaotic and fast. They put out quite a few decks of this with different levels of complexity and strategy.
R-Eco
Plays this week: 2
Plays all time: 2
A surprisingly clever card game where players compete to run businesses that are profitable, and at the same time environmentally friendly. A lot of the game is forcing other players into situations where they are forced to take negative points or to exceed their hand limit and thus be forced to discard (i.e. "dump illegally"). A quick, clever filler; a type of game I don't have enough of as I have a bad habit of eschewing them in favor of 2-3 hour games that are hard to get played.
Dominion
Plays this week: 3
Plays all time: 83
Got more plays under my belt with the new Alchemy expansion. It is becoming more clear that playing with Alchemy is really a significantly different experience from playing without it. Whereas the first 2 expansions added more options, bells, and whistles, adding a new base card (potions) to the mix really makes this feel like the "advanced" version of the game. The next expansion (Prosperity) promises to add a couple more new base cards (a 4-value treasure and a bigger VP card), and I'm worried this will start to make the game feel more bloated, but I was skeptical about Alchemy too, and thus far I really like it.
Race for the Galaxy
Plays this week: 3
Plays all time: 119
Another old favorite that got a new expansion The Brink of War). This expansion adds a new resource to be acquired and used: Prestige. The idea of adding another good to acquire is a good one, but in the first couple games, I'm noticing a couple potential problems:
Zombie State: Diplomacy of the Dead
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 1
An ambitious small-press game where up to 5 players play continental powers (North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia) as they are assaulted by a devastating zombie outbreak. Thematically, the game does a great job. The first couple of turns, the zombies spread like wildfire, tearing into large population centers all over the map. As the game goes on, the outbreak slows as the zombies run out of food, and the players develop new technologies to allow them to combat the zombies more efficiently. By the end, the players finally obtain the upper hand, using nukes and powerful curing technology to beat back the zombie hordes. The production on the board and player mats is also great (though the zombies are disappointingly cardboard chits rather than plastic minis). However, it feels like there were a few issues, mostly related to the end-game, that could have been worked out with a little more play-testing. Essentially the game can drag on several additional turns that are fairly devoid of tension due to a couple of unlucky dice rolls. However, if a group that wanted to play this regularly were willing to make a few small tweaks, this game fills a pretty unique niche between Axis and Allies and Last Night on Earth.
No Thanks!
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 1
Another quick, light card game in which you are trying not to take cards that are bad for you. This is considered a classic filler in gamer circles, and brings a reasonable amount of depth and a lot of push-your-luck to the table. Add in a 2 minute teaching time and a 7-minute playing time, and this is another quickie I'll have to try and pick up some time.
Agricola
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 28
This was my first opportunity trying out the Farmers of the Moor expansion, and I came away quite impressed. This is definitely one you want to save for players who already know what they are doing, but it definitely changes the game in a really interesting way; instead of starting with an empty farm, you now start with forests and moors on your land that you can harvest for wood an fuel (to heat your house - a new requirement). Not only does this add another way to get resources, it also makes managing where fields, pastures, and house tiles are added to your farm a much more interesting minigame.
Dungeon Lords
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 1
In Vlaada Chvatil's Galaxy Trucker, players build spaceships and then attempt to fly them through space as they are pummeled by asteroids, slavers, and space pirates. In his Space Alert players plan out a series of actions under a time limit and then watch as their ship is pummeled by asteroids, aliens, and internal malfunctions. It should then be so surprise that Dungeon Lords involves players building something (in this case a dungeon) and then trying to survive as external forces (adventurers) try to kick down their sand castle. The real-time elements of the aforementioned games are replaced with a worker-placement mechanic, though still with enough chaos to make sure that it is hard to get too comfortable. Some fantastic visual design and, once again, a brilliant rulebook combine to make a mechanic that has often been criticized for feeling dry and and disconnected come alive.
Tichu
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 1
The ne plus ultra of partnership ladder games, and a huge hit in boardgaming circles, Tichu uses the mechanic from Great Dalmuti/President/Asshole/Dickeater (and a bunch of other games besides) and tweaks it into a fairly in depth partnership game. A natural transition for people familiar with games such as hearts, spades, and bridge.
Ice Flow
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 1
Have you ever wanted to try to cross the Bering Strait by leaping from ice-chunk to ice-chunk, eating raw fish for energy and dodging polar bears? Of course you haven't, you're not completely insane. If you wanted to play a game based on that idea however, you could do a lot worse than Ice Flow, which uses great looking pieces (especially the art) and some novel mechanics to make a pretty entertaining race game with a good dollop of "take that."
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 22
A simple, elegant, and enduring 2-player card game with elements of set collection and press-your-luck. The connection to the theme of exploring ancient ruins is pretty tenuous, but it isn't really necessary anyway - Cribbage, Hearts, Bridge, and Rummy do just fine without any themes at all.
Plays this week: 2
Plays all time: 2
A reimplementation and simplification of the popular co-op Pandemic by designer Matt Leacock. The theme has been changed from curing diseases to escaping a sinking island with fabulous treasure to make it more family friendly (cue Indiana Jones music), but much of the core mechanics remain: players are trying to collect sets of cards from one deck (to cure diseases/find treasures) while another deck is getting drawn from at an increasing rate to make their situation more tenuous (spreading diseases/sinking the island). While both games are marked 10-and-up, the steamlining and simplification has taken this from a game that a 10-year-old could be taught to a game that a group of motivated 10-year-olds could pick up and learn on their own.
Plays this week: 3
Plays all time: 3 (since I started keeping track)
A real-time fighting game that might have been the best thing to come out of Cheapass games, with apologies to The Big Idea, Kill Dr. Lucky, and Devil Bunny Needs a Ham. Players play as fast as they can to get down hits before the other player can find a block in that color. As one would expect, play is chaotic and fast. They put out quite a few decks of this with different levels of complexity and strategy.
Plays this week: 2
Plays all time: 2
A surprisingly clever card game where players compete to run businesses that are profitable, and at the same time environmentally friendly. A lot of the game is forcing other players into situations where they are forced to take negative points or to exceed their hand limit and thus be forced to discard (i.e. "dump illegally"). A quick, clever filler; a type of game I don't have enough of as I have a bad habit of eschewing them in favor of 2-3 hour games that are hard to get played.
Plays this week: 3
Plays all time: 83
Got more plays under my belt with the new Alchemy expansion. It is becoming more clear that playing with Alchemy is really a significantly different experience from playing without it. Whereas the first 2 expansions added more options, bells, and whistles, adding a new base card (potions) to the mix really makes this feel like the "advanced" version of the game. The next expansion (Prosperity) promises to add a couple more new base cards (a 4-value treasure and a bigger VP card), and I'm worried this will start to make the game feel more bloated, but I was skeptical about Alchemy too, and thus far I really like it.
Plays this week: 3
Plays all time: 119
Another old favorite that got a new expansion The Brink of War). This expansion adds a new resource to be acquired and used: Prestige. The idea of adding another good to acquire is a good one, but in the first couple games, I'm noticing a couple potential problems:
- Prestige is really powerful. Not only does each point of prestige count as a victory point, having the prestige lead will give you an extra card and VP every turn. In the games I played so far, it seems awfully hard to be competitive if you don't draw any prestige cards, and the fact that the deck is now enormous means that getting a run of bad cards is more likely than ever.
- The game is now even harder for new players. The major mechanical additions from The Gathering Storm (goals) and Rebel vs. Imperium (takeovers) are optional. For new players, you can play without them and have a perfectly functional game. However, playing without prestige requires sorting through the deck before playing to remove this entire expansion, which is pretty annoying.
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 1
An ambitious small-press game where up to 5 players play continental powers (North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia) as they are assaulted by a devastating zombie outbreak. Thematically, the game does a great job. The first couple of turns, the zombies spread like wildfire, tearing into large population centers all over the map. As the game goes on, the outbreak slows as the zombies run out of food, and the players develop new technologies to allow them to combat the zombies more efficiently. By the end, the players finally obtain the upper hand, using nukes and powerful curing technology to beat back the zombie hordes. The production on the board and player mats is also great (though the zombies are disappointingly cardboard chits rather than plastic minis). However, it feels like there were a few issues, mostly related to the end-game, that could have been worked out with a little more play-testing. Essentially the game can drag on several additional turns that are fairly devoid of tension due to a couple of unlucky dice rolls. However, if a group that wanted to play this regularly were willing to make a few small tweaks, this game fills a pretty unique niche between Axis and Allies and Last Night on Earth.
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 1
Another quick, light card game in which you are trying not to take cards that are bad for you. This is considered a classic filler in gamer circles, and brings a reasonable amount of depth and a lot of push-your-luck to the table. Add in a 2 minute teaching time and a 7-minute playing time, and this is another quickie I'll have to try and pick up some time.
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 28
This was my first opportunity trying out the Farmers of the Moor expansion, and I came away quite impressed. This is definitely one you want to save for players who already know what they are doing, but it definitely changes the game in a really interesting way; instead of starting with an empty farm, you now start with forests and moors on your land that you can harvest for wood an fuel (to heat your house - a new requirement). Not only does this add another way to get resources, it also makes managing where fields, pastures, and house tiles are added to your farm a much more interesting minigame.
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 1
In Vlaada Chvatil's Galaxy Trucker, players build spaceships and then attempt to fly them through space as they are pummeled by asteroids, slavers, and space pirates. In his Space Alert players plan out a series of actions under a time limit and then watch as their ship is pummeled by asteroids, aliens, and internal malfunctions. It should then be so surprise that Dungeon Lords involves players building something (in this case a dungeon) and then trying to survive as external forces (adventurers) try to kick down their sand castle. The real-time elements of the aforementioned games are replaced with a worker-placement mechanic, though still with enough chaos to make sure that it is hard to get too comfortable. Some fantastic visual design and, once again, a brilliant rulebook combine to make a mechanic that has often been criticized for feeling dry and and disconnected come alive.
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 1
The ne plus ultra of partnership ladder games, and a huge hit in boardgaming circles, Tichu uses the mechanic from Great Dalmuti/President/Asshole/Dickeater (and a bunch of other games besides) and tweaks it into a fairly in depth partnership game. A natural transition for people familiar with games such as hearts, spades, and bridge.
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 1
Have you ever wanted to try to cross the Bering Strait by leaping from ice-chunk to ice-chunk, eating raw fish for energy and dodging polar bears? Of course you haven't, you're not completely insane. If you wanted to play a game based on that idea however, you could do a lot worse than Ice Flow, which uses great looking pieces (especially the art) and some novel mechanics to make a pretty entertaining race game with a good dollop of "take that."
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