by Vaader

Po kilku kolejnych testach zamieściłem wersję 4, poprawki dotyczą głównie opcji dla zaawansowanych. Proszę o uwagi i punktację jaką udało się Wam osiągnąć (z opisem z jakich opcji dla zaawansowanych korzystaliście).
Na początek proponuję jednak rozegrać normalną wersję bez dodatkowych opcji, gra jest również emocjonująca ale szybsza i bardziej uporządkowana.
https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/129924/wariant-solo-symul...

by Miira Auroora

After a long weekend full of games you'd think I was satisfied. But no! I want more!

I spent the whole Easter weekend with my family, who luckily are gamers mostly. But our plans went horribly wrong, and I had to do with a moping husband for a couple of hours. He has been complaining about playing only eurogames for a long time, so we had arranged a Fortune and Glory: The Cliffhanger Game game day with my sister and her family. But they made other plans that intervened with our plans for that day. I was angry too, I hate when people don't keep their promises.

We managed to play games with my nieces, though, so all in all a great day. As my husband was very disappointed with his game getting canceled, I took Elder Sign with us, knowing he likes it very much. Our game went horribly wrong and we lost. I feel like not playing ES for awhile.
Afterwards we played Dice Town and One Night Ultimate Vampire.

I had borrowed Castles of Mad King Ludwig from the library and wanted to try it out. So I asked my nieces who were more than willing to play. And we all fell in love! I had no idea it is that much fun. My younger niece Aino(16yo) has since asked many many times to play Castles.

We also got my cousin Jonna to come and play games with us for the first time. Ticket to Ride: Europe was a huge hit with her, so I'm hopeful she will join us again in the future. We played some other games with her, but I think Ticket to ride was IT.

I also needed some time for myself, since I've been stressing some work and future related stuff. I enjoyed a glass of sparkling rosé and Le Havre on my iPad. I guess it helped a bit. Sometimes I have a hard time running away from sad thoughts, even when I'm with people. My husband says I worry too much about things that might not even happen, but how to turn those thoughts off?

We ended the long weekend at my in-laws teaching Istanbul to my mother-in-law. Istanbul is a fine game but I still feel like it is merely OK and not great. Will have to play it some more and see, if I warm up to it more. We did enjoy our time together, so it was a success.

I just found out that my friend who is getting married in three weeks wants me to be her Maid of honor. This is very stressful to me, because why ask when there is only so little time? I thought she didn't want to have one since she didn't ask me when they started to plan the wedding. I feel like I now have an obligation to do all sorts of things I wasn't prepared to do and would have liked to have more time.

I guess April is going to be a busy month but not in a way I was hoping.

by Arctanas

I love playing board games, especially Le Havre, but I hate playing them on tablets, am I the only one?

by M7N6L

Arctanas wrote:

I love playing board games, especially Le Havre, but I hate playing them on tablets, am I the only one?

agree and disagree.

agreed: playing with people with physical cards and stuff is 100% better.

Disagree: electronic versions are great to learn rules.

by klbush

ON my tablet I really lose the feel of the flow of the game, don't see the "table" as well, no banter. I really like tabletop with live opponents the best, but when those aren't available, tablet must do.

by tumorous

You are not alone.

by 8bit Geezer

I play e-versions of games to get familiar with the rules/mechanics, but beyond that it is a far cry from the cardboard version.

by Milena Guberinic

HELLO EVERYONE! :heart:

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! We spent a lot of time outside with Jackie because the weather was so lovely! I love Spring and Summer because I can actually leave my house without fear of losing my fingers...or ears...or toes...:shake: I'll spare you any more chitter chatter and get right to the games! We had another week of superb gaming discoveries. :)

***

What's New?

Space Cadets: Away Missions

Space Cadets: Away Missions is a beautifully produced cooperative game. Though I tend to prefer games with less randomness, I decided to give this one a shot due to some favorable reviews (namely, Rahdo's and Joel Eddy's). Was it too random? Or was it amazing?

The Overview

Space Cadets: Away Missions is a cooperative game in which a team of intrepid young (and old) space cadets goes on a variety of missions in space. It is a scenario-based game and as such, it is difficult to provide a thorough overview. As such, I will stick to the basics.

Each player gets a "Rocketeer" who has a certain HP, which determines the number of hits he can take before he dies, a certain IQ, which determines the number of dice he rolls when he performs IQ actions (healing, subduing aliens, and figuring out Discoveries and Schematics), and an Overkill ability, which provides ONE option on which to spend successful die rolls beyond the first whenever performing IQ or attack actions.

Characters

Each player may also begin the game with up to 4 Items. Items include things like guns and med packs, which will help players throughout the game.

Space Cadets: Away Missions comes with a scenario booklet and each scenario comes with its own unique setup, objectives, and rules modifications.

Map for Escape from Space Prison scenario

Each turn, players will go through the following steps:
*Cadet turn
1) Order phase - Players select the order in which players will take turns. The first player takes order marker number 1.

2) Scanning phase - The active player must scan one of the nearest face-down tiles. That tile is flipped along with all tokens on it, triggering Alien tokens, which basically spawn aliens on that tile, and/or Alert token, which may spawn aliens on the muster tile. Discovery tokens and other items are also turned face up, becoming available for the cadets to pick up. If no tiles can be scanned, the aliens go mad, contact all their alien buddies, and the Red Alert stage is initiated.

3) Actions phase - The active player spends his 3 action points (APs) to perform 3 actions. He is allowed to pick up, trade, and use Discovery Items and Gear for no AP cost and may spend 1 O2 per during the action phase to perform an additional action.

Actions include moving, opening hatches, attacking aliens (and spending any overkills, which are successful die results beyond the first, on the cadet's personal overkill option, the attacked alien's overkill option, or the weapon's overkill option), performing IQ actions (healing, subduing aliens and potentially rescuing/dominating them in order to gain special powers). Players roll dice for both attack and IQ actions and the number of dice rolled depends on the power and range of the weapon used in case of attack actions and the player's personal IQ level plus any additional benefits gained from Discovery Items, rescued Thralls, and dominated Brains in a Jar.

Once all players have had a turn, the aliens take their turn.

Rescued Thralls

Discovery Items

Dominated Brains

*Alien turn
All aliens act in order according to their movement and attack protocols. Some aliens move towards the space cadets more quickly than others and some inflict more powerful attacks (i.e. they get to roll more dice). Aliens always move towards the closest space cadet, but if two space cadets are equidistant, they will move towards the one with the higher numbered order marker.

*Cleanup
All stunned aliens recover and opened hatches and locked hatches return to their original state.

The players win the game if they are alive at the end of the round in which all the scenario objectives are met. They lose the game if they die.

The Review

Played prior to review: 6x

:)



:) 1. Beautifully produced
Some games just suck you into their worlds with their fantastic components and Space Cadets: Away Missions is one such game. From the cute little Brains in a Jar to the menacing Sentinels, the detailed miniatures bring the game to life. But the beauty doesn't stop there. The artwork is fun and comical and highly evocative of the cheesy 50s space movies that serve as the thematic backdrop of the game. Overall, I love the way Space Cadets: Away Missions looks on my table when I'm done playing.

My praise for the production of the game doesn't stop there. Space Cadets: Away Missions is certainly a beautiful game, but it is also a very functional game. The decision to provide players with two player aids (one for the players and one for the aliens), which essentially summarize THE ENTIRE GAME, was an EXCELLENT one! I love having a quick reference for every basic rule at my fingertips without having to flip through a massive book! The production is nothing short of spectacular.

:) 2. Thematic and highly atmospheric
As I mentioned above, Space Cadets: Away Missions is brought to life by its wonderful pieces and artwork. But beyond the superficial production elements, the game mechanisms and the scenario-specific restrictions, requirements, objectives, and setup contribute even more greatly to evoking the fun theme.

First, there are the game mechanisms. Much of the game revolves around rolling a set of sparkly dice to fight monsters and perform various IQ actions. I find the dice mechanism, which involves rolling a number of D10 dice that is dependent on the distance of the target and strength of the weapon, to be highly evocative of the sense of panic and confusion that would surely ensue if I was running from an alien horde. I doubt I'd stop and make sure I focused my weapon perfectly; I'd just shoot randomly and hope to get a hit. The dice rolling mechanism captures this perfectly.

As for the IQ actions, which include healing, activating some Discovery items, and completing Schematics, the dice rolling once again serves to invoke the unpredictable nature of trying to work quickly with aliens breathing down your neck. If you're smarter, you get to roll more dice, but even if you're super smart, you can fail because you're in a panic. I am not typically a fan of random die rolling, but in this game, I find it fun, most likely because it brings the theme to life for me.

The impending sense of doom is further elevated by the Panic mechanism, which sees alien hordes springing up much more quickly once the map has been fully explored. This feels incredibly thematic as well; of course the aliens are on full alert once they've found you in EVERY CORNER of their space station!

Also, each scenario in Space Cadets: Away Missions features its own set of rules and objectives and these are quite effective in creating unique, thematic stories. The "Escape from the Space Prison" scenario, for example, puts players in the center of a Space Prison. In most other scenarios, players come in armed with guns and cool equipment that they are free to select at the beginning of the game because in most other scenarios, players are trying to infiltrate the alien ships. However, in Escape from the Space Prison, players are armed with only a small Air Knife. They have to get out of their prison and find the elevator that will lead them out of the alien ship. I highly appreciate all the thought that clearly went into developing each scenario as a highly thematic standalone game.

One of the most compelling things about Space Cadets: Away Missions is the way various elements of the game combine to draw out the theme and create a fun story.

:) 3. You can feel the weight of every decision you make and it doesn't feel light
Space Cadets: Away Missions is not a heavy strategic game. And it doesn't have to be. While heavy strategic games are my favorite games, I am still quite capable of having fun with light and medium-weight games, provided that they don't take too long to play. I would put Space Cadets: Away Missions in the light-medium category and I think it's play time of about 45 to 60 minutes (or even shorter if you are doing really badly) is perfect for its weight.

Despite its lighter weight, mostly caused by the plentiful dice rolling, Space Cadets: Away Missions manages to make every decision feel incredibly important by giving each player a mere 3 actions each turn. Those 3 actions are never enough to do EVERYTHING you want to do, which is even more true if you fail at any one thing that you set out to do, so you have to be very careful about where you move, which fights you pick, and which hatches you choose to open.

:) 4. Interesting overkill mechanism
Space Cadets:Away Missions is a light game, but it creates tension with the aforementioned action limitation and provides players many attractive options each turn. One of the most interesting mechanisms in the game is the overkill mechanism, which allows a player to spend each point of damage beyond the first gained when rolling attack dice to use his own special power, the special power of the weapon he used, or the overkill power of the alien he attacked. This mechanism takes the attack action beyond its conventional single-purpose function; rather than just attacking to kill things, players want to attack aliens to trigger the effects of their weapons, which may assist them in completing scenario-specific goals (to gather Alien Blood in order to complete Schematics, for example) or their cadet abilities, which may help them make a getaway after a fight, or the overkill option of the alien being fought, which may allow them to knock out other aliens and live to see another day. These overkill options are all attractive and you will always want to use them all, but you will rarely have the option to do so. Like the AP restriction, this makes the decision about how to spend each overkill feel quite weighty.

The overkill mechanism isn't limited to attacking; it comes into play when performing IQ actions as well and also provides many attractive options. My favorite one is the option to rescue a Thrall when using the subduing action. I LOVE rescuing Thralls because they become cute little people who give me cute little special abilities, but there are times when I waver between rescuing them and using my cadet's ability if it will help me get out of harm's way or save Cadet Peter's life :P, so the decision to go for one or the other isn't always completely obvious.

:) 5. Lots of powers for interesting decisions
The myriad of powers that players can accumulate through Discovery Items further adds to the decision making in the game. Discovery Items can only be used a certain number of times before being spent, so players have to be careful about when and how they use their powers. While using Discovery Items doesn't constitute an action, trying to recharge them can cost players the game. Players may discard Mysterium to restore a charge on a Discovery Item if they really need it (and they very well may need it because Discovery Items are powerful), but keeping the Mysterium may allow them to complete a Schematic and gain an even more powerful ability down the road and/or satisfy mission requirements. The Discovery Items and the powers they provide are generally attractive, but must generally be used judiciously.

:) 6. Moving around and turn order
In Space Cadets: Away Missions, players spend a lot of time running away from aliens. The way turn order interacts with alien movement significantly to the decision making in the game and affects players' ability to stay alive. If an alien is equidistant from two space cadets, he will move towards the cadet with the HIGHER valued Order/Scan marker. As such, players can manipulate alien movement, drawing aliens towards one player in one round and the other in the next round. This might not always have the desired effect of messing up aliens' plans, as players have to be equidistant and separated from each other for it to be maximally effective, but turn order does still provide a strategic tool for players to employ. If not anything else, it allows players to manipulate who will be more likely to take more hits, allowing them to keep aliens away from more vulnerable players.

:) 7. Oxygen
Oxygen is another very cool aspect of Space Cadets. I mentioned how weighty every decision feels due to the paltry 3 action points given to each player each turn. Oxygen allows a player to increase his action points to 4 each round. However, because it isn't the easiest thing to come by, can be reduced by alien effects, and is necessary for players to stay alive, players again have to be sparing in its use. Oxygen is an attractive little blue cube that can get you out of a jam or put you in an even bigger jam and I love the tension this opposition creates.

:) 8. Compulsively replayable
With its multitude of scenarios, heroes, and difficulty scaling, Space Cadets: Away Missions has plenty of replay value. The various heroes do play differently, as their unique Overkill options and HP/IQ values determine their strengths and weaknesses, but I think that the scenarios are the greatest strength of this game, as each feels drastically different from the others and that makes me want to experience all of them! Space Cadets: Away Missions is truly an experience of a game because it feels so much like playing through a cheesy 50s space movie. I'm sure the thick scenario book provided will keep everyone busy with space movie adventures for a long time to come.

:) 7. Quick to play
As I mentioned above, Space Cadets: Away Missions has a perfect play time for its weight. It takes about 45 minutes to play with 2 players, but this time may be shorter if you are doing very badly and manage to run out of oxygen or HP too quickly. At this point in time, we have only tried 3 scenarios and it does appear that some will take longer to play than others, so the "quick" play time may be conditional.

:soblue:

:soblue: 1. Co-ops typically have a strong element of randomness (in the order and nature of obstacles), but that element is even stronger here due to the amount of dice rolling that takes place
In Space Cadets: Away Missions, players have to roll dice for combat and they have to roll dice for IQ actions (to complete Schematics, subdue enemies, and make some Discovery items available for use). Rolls of 1, 2, or 3 are successes and rolls of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are failures. Those seem like poor odds, but players roll lots of dice, so successes and failures seem to be relatively evenly distributed. That said, players have no way to manipulate dice rolls (except by using a Discovery item that can make 8, 9, and 10 successes after rolling). The way that the luck of the roll is typically mitigated in the game is by adding more dice to the pool of dice that you roll on your turn using various items. This is an aspect that doesn't typically appeal to me, but I feel like it really fits the theme and levity of the game and I actually find it quite fun. However, I can understand why some people may not feel that way. If you are someone who absolutely abhors rolling dice and being provided with minimal ways of mitigating the luck of the roll, you may not enjoy this game.

:soblue: 2. Setup is time consuming
Because Space Cadets: Away Missions is a scenario-based game and each scenario requires a different set of tokens, tiles, and arrangements. Further, because it is a game that comes with many tokens and tiles and scenarios, it can take some time to sort all the pieces and arrange them properly prior to each game. Fortunately, games of Space Cadets: Away missions don't take too long to play (i.e. lose), so it's quite easy to throw all the tokens and tiles together and reshuffle them after you've finished one game and try again immediately.

:soblue: 3. Thralls and Saucer Men look very similar
The Thrall and Saucer Men figures are difficult to distinguish; they are the same size and color and are similarly shaped. This isn't a huge problem, but a slightly different color would have facilitated the process of discriminating one from the other on the board and in the box.

Final Word

I probably love Space Cadets: Away Missions more than I should given my usual gaming preferences, but I just can't help it; I LOVE this game! Yes, you're rolling random dice, but the characters and the scenarios and the stories that unfold are so engaging and thrilling and FUN that I cannot hesitate to give it lots of love! Despite the randomness, players have plenty of interesting decisions to make and I think that fans of co-operative games who are not allergic to the fickleness of die rolling will really take to this one. It's beautiful and interesting and fun and I love it!


MINA'S LOVE METER :heart::heart::heart::heart: LOTS OF LOVE

***

Core Worlds: Galactic Orders

The Overview

Core Worlds: Galactic Orders adds a number of new elements to Core Worlds. These include...

...a new faction...

...Galactic Orders and player Faction Tokens. The Galactic Orders create a board on the table. After players deploy Units and Tactics bearing Galactic Order Icons, they place a Faction Token on the corresponding Galactic Order. They may remove Faction Tokens from Galactic Orders to use their abilities or leave their Faction Tokens on Galactic Orders to score points for having a majority of Faction Tokens on each at the end of the game.

The expansion also adds new Units, Tactics, and Worlds, as well as...

...Event Cards, which when drawn are placed in a single stack and the top Event Card modifies the rules in each round...

...Advancement Cards, which begin the game attached to players' Home Worlds and provide an additional ability and new Home Worlds, which allow players to draw 1 additional card in the Draw Phase if they have more Worlds than Units in their tableaus...

...and a new Core World.

The Review

Played with expansion prior to review: 3x

:)



:) 1. Galactic Orders add a lot of tension and create plenty of interesting decision points
The Galactic Orders are, unsurprisingly, the most interesting element of the Galactic Orders expansion. They give players many more options on their turn, allowing them to boost their strength in order to take over more worlds or to reduce the cost of drafting cards into their decks. They certainly make it easier to accomplish more over the course of the game. However, their dual nature also generates a lot of tension; you want to use all the amazing powers you can access, but you also want to accumulate lots of Faction Tokens on Galactic Orders in order to score them at the end of the game. And the more Faction Tokens you accumulate on any particular card, the more points you score for it, so accumulating rather than using them can be quite the attractive option.

The Galactic Orders enhance the decision making in Core Worlds in another way; they force players to think about not only the powers, the strengths, and the names of the cards they draft into their decks and deploy into their War Zones, but also about the Faction affiliations of those cards. This can also be a great source of tension when you want to draft available cards with certain names or abilities that don't match the Faction affiliation(s) you are seeking. Because a number of the cards added to the game with the Galactic Orders expansion interact with the Faction affiliations of cards, giving players special abilities or strength boosts for having other cards with the same Faction affiliation or having Faction Tokens on certain Galactic Orders, they serve to further enhance the value of the Faction Symbols. As such, the Faction Symbols can be a deal breaker when it comes to drafting cards. At times, they can be that attractive.

:) 2. Capital and new Home World abilities make you feel a little m more powerful and allow you to achieve a bit more
I love the change made to the Home Worlds by the Galactic Orders expansion. The fact that players now get to draw an extra card if they have more worlds in their War Zones than Units means that they are able to cycle through their decks more quickly if they keep a higher ratio of Worlds to Units. The new Home Worlds may encourage players to take over more Worlds and keep fewer Units in their War Zones between rounds. At times, the extra card draw won't be worth purging your War Zone of Units, but at many other times, you won't have the easiest time deciding between taking over a World and getting that extra card draw and keeping your Units around.

The Capital has a synergistic relationship with the new Home World ability, further enhancing players' ability to cycle through their decks and hone their decks to particular strategies. Furthermore, by allowing players to store unwanted cards only if they have 3 or more Worlds in their War Zones, the Capital provides another incentive for players to take over more Worlds more quickly.

The new Home World and Capital abilities combine to provide an even more strategic deck-building experience by allowing players to pare down and cycle through their decks while encouraging players to do more of what will help them accomplish more throughout the game (i.e. take over Worlds). Cool!

:) 3. Events greatly enhance replayability, creating a unique ecosystem of demands for each game
I'm sure that some players will find the Events a bit annoying. They are certainly random, but they affect all players equally, dispelling any modicum of negativity I might have for them. I actually find them very refreshing. Each round of the game may now present a new challenge or opportunity and the combination of challenges and opportunities that arise as a result of the Event cards in any given game make each game feel very different. I think the Events go a long way to increasing the replay value of the base game of Core Worlds.

:soblue:

:soblue: 1. Increases play time, but it's worth it!
The Galactic Orders expansion adds a significant chunk of time to Core Worlds and for 2 players, that significant chunk of time appears to be about 20-30 minutes. That said, Galactic Orders also significantly enhances the depth of Core Worlds and significantly expands the decision space (as discussed above), so it is well worth the added time.

Final Word

I had no doubt that this expansion would break my scale! It is every bit as amazing as I hoped and imagined it would be! The Galactic Orders provide so much additional tension and decision-making opportunities, while the Events create a rich new ecosystem to explore in each and every game. Core Worlds was an amazing game from the start. With Galactic Orders, it's an absolutely flawless game.

MINA'S LOVE METER :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: ALL LOVE ALL THE TIME (Core Worlds with Galactic Orders)

***

Rialto

The Overview

Rialto is a game about bridges and gondolas in the beautiful, water-logged :P city of Venice. Players take on the roles of nobles, deploying their councilmen to various districts of this fair city in an attempt to gain control over the most influential ones.

The game is set up by placing round tiles on random regions of the board, placing the round marker on the round tile labelled as 1, and arranging 3 rows of differently colored buildings (green, yellow, and blue) in ascending order of value. Stacks of gondolas and bridges are placed on their spaces on the board and the blue and yellow 5-VP bonus tiles are placed on their respective spaces on the board as well. The action card deck is shuffled and placed beside the board.

Buildings

One player is randomly selected to be the start player. That player's maker is placed on top of the second player's marker on the Doge track. If playing with the 2-player variant (which I would recommend doing), a dummy player marker is placed on top of the player's Doge track markers. The Doge track indicates turn order at the beginning of each round and breaks all ties.

Each player receives a player board and 5 councilmen in his color. Remaining councilmen are placed on the board. Each player also receives 1 coin. The second player in turn order receives 2 coins.

Starting with the second player, each player takes one of the three 1-value buildings.

Rialto is played over 6 rounds and each round consists of 3 phases.

*Phase 1
Three sets of action cards, each of which consists of 6 cards is laid out on the table and each player in turn order (according to the Doge track) selects one set of cards to keep. Each player than draws 2 additional cards from the face-down deck and selects a total of 7 cards to keep. In this stage, players are able to activate their green buildings by placing a coin on any activated building. Green buildings allow players to draw and keep additional cards.

Card selection in 2-player game

*Phase 2
In this phase, players play the cards they selected in the previous phase. They can activate yellow buildings to support these actions.

The actions are executed in the following order, with the player who is ahead on the Doge track playing his cards first for the first action and the player who received the bonus in the previous action playing his cards first for the following actions. The player with the most of any action card played receives a bonus and the Doge track breaks all ties.

A. Doge
Advance 1 space on the Doge track.
Bonus: Advance 1 extra space.

B. Gold
Take gold equivalent to the number of cards played
Bonus: Take 1 extra gold.

C. Building
Build a building with a value equivalent to the number of Building cards played.
Bonus: Build a building of 1 higher value.

D. Bridge
Gain 1 VP per card played. A player who doesn't play any Bridge cards loses 1 VP.
Bonus: Build a Bridge between any two districts and score +1 VP.

E. Gondola
Gain 1 councilman for each Gondola card played.
Bonus: Place a Gondola tile between any two districts and place 1 councilman from the general supply into one of those.

F. Councilman
Place councilmen in the district of the current round.
Bonus: Place 1 extra councilman.

Joker cards can be played to support any action. Two Jokers can be used to replace any one action card.

*Phase 3
Players may activate blue buildings, which may provide points, allow players to upgrade buildings, or move them up the Doge track.

The game ends after 6 rounds, at which points VPs are awarded for councilman majorities in the 6 districts, buildings, and remaining coins and councilmen.

The Review

Played prior to review: 6x

:)



:) 1. Quick and engaging throughout
It takes about 45 minutes with 2 players and the time just flies by. Each round involves selecting a set of cards and then playing those cards and by the time the 6th set has been selected and played, we're always asking ourselves, "Is it REALLY over already!?"

Rialto succeeds in keeping all players engaged at all times through creating a majority game out of each action. Players have to not only be careful about which cards they select from the display and which cards they keep, but they also have to think about which cards to play. While it may be more advantageous to play all cards in each round in most cases, there are times when it is worth it to keep a card back for the following round if you can't get a majority in the current one, so some thinking about your selection relative to that of everyone else goes into each action. Beyond the "reserving" of cards between rounds, selecting which jokers to use with which action cards and which yellow buildings to activate based on the cards played by others (or in anticipation of the cards that will be played by others) also provides a reason to remain engaged as all other players reveal their selections. Ultimately, Rialto keeps everyone engaged and makes everyone feel invested in other players' actions by making the power of each of their actions relative to the actions taken by other players.

:) 2. Tactical and strategic
Despite its simple rules and brevity, Rialto is no slouch when it comes to gameplay. Although it is certainly on the lighter side of Stefan Feld's repertoire, it offers players plenty of difficult decisions to make. Each round begins with a tense card selection process; all actions are good, but it's important to try to get the most of certain actions in order to get bonuses. Trying to select groups of card to gain majorities in the actions most important to you at any given time is always difficult because you'll probably want them all! But you won't be able to have them all. The green buildings, which allow you to draw and keep more cards in hand and the yellow buildings, which provide jokers or multiply/change cards, can give you a leg up in this regard, but only if other players don't have as many as you do. As I mentioned above, it's always vital to stay on top of what everyone else is doing in this game because Rialto is a game of majorities through and through!

The fact that players have the option to save cards between rounds allows them to plan strategically between rounds. Acquiring a whack of blue cards in one round may help you not only in that round, but also in another, as it is necessary to have at least one of an action card in order to take that action (unless of course, you're ok with wasting 2 jokers on one action).

Rialto provides many tactical considerations, including when to activate buildings in order to get the most of their powers, when and how to use joker cards, in which districts to build gondolas to gain majorities, and in which districts are "safe" for building bridges. The Doge track seems to play a significant role in the game and can be the source of much tension between players and, when playing the 2-player game, between players and the dummy player. Because the Doge track determines which player gets to select cards first AND breaks all ties (i.e. determines whether you get a bonus or not when playing action cards and determines how many points you get for district majorities at the end of the game when ties occur), players will want to stay ahead. However, unlike most other actions, which give players points straight up, the Doge track doesn't provide any additional benefits beyond tie breaking and player order, so players have to be tactical in when they choose to spend their actions jumping ahead.

Strategy also figures in Rialto in the multitude of ways to score points. Buildings provide various powers AND they provide points, playing Bridge cards provides points AND makes players who don't play any Bridge cards loose points, and district majorities provide points. While players certainly have to be tactical in responding to the available card sets and the actions of other players, they also have to be strategic in their selection of buildings. Going for lots of green buildings, which allow you to draw and keep extra cards, is a good strategy, getting the high-valued blue buildings that score points when activated is another great strategy, and getting lots of jokers and other yellows buildings with card multiplicative powers is another great strategy. Determining which mix of buildings to go after in any given game can be done strategically rather than tactically.

:) 3. Perfect weight
As I mentioned above, Rialto is neither light nor heavy; it is the perfect quick-playing mid-weight game that offers plenty of interesting and tense decisions to make and keeps players engaged throughout, which means it is a likely candidate for weekly play. I know I can play this even when I'm tired and I know that I can play it and have enough to think about even when I'm not. It's just right!

:) 4. High replay value
Rialto is the kind of game that gets increasingly interesting the more you play it. I don't want to oversell its depth, but it is certainly deeper than appears at first glance. As such, it has that intrinsic element of replayability. You have to play this game more than once or twice or three times to truly appreciate what it has to offer.

And even beyond its intrinsic replay value, Rialto creates unique situations for players to contend with through the combinations of action cards that are available to them each round. You may prefer to build buildings early in the game in order to reap their benefits for as long as possible, but if few building cards become available, you may not be able to do so.

The plentiful building options also provide many strategies for players to explore. The particular combination of blue, green, and yellow buildings you acquire and when you use them will change the options available to you and change the way you play the game. Pumping out lots of points with high-valued blue buildings can sometimes be just as effective as getting some end-game district majorities.

:) 5. Works well with 2!
It does! It really does! Rialto was one of those games that I ignored for far too long due to the mixed opinions of the BGG community regarding its goodness with 2 players, but it turns out I fall firmly on the side of those who like it with 2. While I wouldn't recommend playing the Rialto with 2 by the basic rules (i.e. the rules for 3+ players), I would recommend Rialto for 2 players with the 2-player rules variant provided. The dummy player is not overly onerous to control, as the only things that players have to do is draw some cards and place a few councilmen, but it adds a lot of tension to the game. The dummy player counts for determining majorities for both action cards and scoring and his cards are open information to players, so players are able to use this information to their advantage in determining how many cards to play, how to use their jokers, and how to best use their buildings. The dummy player is also good at taking over districts because when he places gondolas, he places councilmen on both adjacent districts (while players place on only one) AND he uses all his jokers on the councilman action. Playing with the dummy player can be quite challenging and I think the dummy provides plenty of payoff for minimal work.

:soblue:

:soblue: 1. Great with 2 players, but probably better with more due to lack of dummy player
Despite the fact that I firmly believe that Rialto works very well and is very enjoyable with just 2 players, especially when the dummy player variant is included, I do believe that it is a game that works better with more players. The dummy player in the 2-player game is neither difficult nor time consuming to manage, but it is still an added element to round-to-round upkeep that simply doesn't exist when Rialto is played with more than 2 players. Of course, it is perfectly legitimate to play Rialto without the dummy player and the game is still quite enjoyable that way, but it is so much better WITH the dummy that I would never choose to play it without the dummy when playing with only one other person. Ultimately, Rialto works well and is perfectly fun and enjoyable with only 2 players and I would not discourage anyone who plays primarily with 2 from acquiring it, but it probably works even better with more. I will have the opportunity to try it with 4 soon and I expect that experience will confirm my prediction.

Final Word

I firmly believe that no game should be dismissed after one play. That philosophy holds particularly true for Rialto. Rialto is an onion game; it's a game that seems simple and a bit dull at first, but the more you play it, the more layers you reveal and the more you realize there is more to it than first meets the eye. Rialto is still a "light" game in Stefan Feld's range, but objectively speaking, it's not all that light. The rules are simple, but the gameplay is richly tactical, rewarding, and highly engaging. I love it!


MINA'S LOVE METER :heart: :heart: :heart: SOME LOVE

***

What's Not So New But Still Exciting?

Le Havre
What's this? Le HAVRE!? Mina doesn't like Le Havre, right? I do like it. I just don't love it. I'd much rather play Ora et Labora, but I did it for Peter PLUS I keep wanting to give it another chance.

Of course, I lost. I went heavy into buildings and Peter went heavy into Mordor...ahem...steel. For some reason, steel mills always remind me of Mordor. Anyway, he scored close to 300 and I had about 260. I had to take some loans early in the game and those were really painful. I hate loans. I always refuse to take them, but I really wanted all the fishy buildings right away, so I had to pay for them. :(

Signorie
Signorie! AGAIN!? Yup. Peter really loves this game and it's relatively quick the way we play (5 rounds), so I don't mind playing it. It's also quite interesting...and this week, it was also quite brutal. This was my poorest showing in Signorie EVER. Clearly, I was the one sleeping this time. Instead of properly evaluating the end-game scoring bonuses, which were 2VP per upgrade disc and 4VP per city with one of your females in it, I blindly focused only on women and neglected to make full use of their potential when I sent them to get married. Instead of spending max cash on each lady (which I had available to me), I spent the minimum. Meanwhile, Peter focused on men and spent 4 coins on each of the 3 ladies he sent to the cities. He ended up 20 VP ahead of me. :(

Glass Road
One loss begets another in my case. After Signorie, we played Glass Road because it was Uwe Rosenberg's birthday and we hadn't played a proper Uwe game that day (though we did play La Granja, which is a little bit sort of an Uwe game). Once again, I had zero focus. I acquired the Christmas Market tile and blindly focused on acquiring as many cheap scoring tiles as I could. Instead of focusing fulfilling the scoring conditions of a few tiles, I focused on what seemed like a bazillion. Of course, one cannot focus on a bazillion things at once. Of course, I lost. Peter did really well! He managed to score 35 by building many high VP purple and yellow buildings, using lots of bricks, and then scoring 10 VP for the brown building that provides points for used bricks. I really should have taken a photograph of his board instead of mine...

Grand Austria Hotel
WE LOVE THIS GAME! SO MUCH! This week, we had to contend with some challenging objectives - having two completed hotel columns, having 6 staff members, and having 3 red, 3 blue, and 3 yellow rooms filled with guests. I didn't have the greatest selection of staff members and I could see that Peter was gunning it for the staff objective, so I put that one aside and went for the others. I kept creating beautiful combinations of guest abilities that allowed me to make up and fill rooms one after another and made me buckets of points. While I didn't manage to be the first to complete any of the objectives, I did complete two of the three and I did make MANY points with my GIGANTIC hotel and end-game scoring staff. Peter was very surprised by how many points I made at the end. He didn't believe me. He recounted my score. :P It was my best hotel yet!

Argent: The Consortium + Argent: Mancers of the University
I was feeling down one day, so Peter suggested we play Argent. He knows me too well. Argent always puts a smile on my face and Peter suggesting we play Argent puts an even bigger smile on my face!

We didn't use a scenario this time, but we did play with the B mage powers. The B mage powers are WAAAAY different than the A mage powers and they are certainly quite a bit more challenging. We had to drastically alter our usual strategies because the purple mages no longer provided fast actions and the grey mages could no longer be placed after playing a spell. These two are our favorite combo generators. In this game, the blue mages were the MVPs because they can be placed in Merit slots without a Merit badge! *GASP* I KNOW! Yes, you have to pay some money, but whatever. :P Thankfully, there were plenty of money-making opportunities on the board! AND one of the rooms allowed us to turn money into IP. That was the MVP room! I quickly acquired a power that allowed me to place a mage and lock a room and I used that power on the IP room as much as I could! It was a very tight contest, but I ended up ahead by 2 points at the end! SUPER FUN!

LOCKING it down!

New York 1901
It had been a while since our last game of NY1901 and I was feeling a game that we hadn't played in a while, so I pulled it out. NY1901 is one of Peter's absolute favorites, so I had no trouble getting him to play.

In this game, the bonus challenge was the Dynasty challenge, which was part of the promo pack. The Dynasty challenge provides 5 VP per district (red, green, blue, yellow) in which a player has skyscrapers from all 3 eras at the end of the game. I decided to immediately try to build up to the challenge because ALL the building cards were green and the green district wasn't particularly attractive for street majorities. I ended up satisfying the Dynasty challenge for all 4 districts, while Peter only satisfied 3, but we were even on streets. The Dynasty challenge helped pull me into the lead because Peter had a few more skyscrapers on the board at the end of the game than I did. :) Love this game!

La Granja
Another week, another game of La Granja! This week, the money craft building was blocked out, so extra income was not available early in the game. No matter, I just put in a couple of upgrades and I was set. Peter failed to upgrade anything for a while and was really hurting for cash. I had some very nice helpers, one of whom allowed me to make a free delivery to a craft building whenever I delivered to a market barrow and another of whom allowed me to spend a coin to retain a market barrow on my farm, so I got a lot of mileage out of a single market barrow card. I ended up winning by MANY points, mostly because of Peter's lack of cash. He says he's going to beat me next time. Phooey. I dare him to try. :devil:

Steam Works
Steam Works! We are really enjoying our variant for this game. It takes us about 40-45 minutes to play and makes for a much more tense game than the regular version, which takes 90 minutes and is way too open for our tastes.

Peter played as the super powerful Duke Augustus, who starts with his Automaton in play and 5 coins, while I played as Countess Eva, who starts with only 3 coins, but is able to use electric sources to take extra machine parts and uses electric sources instead of coins to pay her workers. I ended up focusing on acquiring sources and making points with those, while Peter focused on money points. We both did both things, using each other's machines to the best of our ability, but Peter did so just a little more skillfully, winning by 1 point! ONE!:shake:

Haspelknecht
Haspelknecht! We have tried every configuration of development tiles that can be played with 2 players and I think our preferred one is the one we used this week. It forces you to go down a certain Development path, but it doesn't overly restrict you from pursuing more than one.

In this game, I did nothing but build developments, while Peter did a lot of digging. Of course, he made some developments as well, but his main focus was digging and he did very well in that regard. He managed to dig ALL the coal out of his mine. Sadly, as impressive as that was, Peter lost the game. Developments can be quite strong, especially if the fork scoring one is available and there are lots of other fork developments on the board.

IKI
I have been working on re-writing the rules to IKI with the German translator. His name is Lutz and he is an amazing human being! Anyway, that reminded me that I hadn't played IKI in a while, so I demanded that we play it this week. For some reason, Peter was reluctant. I don't think he likes it all that much, but he did agree to play.

We tend to forget the Nagaya scoring, but we didn't forget this time, which was too bad for Peter because he completely failed to block me or gain much in the way of Nagaya points himself. At one point, I had 3 purple guys in one Nagaya, which gave me 9 points! Needless to say, I won, but Peter was quite proud of his building. :)

Alhambra: Big Box
Peter LOVES Alhambra. He is so glad to see it back on the table last after a VERY long hiatus and kept asking to play it repeatedly this week again. We played a game over the weekend. We 3 expansions this time - Diamonds, Camps, and Markets.

Last week, I really focused on maximally using the Camps. This week, I focused on the Markets. I arranged my buildings perfectly and ended up netting a TONNE of points at the end of the game thanks to the Markets! I was convinced I would lose the game because I was slightly behind after the in-game scoring, but my Markets pulled me waaaaaaaaaaaay into the lead at the end! I really love the Alhambra expansions that encourage you to build in certain ways.

The Gallerist
OF COURSE we played the Gallerist again! Peter has yet to win this game because he is having trouble with the buy-low sell-high concept and with satisfying his Curator and Art Dealer. If you know anything about Peter, you should know that he always loves to do his own thing and his own thing tends not to work very well in games that aren't completely open. At any rate, in this game, I managed to satisfy BOTH my Art Dealer and Curator quite well, while Peter managed to satisfy neither one and I managed to make nice piles of cash with lots of art, while Peter managed to well...he didn't manage to do much of anything. I ended up with my highest score ever and he ended up with his lowest score ever.

The Ancient World
I am so very much in love with this game! I keep telling Peter I could play it all day every day. He doesn't share in the extent of my enthusiasm, but he does like it a lot and is willing to play at least once a week, so I'm happy. :)

I didn't do anything illegal in this game :P, unlike last week, when I mistakenly took on two of the same type of military unit at the same time! I managed to collect SO MUCH great stuff that I surprised even myself! I had a set of 6 blue cards AND the blue card that provides bonus VP for blue cards! :P I didn't set out with the intention to fight, fight, fight, but I did end up beating up on quite a few Titans...poor Titans...some of them are pretty cute...especially the eyeball one. My goal in this game is to one day collect AND FEED all of my people. I've never hired more than 1.

Roll for the Galaxy + Roll for the Galaxy: Ambition
Roll! It's back! This week, one of my early tiles was the 6-VP development that gives 2VP per 3 military dice (rounded up) and I had 2 red dice at the beginning of the game thanks to my starting tiles. The great thing about the 6-VP development I had is that it allows you to put all red dice you use to settle worlds back into your cup. Obviously, I knew I had to focus on collecting worlds and red dice. Digging through the bag did not go very well for me at first, but the more I dug, the more combinations I found (such as a super cheap development that allowed me to re-assign one of my red dice and another than allowed me to reassign white dice). I ended up winning, but only because I completed an objective at the end of the game. Had I not completed that objective, Peter would have won and he was just shipping like a mad man!

Sanssouci
I have finally redeemed myself! I won by 2 whole points! I didn't manage to push my nobles quite as far down my garden as I would have liked, but I did manage to score a bunch of bonuses early in the game, which helped me get ahead and stay ahead throughout the game. My goal in this game is always to get past 100 points and I just don't see how I will do it! I was 14 whole points away from 100!

***

Fresh Cardboard

1. Rialto - See above.
2. Valeria: Card Kingdoms - I missed the Kickstarter for this game, but BoardGameBliss kindly provided a copy for review! YAY!
3. Royal Palace - This is an older game, but one that I have been interested in trying for a while.
4. Santorini - I quite dislike abstract games, but this one had me at Roxley! It looks great and I already know how to play! No rules reading!!!
5. Finca - I got a copy of this in an auction! Super excited to play with Peter!

***

Next Week...

Look forward to Core Worlds: Revolution because I'm super excited to play more Core Worlds! Also Valeria: Card Kingdoms!

***

by Yeoster

<div>F is for Franc, all coins were used</div>

by HECTORtheTURTLE

I just played my first game of Le Havre. It was a solo game and I came here to compare my scores with the rest of the geeks. The most recent comment was exactly one year ago and my score was also 224. :surprise: No joke!

by Frikiguias

<div>Jugando a Le Havre</div>

by Vaader

Udostępniłem wersję 5:
Dodałem pasujący do standardowej koszulki 63x88 skrót akcji WG po rzucie kostką, będzie wygodniej dla tych co już znają setup i ogólne zasady - na stronie 3. Dodatkowo drobne korekty tekstu i zmiana czcionki w tabeli punktacji.
Pozostałe zasady bez zmian, nie miałem ostatnio czasu na grę i testy.

https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/129924/wariant-solo-symul...

by Steph

Hi all!

Ron was away all week!!! Again!!! It is amazing I still managed to get a few games in. I really don't do much solo gaming so I have to work it in other ways. Luckily I have a few groups and friends that enjoy my company and will play games with me. It certainly helps better to live with someone who loves gaming too.


Monday night came and I asked Joe before hand if he wanted to play Le Havre. He did but ultimately he played something different. I still managed to get the game played with Joe H and Len.

I get so lost in this game. I fear I get worse and worse with each game I play. It might just be Joe H and his amazing skillz. Not sure.

The game had a funny start with both Wharf cards near the very bottom of the first stack of buildings. Boooooo- it means late on getting ships. boooo

I bought too many boats this game. It ended up ruining me I think. To no ones surprise Joe H killed us by like 100 points. He was in the mid 200's and we were in the mid 100's like 150-160 Len and myself.

I don't mind getting owned in this game. I don't stress out about the feeding each round. I just accept the loans as they come and know I will pay them off by the end.

I still had a great time with this game and will continue to play it. I really wanted to get it played again since it was on the calendar. When I have an image on the calendar it really makes me want to play the games. I am good at selling games via photographs. :P

Always happy to play this one.

:star::star::star:



So Joe H brought along another game he was looking to play. Geoff had wanted to learn Planet Steam. we roped Dan into playing as well so we were in for a 4 player game.

Dan had played once but was not up to speed on the rules but Joe was going to explain it anyway. This game has a pretty big AP problem when playing with the wrong people. I have been in a 3 hours game of this so I was happen when it ended in an hour and forty five minutes.

This game is always so brutal and I always feel as if I do the wrong thing at the wrong time. I love the ever changing market- it is so unpredictable- it seems. I suppose if you play all of the time it might get easier to predict what will happen. For me it is just not there yet. I did better than Dan and Geoff but I was still a good 75 points under Joe H. I think i ended with 660 or so and Joe was 740? Dan did alright with 600 and Geoff was high 500's. In my experience that is not so bad. I have seen a much wider gap in points in the past.

This game I was going for energy and water mostly. I made the mistake of not buying any ore though and I was really hurting for some to upgrade my carriers. I could have been doing a lot better had I upgraded the carriers more.

It is a game that I wish I played more but it is so hard to get to the table for fear of AP and just not enough interest in learning this one. Ron likes this game and he actually bought it. But he seems to be hesitant about playing it most of the time. I think I enjoy it more than him. Oh well!

I will continue to play 1-2 times a year and be happy with that!

:star::star::star:


Tues night was Fields of Arle night!! Ron was away but I was in luck since Joe R wanted to learn! I went over to Joe's for the second night in a row and taught him my fav Arle!

Joe likes UR games like Le Havre and Argicola and I was sure he would enjoy this one as well. He was pretty sure too but wanted to play before pulling the trigger.

Joe certainly picked up this game a lot faster than all of the other players I have taught. He NEARLY beat me! Unacceptable! :P

He was working towards getting stables and animals. He had a mere 4 horses and took the Saddlery I had 8 horses and my next move was going to be to take the Saddlery. Ugh it nearly ruined me! I bounced back after that but it really screwed me over. Joe is so mean!

I managed to fill up my carraige house well and got a bunch of shipped materials. Joe worked hard on the tool track and got a bunch of points from animals.

I still managed to win this game with 127 points to Joe's 119. I was pretty nervous about that! That was a crazy game. He is a worthy opponent. I guess he will just have to ask for a rematch. Anytime!!!!!!

He liked it enough where he said he was going to add to his collection to play with Jared, his son. I do think Jared would enjoy it. But, who wouldn't!!

So glad he loved it. Still a game I want to play more and more. I love this game. Craziness!

:star::star::star:


Ron came home on the red eye and got in at 7:30am Saturday morning! Yay! Just in time to wake up and go play games with Justin and Michelle! :P Priorities- who needs sleep!

So I got a huge game order in and brought it along to game day @ Michelle's. We had 6 player to start so we went with one of my new games called Dohdles!. New to me!

I had heard some fun things about this and I was very interested in trying it out. It is a simple party game using clay. It is like a very simple Cranium only using the clay portion.

Players create 2 clay figures and that is it for the game. Then moving around the tables players get to pic a figure to gain information about it. There is a speed aspect to it where players throw their cubes in the center to get dibs on guessing first.

You want to try and make your clay piece not too easy so everyone can guess it but not too hard where no one can guess it.

In our game Justin was too good and created a clam. It was just too easy we had him re-do it. On the other hand my wonderful compass no one was able to get. I thought it was clear as mud but still no one guessed it. It worked out for me since I was still able to guess other players correctly. I ended up winning!

Simple party game it was good to try it and we had a few laughs. It certainly takes specific people to play and have a good time. Our group was ok but ultimately, it is now on the trade pile. I don't think that I will be likely to pick that one over pictomania- ever. I would play it again, however. The clay is a bit oily for my taste.

:star::star::star:


Scott had a game for us to play from the 90's called Picture Picture. New to me!

Not quite sure where Scott get's these weird 90's games but this was pretty fun. For a few rounds anyway. This is a game of Scattergories but using photographs to influence your response.

It is a nice idea but after a few round players start using the same words over and over like "nose" if there is a person in the photo they have a nose- or eye, arm, leg same thing not creative. The photos were so horribly dated. I guess it adds to the charm. hahahah sure.

I totally dominated that game. I was matching a lot of other players but I was also answering a lot of letters. it ended up working out for me. I was trying to be creative but the photos were weird and creepy.

I think we played 6 rounds and I was so far in the lead we called it quits after that. :)

It was a cute game. Not one I would play all of the time but I would certainly play again.

:star::star::star:


At this point we spilt into 2 groups of 3 and I joined Scott and Justin in a game of The Voyages of Marco Polo.

Ron and Michelle were interested in Gallerist and I was most definitely not. Scott brought it awesome pimped out version of Marco Polo and I have been itching to play this game more so it is cool we got to play.

I did a quick re-cap for Justin who had played once a few months back.

Scott got first dibs at characters and took the gift taker :( I wanted that one. I choose Marco Polo since I am not sure I have ever actually played with him. He is pretty damn awesome. Justin took the one that offered both spaces to move and get goods. All characters were great in my opinion so -it worked out.

First time in a LONG time that no one had the thief that takes from the market spaces that people go on. we could go there freely and not have to worry! It was glorious!

I actually was playing Marco Polo very well. Well enough that I was impressed with my score at the end. I managed to complete 10 contracts! and not once had to go to the contract space! How often can you say that?! never... that's right. I kept pulling contracts that gave other contracts and managed to acquire a gift that gave a contract even the bonus for getting to a city gave me a contract. It all worked out very well for me.

In my game I ended up going to Sumatra- I never go there! But the spaces it provided were just too good to pass up since I wasn't sure I could complete my travels to my locations anyway. In retrospect I could have possibly done the locations and gotten more points so perhaps I made a big error in my ways. I ended up losing by 2 points to Scott. I still managed to get 77 points or so - I call it a good game. And poor Justin further behind but he wasn't as experienced. Everyone had a good time! I think it is a really good game and I am still happy to play it all of the time!

:star::star::star:



Justin went to make some grilled items and Pat showed up so Scott, Pat and I played a game of Cat Tower. New to me!

This is a game very much like Rhino Hero missed with Animal upon Animal. You are stacking cats up and trying to not make them fall. You roll a die to tell you how many to place or if someone else had to do it for you or by placing a fatty catty. A very simple dex game good for all ages. I had a lot of fun with it.

I was doing so well! I was going to win. I kept making other players play my kitty cards by rolling very well. But, Pat got me back in the final turn and made me place for him when it was tilted and I dropped the fatty catty :( That immediately gave Pat the leg up to win on his turn.

I need to photograph this game with my real camera on my black table I will do a better job. It is a very nice cute game to look at. Pat was making some good faces too. We had a good time playing this one. I am sure it will get played a bunch in the future.

:star::star::star:



Joe C showed up and Scott, Pat, Joe and I got to playing Brew Crafters. I was excited to play this again. It was Scott's copy and while he made cool customer trays it was not as nifty as Riley's cool insert. This is another game I would really like to photograph well. My camera photos just don't do it justice. :soblue:

All in good time I suppose.

I am not going to go into detail about this play because I don't have much nice to say. :yuk:

While I still very much enjoy this game this play was particularly bad. I would really like my next play to have advance set up with variability in the techs.

We were teaching Pat this game and he caught on pretty quickly and had an okay game. He enjoyed it though and would play again. Pat is pretty easy to please. :)

Joe C ended up winning this one by a landslide so he was over the moon about that. Joe C is the best- there I said it. :P

:star::star::star:



Ron joined our group and we played 2 games of 7 Wonders. We had the expansions added but not Babel. For some reason people are not fans of Babel. Makes me sad.

Anyway, the first game we played I was Babylon and the second game I played was Stonehenge.

The first game I made the mistake of going for Science when like a bunch of players were already collecting. I got a few points from there but I should have been focused elsewhere. I still did middle of the road that game.

The second game I was Stonehenge and made it my goal to get black cards. I ended up getting 9 black cards! and almost all of my points were coming from those cards and my leaders for those cards. I did better than my first game but it still wasn't enough to win the game. I think I was second though.

I wish I got a photo of all of the black cards. It was quite impressive!!

I have to say I very much enjoy this game and I am glad we got to play it twice. I am sad I didn't win a game though. We should have played 5 times to make it fair. ;) I was happy everyone playing the game actually likes this game. It seems so hard to get this to the table these days.

:star::star::star:



Nearing the end of the night. We played a 6p game of Celestia.

I really enjoy Cloud 9 but celestia is so damn beautiful! It really is a winner. You don't know how many points people have- which actually might pose a problem. I got an early 25 point card and was a target the rest of the game. I ended up losing pretty handily. People know you have one high card and everyone else gets middle of the road cards they will win.

I got kicked off the boat 3 different times from 2 different people. So if I had to say something it would be that's BS. Hidden information is not always good information. At least it is a fast game.

The art is a dream and it is a fun late night game of push your luck. I think Ron or Michelle ended up tied for the win. Michelle might have won on tie breaker though.

Fun game and should be played more.

:star::star::star:



The final game of the night was actually an oldie that brought back tons of childhood memories. A game called Sharp Shooters.

So yeah, it had been years and years since I played this one and it handled 6 so we got to the gambling- I mean push your luck. :P

Throw some dice and score some tokens. Screw over some players it was all good fun. The best was when there was negative points to be had and dice kept being rolled it went around the table over 2 full times before someone got screwed over. It was hilarious and so great!

I managed in the round I was going first to roll and complete two rows of all 6s. It was crazy and awesome! I was totally impressed with myself!

I thought for sure I would win this game. I ended with 420 points! Michelle beat me with 440 in the last second! Nooooooo 3rd place was around 270 so we were VERY far in the lead and Joe was last and managed to get a few bucks more than what he started with. Nice going Joe. :D

:star::star::star:


Sunday Ron had some things to do around the house but we did get to playing one of my new games called Samara. New to me!

Ron read the rules and they were pretty easy he said- We had no issue but apparently some people have had issues with that.

It is actually a very simple game with a cool moving mechanic. It is worker placement but the way it happens is very unique. You are just trying to collect tools to build the buildings and collect the points. Some buildings have powers that effect other plyers or help your position. I also picked up the mini expansions which are great to add to the replay value. I can see the base game getting a bit same-y but with the expansion (haven't played yet) you are given personal end goals to work towards to.

What's cool about the worker placement is that you can move them out so far and wait for everyone to catch up. You need certain amount of workers to collect specific tiles and tools. The boards with the months move as you go so you have to be careful and plan well enough to utilize them the best you can. It is strange but pretty cool. Kind of falls in the same weight as Sanssouci. I think a tiny bit heavier but I place them in the same category. the expansion will add some more depth too.

I quite enjoyed this. I think it will be better with more players. 2 players is just fine and I am sure I will play it again but with 4 or 5 I think the board will become more meaningful and you have to plan even better for what you want to accomplish. With 2p it seems open and you can just come and go as you see fit and collect some high tiles or not.


I am definitely looking forward to playing this again, probably tonight.

In our game Ron was working on some of the smaller buildings and I was focused on getting the higher point ones and some ongoing benefits, which turned out not to help me as much.

I managed to collect a bunch of points @ 41 but Ron beat me out with 43 points. Curses!!!! I will show him next time. It was my own fault though. the black buildings require you to give up tools to the space that you purchased it. I bought one that cost 2 tools and Ron got the remainder of the buildings. Doh! I know better for next time.

:star::star::star:


The final late night game we got to playing was Caverna: The Cave Farmers.

Again, I wore my Caverna shirt to Saturday game day and didn't get the game played so I made Ron play with me on Sunday to make up for it.

Ron was trying who knows what and I made it a goal early on to go for the Cows. I ended up buying the Breakfast room that holds 3 cows! 0 points! Ugh!

It paid off in the end since I managed to get 12 (!) cows by the end. I should have had a few more but I messed up!

My cow strategy paid off!!! I have tried that before but it never worked. I ended with a score of 87 and Ron doesn't want to talk about his score but it was something like 20 below mine. He is not so sure what happened.

I swear he plays much better with more players. I play better @ 2players... hahah

I ended up getting a 3rd dwarf- so much work to get that 3rd dwarf but it was ok since h paid off in the end. I had TONS of left over food at the end- I am so wasteful! :P

I am happy with my game play though. I love this game.

:star::star::star:



That's it for the week!! Today is insane it is just snowing and snowing here in MA- insane. WHY IS IT SNOWING?!?! not fair. It needs to stop asap and go away. So frustrating. It is April!!


I hope you all have a great week! I have a lot of fun events coming up in the next few weeks so hooray for that!! :D





I hope you all have a great week!!

Thanks for reading!


Until next week!


Happy Gaming!!!


-Steph

by Arctanas

Hey, I got a quick question that I could not find in the rules book. If someone uses a building for example the no entry cost building Firm on one turn, then wants to use it again on the next without moving somewhere else first, is this possible? Or must he first move away from the building firm and do something else before he can move back to it? / Forced to use a different firm?

Thanks!

by Yeoster

In your example, he needs to move away from the building firm during the current turn before coming back to use it in a later turn.

Or, if he owns the building firm, he can sell it immediately to the town for half the value, which evicts his player token out of the building, and he may then enter to use it this turn, paying for the entry costs, if any.

by Arctanas

Ah, thank you so much!

by dmoser22

Yeoster wrote:

Or, if he owns the building firm, he can sell it immediately to the town for half the value, which evicts his player token out of the building, and he may then enter to use it this turn, paying for the entry costs, if any.

Or, if the town owns the building, he can buy it immediately, which will also evict him, and then he may re-enter it immediately.

BTW, the rule you're looking for is in the sidebar of page 5 of my copy of the rules:

"Buildings are only used when they are entered. A player may not re-use a building that already contains his Person disc."

-djm

by M.J.E. Hendriks

Today I wanted to talk about kid's games. When I say talk about games for kids, I generally mean games for (really) young children, as - if exposed to boardgames at a young enough age - children are generally capable of playing most serious board games from ages 5 and up. From that age my son learnt to play The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game with me, before he could even read. He also played several other games, like Agricola (without the cards), Le Havre, Memoir '44, Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery, Carcassonne, Arkham Horror and other 'crazy' games, even moving on to Mage Knight Board Game. He especially enjoyed the cooperative games where we'd play with the cards open and help each other out.

When he was approaching the age of 3, my son had been playing a number of games already which we have recently (over the last year) been playing a lot with my daughter, who's turning 3 in May. The main idea in playing with children that young is that they learn that in games you have turns, and that you wait for your turn. I teach them that they need to respect games, and that they should wash their hands before they play a game. Furthermore, I teach them they need to take a break from going crazy, running around, etc., and make a game part of a short period of time devoted to doing things together.

The first games we start with, before our kids turned 2, in fact, are Animal Upon Animal and Mein erstes Mitmach-Spiel. Animal upon Animal is a lovely building game that really works well. You can implement turns, but there is no absolute need for it, you can work on dexterity, but I often did the tougher animals for her, so as to reach a higher tower, and when the tower of animals falls over, which it's bound to do, you can have a big ol' laugh about it. Animal upon Animal has a number of different variants described in the rules, with no real definite rule set prescribed, but we always just played in one way: mix the tiles, draw a tile, name the animal, grab the animal, and place it on top of the previous animal. You win cooperatively if you manage to place all the animals on top of one another (and then you nudge the table so they all fall, and have a great big laugh about it), or the tower comes down sooner and then you lose. (And yes, I log all these plays too... - I/we've played 29 games with her.) The game has farm animals, laughter, well, what's not to like, right?

Mein erstes mitmach spiel, or, in English, My First Cooperative Boardgame, is another fantastic game to use to introduce your child to the marvelous world of boardgames. In this game you learn about turns, rolling the die, and achieving a communal goal. The game tells the story of a mouse, and the players have to build a tent for this mouse to sleep in. You do so by going round the game board (a circle of about 12 spots) and performing actions when you land in a specific space. In a blue action space you draw from a pile of tiles depicting animals. The player then has to make the sound of that animal. Our house rule is that we all need to make that sound (and this counts for every action!) - ever so much more fun! The yellow action space is connected to a physical activity, like forming a circle and singing a song - we always go for my daughter's (and before her my son's) favorite: Ring Around the Rosy. Finally, there's the Red action space which has you (and using our rules, everyone else as well) perform an activity like a finger play, like 'This Little Piggy...'. All in all the game is wildly popular with our kids during this age, because they get to sit around with their parents, hold hands, sing songs, do little dances, make strange sounds, it's all wonderful fun.

From there we move on to Orchard. The collecting of the fruit, and the rolling of the die, the taking turns, and winning (or losing to that bird stealing all our fruit) is a wonderful experience everytime. We generally play just with the two of us (which is, in general, the best way to play games with such little children, as waiting for your turn is something that stretches their patience thin), and we each take two baskets and fill them with the fruit. It's wonderfully pleasant to be playing a fruit picker, filling one's basket with fruit, and when other kids come over they always enjoy this one too (even though they're generally much older).

I've played other games as well, such as Gary Gouda (you roll a d4, move your mouse through a maze, and try to eat as much as possible), but this is a game (like most of the other games, actually), that is best played on the floor, so that the child can actually look into the maze and see what's going on. There are some other games I've played with my daughter (and son) as well, but they're mainly roll and move. Games like Das Schneemann Spiel. They are fine, I guess, but they don't bring the wild excitement of laughter of the other games mentioned.

Recently I got to thinking about our favorite kid's game, Gulo Gulo (by, among other designers, Wolfgang Kramer, and how our daughter ought to be able to play that soon. I checked my logs on BGG for my son, and found out we had played the game with him before he turned 3! I had to wait for a few weeks for the construction work to finish, but when I had my gaming room set up, I figured it was time for Gulo Gulo to make its entrance, though I dreaded it a little, as its a game of precision and concentration, and my daughter is much more boisterous than my pensive son. We started playing and within seconds my daughter's heart was won over. As all kids, she is great at playing this game, though she doesn't mind losing either. She loves it when the alarm stick falls out, laughing loudly, but boy is she concentrated and carefully, indeed meticulously precise when she needs to be. This was 9 days ago and I already have 16 games logged. We have played every single day I believe, often twice a day, and she is constantly asking for it. This is easily our favorite game, and it's fun for adults and children (as long as you don't get too frustrated by your children's nimble fingers winning out). The artwork and the theme is fantastic, and my daughter always has to laugh at the wolverines in their various poses.

Recently a new version of this hard-to-find, out-of-print game was released, Pharaoh's Gulo Gulo. Now, Gulo Gulo was labeled for children 5+, with us not even playing the game after my son turned 4 (we had played it that often!). But this new version has a few complications added to it and a theme that does not fit the age group at all (Egyptian, mummies, hieroglyphs, etc.). Logically, the age indication of the game has gone up - 7+ now. A ridiculous change that has caught a lot of flack on the forums already as well for this fantastic game. A pity, I have to say. Sure, you can play without the scarab beetles which add a little complexity to the game, and then the game is pretty much the same as the original, but the theme doesn't do it justice. A great pity, I think.

What games do you play with your children, or your nephews and nieces or what not?

by Vaader

Wersja 6 zmiany:
1)Dodałem nową zasadę, która może jeszcze bardziej podnieść emocje pod koniec gry - przeczytaj punkt 11 :)
2)Usunąłem dodatkowe płacenie frankami pod koniec tury. Okazuje się, że nic nie wnosi do rozgrywki, wprowadza tylko większą manipulację pożyczkami, blokuje korzystanie z budynków miejskich lub WG i niepotrzebnie wydłuża grę.
3)Uprościłem zasady działania Sabotażysty - usunąłem opcję kradzieży, sprawiała, że mniej opłacało się inwestować we własne budynki, dodatkowy rzut kością niepotrzebnie wydłużał grę.
4)Opcje zaawansowanych są opisane pod koniec jako utrudnienia.
5)Podniosłem nieco limit punktów zwycięstwa w wersji dla zaawansowanych.
6)W tabeli punktacji dodałem rubrykę - utrudnienia, aby można było zaznaczyć dodatkowe opcje gry.
7)Drobne korekty w tekście.

https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/129924/wariant-solo-symul...

by David Grabiner

And here's a comparison if the Cokery is not available:

Colliery: take four coal
Ironworks: take three iron
Colliery: take four coal
Steel Mill: use five coal, convert three iron to steel
Wharf: use one coal, build luxury liner (or steel ship and save one steel)

Net after five turns: two spare coal, one spare steel if you built a steel ship. Entry fees are 3 francs and 6 food.

Building two steel ships is much more effort with no cokery.

Wood offer: take six wood
Wood offer: take six wood
Charcoal Kiln: make 12 charcoal
Ironworks: use two charcoal to take four iron
Steel Mill: use seven charcoal, convert four iron to steel
Wharf: use one charcoal, build steel ship
Wharf: use one charcoal, build steel ship

Net after seven turns: one charcoal left. Entry fees are 3 francs and 4 food, which are 1.5 francs and 2 food per ship. And this depends on the wood offer getting to 6 and you still having the chance to use it.