This was the week of the horrible root canal and filling. I'm still in pain, but I have hope that it will settle soon and I'm too excited to really care because Peter and I are going to Dice Tower Con next week! Yay! I can't wait for a nice long block of gaming and nothing but gaming! I also went a little nuts with the new games this week. :P I couldn't resist cracking Scythe open even though I WAS planning to wait until AFTER Dice Tower Con to give it a full and proper review. Oh well. I guess this will be a preview of the awesomeness that awaits! :P
Stellar Conflict is a game of frenzied conflict between alien races in the Among the Stars universe. In this game, players build a deck of ship cards, play those cards to the table, and then watch everything explode in a fireball mess!
Each player selects a race to play and takes the deck of ship cards for that race. Each player also receives all the damage tokens of that color.
Players must then decide the scale of the battle they would like to play. If playing a Dispute, they can each select ships with a total credit value of up to 10. If playing a Conflict, this becomes 15 credits. If playing a War, this can be up to 30 credits.
Then, each player shuffles his deck of cards, places his cargo ship on top of the stack and flag ship on the bottom of the stack.
If playing a Dispute, set a timer to 30 seconds. If playing a Conflict, set a timer to 60 seconds. If playing a War, set a timer to 120 seconds.
After this preparatory phase, players simultaneously draw the top card of their deck, placing it anywhere on the table and re-orienting it as they see fit. However, once a player removes his finger from the ship card, the ship is deployed and may not be moved again. Players continue to do this until the timer runs out.
Once the timer runs out, the ships go into battle. Ships fire based on their initiative (top-left corner), with those with lower initiative firing first. Players use their damage tokens to keep track of how much damage their ships have dealt. Some ships have shields, which prevent damage, and others have special abilities that prevent them from getting damaged or modify the type of damage they deal.
There are 3 basic sizes of laser beams. Purple does 1 damage, red does 2 damage, and green does 3 damage. When a ship has incurred damage equal to or higher than its hull points (below initiative on top left side), it is destroyed and removed from the playing area.
Cargo ships are special. These are loaded with 8 cargo cubes at the start of combat. When a cargo ship is hit, cargo cubes equal to the amount of damage taken are moved onto the ship that hit it. As soon as a cargo ship loses its last cargo, it is removed from the game.
Friendly fire also deals damage, so you can end up destroying your own ships. This is important because ALL destroyed ships go into the opponent's "kill pile," regardless of who destroyed the ships. Players score the number of points shown in the top right-hand corner of each of the ships in their "kill piles," 1 VP per stolen cargo cube, and 1 VP per cargo cube remaining on their own cargo ships.
:) 1. Very pretty
I love the art in all games set in the Among the Stars universe and Stellar Conflict also features the same stellar art! It's thematically appropriate and vibrant and pretty!
:) 2. Very fast
In any form, Stellar Conflict is a super speedy game! The bulk of the time is spent planning your deck and administering the scoring phase at the end, but even with those factored in, the game only takes about 10 minutes to play. The short version of the game plays out in 30 seconds, the medium in 60, and the long in 120! I never thought I'd be calling "120 SECONDS" a long game! :P
:) 3. Very fun
Stellar Conflict brings fun to the fore by limiting players' time to stew on tactics during the execution phase and randomizing the contents of players' strategically constructed decks. The timed nature of the execution phase makes this particular phase of the game feel frantic and challenging and means that mistakes are bound to occur. And when they do, you will have no choice but to laugh at your stupidity as you blow up your own ships! Because the game is so short, this is funny rather than frustrating.
Stellar Conflict does not pretend to be a deep strategy game. What it is is a deeply immersive 30-second frantic speed game of fun and laughs and that's pretty darn cool! There's nothing quite like it! (other than the original game on which this one was based, of course ;))
:) 4. A decent amount to think about given how quick the game is
Stellar Conflict is neither a deep nor cerebral game. But given its 30-second play time (5 minutes if you take the whole thing into account), it gives players enough to think about to make them feel like they have agency in the game. Most of this thinking goes on during the deck-building stage of the game. You have a limited number of credits to spend and can either build a large deck with many low-value ships in an attempt to overwhelm your opponent by sheer number or a small deck with a few high-value ships that do a lot of damage to ensure that you have enough time to optimally place these ships and to get to your most powerful fleet ship! And you have to tune your deck to the abilities and possibilities given you by the faction you are playing...
:) 5. Four factions with many cards and variants make for lots of variability
Stellar Conflict comes with four factions, each with a slightly different focus and slightly different abilities. The Wiss have blue lasers that delay other ships instead of damaging them, which may result in their getting blown up before they even have the opportunity to fire. The Vak have shield-penetrating lasers. The Hexai have ships that can shoot at two different initiatives. The Trakatori have 0-credit scout ships. These differences encourage you to build your deck differently depending on which faction you're using and encourage you to play your ships differently during the execution phase. If you are playing with the Trakatori, you definitely want to capitalize on your free and VP-devoid ships to try to overwhelm your opponent with little jabs and to possibly use them to block your cargo ship or more valuable ships from attack. However, a bigger deck will make your execution phase particularly frantic, limiting your ability to plan as you place your ships. If you have the Hexai, you want to include your double-initiative ships and perhaps build a smaller deck to allow yourself the time to optimally position those. Either way, you will have to adjust your deck-building and execution strategies to align with the abilities of your faction.
Not only are there four playable factions in this game, but a couple of variants that change to feel of the game are also provided in the rulebook. The first is an "asteroid" variant in which 1-5 asteroids with cargo cubes are placed on the table at the start of the game in place of cargo ships. Particularly when you add a higher number of asteroids, the focus of games with this variant shifts from trying to point all your ships in the direction of your opponent to hiding behind asteroids and trying to point as many ships in the direction of the asteroids as well as opponent ships.
The other variant is a "stolen goods" variant. In the normal game, every time a ship with goods stolen from a cargo ship is destroyed, those goods are destroyed along with it. In the variant, the stolen goods may be stolen again.
Damage markers
:soblue: 1. Takes disproportionately longer to score than to play
Stellar Conflict takes just as long to score as it does to play. This isn't terribly problematic when playing a short 2-player game, but it does become increasingly arduous with the longer versions of the game.
:soblue: 2. The chaos and the scoring time would be too much for me at higher player counts and if you're like me, you might want to stay away from this at higher player counts
Stellar Conflict is a chaotic game. Even with two players, it is frantic and fast. But it is also fun and you are able to process everything that is happening to a moderate extent. With more players throwing ships everywhere, I personally would just find the whole thing chaotic, random, and overwhelming. I haven't experienced this, but I don't need to experience it to know that it would not appeal to me.
With more players involved, there would also be more ships on the board and more time would be required to go through the battle resolution stage of the game, which would, for me, reduce the fun of the game.
I can't think of another game that embodies the word "filler" as well as Stellar Conflict does. It is light on the brain and light on time, but provides a hefty dose of fun in the time that it does take to play. While I wouldn't consider playing it at higher player counts or in its longer forms again, I would happily play the short and medium versions with one other person any time and anywhere. :)
BattleCon is a (primarily) 2-player fighting game that simulates the old 2D fighting games like Street Fighter and Mortal Combat and does so incredibly well! In this game, players select pairs of cards (called a style and a base) to determine their range, attack value, and priority and then execute their attacks and special abilities in initiative order. The last man standing (or the one with more hit points at the end of 15 rounds) is the winner!
BattleCon: Devastation of Indines comes with 30 playable characters that are divided into 5 "flights." Characters in lower flights have simpler abilities like pure attack power, while those in higher flights have more difficult abilities that may alter the conditions under which your opponent is eliminated.
At the start of the game, you will select a character and take all of that character's cards, which will include 5 styles, 1 finisher, 1 base, and possibly other cards as determined by that character's special abilities. You will also take a set of 6 generic bases.
Marmalee's style cards, base, and finisher
Generic bases
The board is set up by placing the standees of the characters in play on indicated spaces on the board and setting each character's life point dial to 20. You will also set the round dial to 1.
Each player will select 2 bases and 2 styles, placing 1 base and 1 style in discard pile 1 and the other in discard pile 1. These will be unavailable either until 1 or 2 rounds later.
Each round in BattleCon proceeds as follows.
1. Select attack pairs
An attack pair consists of 1 style and 1 base. You select these and place them face down in front of you.
An attack pair has power, range, and priority of the base card + the modifiers to each of these of the style card. Both the base and style cards may have special abilities.
2. Ante tokens
If your character allows you to ante tokens, you can do so during this phase.
3. Reveal attack pairs
Both players simultaneously reveal their attack pairs. Reveal effects on cards occur at this time. Once these have been resolved, priorities of the attacks are checked and the character with a higher priority executes his attack first.
4. Execute attacks
First, you perform any "before activating" effects on your cards, then you check whether your opponent is within the range of your attack. Then you resolve "on hit" effects and damage your opponent by the number of hit points indicated by your attack pair's "power" value. If you managed to do any damage, you resolve any "on damage" effects. Also, if your opponent doesn't have enough soak (which reduces the power of the attack) or stun guard (which is how many hit points you can take before you are stunned), he will be stunned and unable to launch a reactive attack. Otherwise, he launches a reactive attack at this point.
5. Recycle
Both players activate "end of beat" effects on their cards. Then, both players pick up their second discard pile, move the first into the second slot, and place their current attack pairs on their first discard slots. As such, you will have to wait two round before you can use cards that were part of an attack pair again.
The game ends either after 15 rounds, at which point the player with more hit points remaining will be the winner or when one player has been eliminated.
The game comes with a number of variants, including a co-op mode in which players fight against a variety of monsters.
One of the enemies players can face
Also included are these options to alter the arena environment.
:) 1. So beautiful!
One of the things that drew me to this game was the artwork. I love anime/manga-style art and I love the vibrant standees and cards in this game. Everything in the box is well produced too! From the gorgeous and highly functional life and round counters to the cardstock used for the cards, all the bits are impressive. :)
:) 2. So much stuff in the box! So much addiction-inducing goodness!
The first thing you will see when you open your box of Devastation of Indines is this:
I must admit that I did panic when I first opened the box. In my mind, I had put this game in the category of "relatively simple and quick playing." I was also assuming it wouldn't take too long to learn. I was right in thinking those things, but the box contents and the thick manual didn't seem to align with those thoughts and led me to close the lid and shove the game back under my bed the first time I considered trying to learn it.
Strangely, that initial reaction of aversion to the amount of stuff in the box has become the thing that keeps drawing me back to play the game. It's precisely the sheer number and variety of characters and abilities and gameplay variants, including co-op modes and a variety of arena environments, that makes me want to keep taking the box out in an effort to explore it all. I want to experience the dozens of different tokens and abilities and all the versions of the game! The characters are particularly alluring for me, as every character is so different from the next that every time I try a new one, I feel like I'm playing a totally different game. And I want to play all the games in this box! But as much as I have enjoyed dabbling with a variety of characters, I have also enjoyed exploring one more deeply. And that's where this game shines! Not only does it feature a breathtaking amount of superficial variety with dozens of different characters, variants for co-op play, and more, it also has an incredible amount of underlying depth. The variety introduced by the dozens of characters, tokens, and abilities pales in comparison when it comes to encouraging me to play the game to the dozens of possible attack combinations that each fighter can make and the way these interact with those of your opponent.
:) 3. Super simple rules and super quick to play but so deep
The basic rules of BattleCon are super simple. You select an attack pair and reveal and execute! Boom! That's your turn. Your goal is simple too! All you have to do is take out your opponent before he takes you out or survive 15 rounds with more hit points. And in spite of this simplicity, the game creates a deep and rich experience that gives you SO MUCH to think about.
Your fighters have 3 different stats - power, range, and initiative. Those stats are split over two cards that may include special abilities and further modifiers. As such, you have to constantly make tradeoffs between power and effects you would really like to execute. If you need to deal damage to have your effects go off, you also have to keep initiative in mind and try to save your high-initiative cards for times when you really need them and times when you can see your opponent doesn't have his high-initiative cards available to him. If you are stunned before you can deal any damage, your damage effects will not trigger, so keeping track of initiative is very important.
In addition to the details of combat and effect triggers, you also have to keep your overall strategy in mind. That will depend both on your character's and your opponent's character's abilities and styles. As such, it is something that will take time to develop, as it will take time to become familiar with the various characters in the game and the ways in which they interact. In all honestly, I feel like I could play two characters against each other a dozen times and still have discoveries to make due to the extent of the subtle interactions between them and the extent to which this game is a mind game between players. Knowing your opponent (and not just his character) is a huge part of playing BattleCon well and developing that knowledge is part of the depth of the game.
There are many layers to BattleCon. The endless superficial variety is actually bolstered by a layer of depth in decision making and player interaction.
:) 4. Allows you to form informed long-term and short-term decisions
It might not look like it, but BattleCon is super strategic. Yes, it is a card game, but it is a card game of near perfect information. You know exactly which cards you have available to you now and which cards you will have available to you in one and two rounds. You also have this exact same information for your opponent. As such, you can make both tactical and strategic plays that are grounded in your knowledge of the cards and the way your opponent plays. I wouldn't go so far as to state that there is zero randomness in BattleCon, as you can't know with absolute certainty which cards your opponent will select and how a particular round will unfold, I would say that you will definitely make INFORMED tactical decisions in BattleCon and those decisions will become increasingly better informed the more you play.
:) 5. Characters appear to be well balanced
We haven't played all the fighters against each other (not even close!) and we haven't played the game hundreds of times, so I can't really make any strong proclamation to its balance at this point, but I can say that I was incredibly impressed with how balanced the characters appear to be. Every matchup has been tight and exciting and every victory has been marginal.
:) 6. So many powerful ladies! :)
Yes, some of them are hilarious busty caricatures, but I'm honestly just happy that I have SO MANY playable female characters to choose from! And many of them are just cool and powerful gals! I LOVE LOVE LOVE THAT! I will never be forced to play a male character in this game!
:) 7. Game grows with you
BattleCon is a game that grows with you as you play. As I mentioned in the overview, the characters in the game are divided into "flights," which are basically sets of characters of increasing complexity. This is very helpful when learning the game, allowing you to start with characters that are easy to play, and allowing you to gradually ramp up the challenge as you become proficient with the system. The flight system is very effective at introducing new concepts and advanced aspects to the game and allows the game to grow with players. Even the early flights and beginner-level characters provide a lot to explore in terms of combining a variety of attacks, but when you feel confident in your skills with those, you have loads of moderate and advanced fighters to dig into. And while the beginner-level characters mostly focus on simpler aspects of the game like attacking and defending, the advanced characters can drastically the objective of the game and the environment in which it takes place.
:) 8. Very evocative of theme
BattleCon is a highly interactive, highly aggressive, fast-paced game. Battles are tight and you always feel like you have a chance at victory! And that's perfect for a battle arena filled with strong fighters.
The characters in this game are also incredibly evocative of their personalities. The illustrations give you a clue as to how they will function, but their actual styles are so well conceived that they draw you into their minds (yes, fictional game characters have minds!:P). One of my favorite characters to play thus far has been Callista, the Dragon Queen. She looks a little promiscuous and a lot evil. She has petrification counters that she can give to her opponent at the end of each beat if the opponent is adjacent to her and she was not stunned. If an opponent would receive a 6th petrification counter, he is eliminated from the game! This ability means that the strategy you take with Callista will most likely involve drawing your opponent close and then slowly taking him off with your little poisonous snakes! How cool is that!? I felt like a seductive femme fatale the entire time I was playing her! Come close so I can poison you! :P SO MUCH FUN!!! I'm sure the designer had a lot of fun with these! And now we can have fun with them too!
:soblue: 1. What's up with the insert?
Either I'm totally clueless in how to make inserts work or this insert was only intended to store the game pieces during shipping. Once all the game pieces have been assembled and the various characters' style cards placed in their sleeves, the game doesn't fit into the insert. Try as I might, I couldn't make it work, so I recycled it. I only mention this because I am literally grasping at air. I have no real criticisms for this game. It's all kinds of awesome!
If you're looking for an infinitely replayable, gorgeous, immersive, fast, and fun 2-player card game that plays like a video game, look no further than BattleCon! It is cool beans! And I don't even like fighting games! In video or analog form! :P What drew me to BattleCon was a) Brad Talton, the designer, b) Level99 games, Brad's publishing company that has produced only games I've enjoyed, and c) the pretty, pretty art (yes, I like pretty things). That was enough. I did enjoy Magic:The Gathering and Android Netrunner and Blue Moon as player-vs-player dueling games, but I had never before experienced a tabletop fighting simulator like BattleCon. Street Fighter and Mortal Combat and other such fighting video games have never appealed to me because they always make me nauseated, I could never mash buttons quickly enough to accomplish anything, and I never cared to improve my button mashing skills. I like to keep my fingers fresh for typing :P! All that is to say that I didn't have the highest of expectations for BattleCon. And perhaps that worked in its favor, allowing me to relish in all its joys without a cloud of grand expectations.
BattleCon allows me to engage not in a battle of dexterity and reflexes, but in a battle of wits. Those battles are more interesting and satisfying to me. I will never be a fan of fighting video games on which BattleCon was based, but I will forever love BattleCon.
I love this girl!
The Castles of Burgundy card game is a card-based distillation of the original Castles of Burgundy board game by Stefan Feld. Nearly all aspects of the original have been transposed onto a card format in a relatively fresh and interesting way.
Each player receives 1 project, 1 estate, and 1 storage card, placing these in front of him. Each player also receives 1 good card and 1 animal card, placing these in his storage. Finally, each player receives 6 random action cards that he shuffles and draws 2 of these. These cards represent a player's dice pool.
The starting player receives the starting player card and the second player receives 1 worker card.
The display cards, which feature 1 through 6-pip die faces, are arranged in a row and 7 action cards (in a 2-player game) are placed face-up below these. The first 6 action cards drawn are placed below the display cards from left to right and the 7th is placed under the action card with the same pip value as shown on the 7th card.
The 7 "triplet" bonus cards are placed face-up in a row. The first player to form a triplet of each type during the course of the game will receive the corresponding bonus card, which will be worth 1 VP at the end of the game. The 4 "type" bonus cards are placed in a stack, with the card showing a 4 placed on top. The first player to have all types of action cards in his estate will receive the top card, the second one the one below, and so on.
Triplet completion bonuses
"All type" completion bonuses
The 5 round cards are placed in a stack, with A on top. These show the bonuses that players receive for making triplets in each round.
The game is played over 5 rounds (A to E) and each player gets 6 turns (determined by his action card deck) in each round.
On your turn, you will select one of your two action cards and place it in a common discard pile, performing one of the following 6 actions:
1. Take an action card from the display below the display row card with the same pip value as the card you discarded. Place this action card in your project area.
2. Place a card from your project area with the same pip value as the card you discarded into your estate area. You immediately gain the bonus shown on the card. A mine will give you 2 silver. A knowledge card will give you two workers. A ship will give you 1 good into your storage. A pasture will give you 1 animal. A castle will give you a bonus action. A cloister has no immediate bonus, but can be placed with any other group of cards to become a card of that type. Buildings provide a variety of bonuses, including 3 silver cards, 1 VP card, 1 good or animal, a bonus sell action, etc.
Identical cards are placed on top of each other. If you are the first player to gain a triplet of a particular type of card, you receive the bonus card for that triplet, as well as the round bonus, which may take the form of workers, animal cards, good cards, and/or silver.
Round bonuses
3. Sell all goods with the same pip value as the card you discarded, moving them from your storage to your estate. You gain 1 silver for each good sold and will gain points for these goods at the end of the game. You also receive the 1st player card and will be the starting player in the next round unless someone else ships their goods during the current round.
Goods
4. Restock your worker cards to 2
5. Take 1 silver
6. Regardless of the pip value of the card you discarded, you may convert any number of workers and/or silver into VP at a rate of 3 to 1.
You may use worker cards to change the pip value of the card you discard by 1. You may also spend 3 silver at any time during your turn to take the top 3 cards of the action card pile, select one, and use it to perform one of the above 6 actions.
At the end of the game, players gain points for
*triplets in their estates
*bonus cards
*victory point cards
*sold goods
*animals (4 different: 4 VP; 3 different: 2VP; 2 different: 1VP)
*start player card
Animals
:) 1. Fast paced and quick
The Castles of Burgundy takes us about 45 minutes play. The Castles of Burgundy Card Game takes about 15-20 minutes. That's over 50% in time savings! :) And the card game is no less interesting for its time savings!
:) 2. Too many things too do in too little time
The Castles of Burgundy Card Game is TIGHT! Just as you think you're going to complete yet another awesome triplet or get that "all type" bonus, you realize you only have one or two turns to do it and your cards won't let you. I already addressed how quickly this game can be played and the low time commitment required to play is directly related to the sense of having too much to do in too little time. You have only 5 rounds and 6 actions in each round to make as many triplets as you can, collect and ship as many goods as you can, and get as many of those triplet bonuses as you can! And that means that you have to be as economical about your actions and as wise about the combinations of buildings you take into your projects as possible. Wasting an action to take a single worker, for example, is generally unwise, but if it allows you to set off a combo chain using the buildings in your project area, it might be worth doing.
I love the economy of actions in this game and the great sense of foreboding that always washes over me in the penultimate round. What do you mean we're almost done!? I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING YET!!!!!
:) 3. Many different strategies to explore and you have to pick and choose among them
The Castles of Burgundy Card Game is tight, but it's also relatively open strategically. You have a number of different options on which to focus your strategy. Collecting and shipping goods and collecting animals seem to be the most lucrative and a selective strategy, focused only on getting a couple of building types into your estate can be a sound one. Alternatively, you can focus on a large variety of building types and try to race for the "all types" bonus, along with the collecting as many of the triplet bonuses as you can. You also have to decide whether you will focus on buildings that will give you lots of points or buildings that will give you benefits you desire. The cloisters, for example, are worth 6 points in a triplet, but they give you no special benefit when you move them into your estate. And because the game is over so quickly, you can't do everything. You definitely have to focus your strategy.
:) 4. "Multi-use card angst...sort of
The Castles of Burgundy Card Game does not have quite Chudyk-ian multi-use cards, but each card CAN be used in many different ways and some tense moments of trying to decide between several options for a single card will arise. What most often happens to me is that I want to use a card to both take a card into my projects and move another card from my projects into my estate. But there have been times, particularly late in the game, when I've had to weigh shipping goods against dumping a card for workers to allow me to complete a triplet on my last turn.
The reason I qualified the "multi-use card angst" title was that the cards you use to perform actions simply represent dice and the values of the dice determine the values of the options available to you, so it's not like every card inherently presents you with particular options. However, a similar sense of tension as that found in most multi-use card games is to be found here.
:) 5. The great sense of accomplishment that comes from having made order out of chaos
When playing The Castles of Burgundy, I love the sense of accomplishment I get from having bent the fickle dice and tiles to my will to complete that huge 7-tile region or to complete a number of regions for multiple bonuses in the first round. In the card game version, I get the same sense of accomplishment. There is definitely an element of luck involved in fabricating this feeling, but it isn't solely luck and I love feeling like I've somehow subdued luck and randomness to get the things I want to get done done. The random action card deck, the random building deck, the random animal deck, the random goods deck...They are all random! And yet, somehow, I manage to make triplets of buildings and quadruplets of animals, and stacks of goods, and it feels good. :)
:soblue: 1. Quite a bit of randomness
Perhaps I wouldn't feel this way had I never played the full Castles of Burgundy before, but I can't shake the feeling that some things are a bit too random. In the full Castles of Burgundy, you know which tile you are buying when you spend silver. Here, you draw 3 random cards and select 1. If the one you were hoping to get isn't among the 3 you drew, tough cookies. In the full Castles of Burgundy game, you know which goods tiles you are taking and can align their values so that you can ship them out at once. Here, they are randomly drawn and you have no say in the matter. Finally, in the full Castles of Burgundy game, you know which animals you are taking and can combine the animals you take to maximize the bonuses you receive from them. Here, they are randomly drawn and if you keep drawing animals of the same type while your opponent draws different animals, you have only luck to blame; there's nothing you can do. These aspects of the card game version can be a bit frustrating, but because the game can be played so quickly, they don't bother me as much as they would in a longer game. Ultimately, this isn't really a negative for me personally, but it's something to be aware of if you are randomness phobic and are considering this game.
The Castles of Burgundy Card Game did not immediately impress me. After my first game, I felt like it was just another simple card game that would never ascend to the awesomeness that is The Castles of Burgundy. And while I still don't think that the card game will ever sit on the same throne as the board game, after a few sessions, the card game started to grow on me. It perfectly distills all the elements of The Castles of Burgundy into a smaller sized, quicker game. In fact, when I realized just how quickly we were banging out the card game (i.e. 15 minutes), I also started to realize the extent to which this little game is packed with interesting decisions and tense moments! While there is more randomness in the card game version than in the board game, I will happily play the card game when I only have 15 minutes to spare and want a Castles of Burgundy experience.
I received my copy of Scythe in the mail this week! And having the box in my house made me way too excited to ignore it until I had enough time to produce a full review, so I went ahead and taught Peter and me to play on Wednesday night. At this point, I have only played once and not very well, so everything I write below is incredibly tentative.
Scythe is a game of world domination in an alternate reality in which farmers and giant mechs live side by side. You will lead one of 5 different characters to explore and conquer territories, collect resources, build infrastructure, engage in combat, enlist workers, and deploy huge mechs. You will do this by selecting one of 3 sets of actions on your player board each turn. Each action has a top and a bottom portion and each of these allows you to do something different on your turn, including harvesting resources, increasing your popularity or power, moving your workers/leader/mechs, deploying mechs, building technologies, upgrading your player board, etc. Your goal in the game is to have the most money at the end and money is accumulated both during the game through various actions, as well as through end-game scoring, at which time you will gain money for your achievements, territories, and resource multiplied by your popularity multiplier. You will also gain money for the structure bonus, which gives you some direction regarding which territories you should strive to control during the course of the game.
Mech
Workers produce resources
Structure bonus
:) It's so beautiful and it smells like vanilla cupcakes! (SERIOUSLY! The minis smell like vanilla!)
:) All the components are so amazing (I have the Collector's Edition). Peter wouldn't stop manhandling the pieces! He kept staring at them and stacking them and drooling over them. Also, Jamey needs to start a mint because the coins are mint!
:) There is no world like the Scythe world! This place is unique!
:) I love the huge deck of objective cards that gives you a different goal in each game.
:) Aggression and combat isn't a huge element...at least when playing with only two players. There are so many deterrents to fighting and the game is essentially a race to accumulate as many resources and regions and goods as possible that you have to pick your battles carefully. Fighting over regions with workers will set you back on the popularity track, which may reduce your point multiplier for everything else you've done in the game. I love this kind of contemplative aggression that necessitates arming up and keeping in line with your opponent in order to minimize possible threat, but never knowing whether and when aggression will be necessary.
:) Combat is super simple, tense, and takes very little time. Basically, players secretly decide how many power points they are willing to sacrifice and simultaneously reveal to determine the winner. The aggressor wins in case of a tie, so there is a slight incentive to attack rather than wait around, but the whole process is super quick and painless to resolve. All combat should be like this. Shoot and move on with your life!
:) I love how you have to do everything, but prioritize the order in which you do those things depending on what your opponent is doing, what your special ability allows you to do, where you are located on the map, and what the structure bonus rewards.
:) I love the top/bottom split actions and the fact that you can do one, both, or neither when you select that particular action. I often felt pulled in the direction of one top action and another bottom action on the same turn. You have to pick your battles in order to be as efficient as possible.
:) I really love the random encounters that leaders can unlock as they explore certain regions. It really gives the game a great sense of adventure and theme.
:) I love the race for the factory! The factory is at the center of the board and when you get there, you basically unlock a special addition to your board! You get more choice if you get there first and the special addition you unlock can really make your life easier (I had an addition that allowed me to move and gain power, popularity, and a coin), so you want to get there first. However, the factory is also a decent source of points, so others will want to kick you out, sending your leader back from whence he/she came, possibly giving your opponent a star, and forcing you to either re-track your steps or give up and go and do something else. There's a fun tradeoff there. :)
:) I love the fact that you cannot perform the same action twice in a row (unless you are Rusvietsky :P, which I was in our first game). This forces you to carefully plan your turns in advance.
:) I love the end game tension! The game ends when one player places his 6th star, which means that when the 5th star is placed, you are on high alert, frantically trying to increase your popularity, presence in all the regions, and anything else that might give you points.
:) I love the amount of variety in the game, including the variable player powers, the variable boards, and the structure bonuses and factory bonuses, all of which have a great effect on the way the game unfolds.
There is nothing I don't love about this game at this point! It is so amazing! I do think it would change with more players involved. The board would be tighter and aggression would be more necessary, but I very much enjoy the level of competition for regions and the level of aggression when playing with only two players. I do look forward to trying Scythe with more than two players and I look forward to many more sessions with Peter as we explore this engaging and immersive world.
It's all about money
This is another new game I was excited to try because it hasn't even been released! I really wanted to play it before our vacation because Ted was kind enough to send it to me and I didn't want to take forever to get any information about it posted.
America is a "trivia party game where close counts"! The game is played on a board that shows a map of the USA flanked by year and number bars. Each turn, the starting player selects which side of a deck of cards he wants to use and puts the question on the card to the players. Then, players take turns placing their guessing markers on the map, number, and/or year bars. Players may also place their markers on the "no exact" or "no exact or adjacent" spaces to indicate that they believe that there is no marker on the correct answer (3VP) or that they believe there is no marker on the correct or any adjacent space (7VP). Once all players have passed, the card is taken out of the box to reveal the answers and scored. Markers on a correct space provide 7VP and markers on spaces adjacent to the correct space provide 3VP. Placed markers that don't score will be taken away! You will never see them again! :P No, actually, you will see them. All players who have 1 or more markers in the non-scoring pile of markers will regain 1 marker. And if a player ever falls below 3 markers at this point, he will replenish his markers to 3.
The game ends after the 6th card is scored. The player with the most points wins!
We're heading to Florida!:P
:) Ferris wheels, lobster rolls, vacuum cleaners, potato heads! It's all in here and it's all fun! I love the nature of the trivia questions in this game and the fact that you don't really need to know the answer. You just need to know whether your opponents would know.
:) This game actually works with two players! It's a party game, so of course, it will be more fun with more, but even with just two it is interesting and fun.
:) Super quick! It took us about 15-20 minutes to play our first game! This would definitely increase with more players involved, but the game is still very fast.
:) This is the best part! This isn't just a trivia game! It's a resource management game! If you take chances with your markers and place them stupidly and don't end up scoring points, you lose them! So if you have a particularly bad round, you could end up with only 3 guesses to make in the following one! And that could be devastating if the topic is something you're fairly sure about! I really love this aspect of America. It makes it gamer worthy! And yet it's still simple enough to teach to anyone and everyone!
I enjoyed my first play of America, even if it was at a less than ideal player count. The fact that the game even worked with two players and was relatively interesting came as a surprise. I'd love to try this with my family and trivia-crazed friend! I think she'd totally dig this! I will post a full review soon! :)
Orléans: Deluxe Edition
Orleans! Yay! I thought Peter liked this game more than I did, but I think I was wrong because I have been asking to play it on a weekly basis and he has been refusing to play it on a weekly basis. Until this week. This week, he finally agreed to play! Yay!
I really wanted to focus on goods in this game and that was my plan, but we play with the variant included in the rulebook that removes tiles from each stack at the beginning of the game and the tiles that were removed were the ones I was hoping to produce some high-buck goods! :( Boo. When I realized that, I had to switch gears, but I knew I still wanted to try to make most of my points with goods. I didn't make enough of a push for the easy-to-get yellow citizen guys early in the game and Peter already had a couple, so I decided to get my goods the cheap way! The Christmas Market and travel! I managed to travel so much and get so many random goods that I almost won! Peter beat me by TWO points! :( Boo. I think I had 132 and he had 134.
Mombasa
YAY! I finally got Peter to play Mombasa again! This is another one Peter regularly refuses to play :shake:.
In this game, Peter decided to go up the bookkeeping track, while I decided to try to max out my diamonds as quickly as possible and unlock all my action card slots as quickly as possible. I had all five slots by the end of the third round and though I thought that was going to be an awesome thing, it turned out to be quite the liability! I kept having to buy cards to give myself something to use because they kept getting eaten by the action board! But I ended up making it to the top of the diamond track in record time. Unfortunately, I ended up spending too much money on cards, so I lost a lot of the money I pumped out of extra diamonds, but I still nearly doubled Peter's score! I love the fat little diamond guys! I had the full complement of colors! :P They even got me some extra points because ALL the companies were worth SOMETHING by the end of the game. But Mombasa was the fanciest because I made it so! :P
Le Havre
I had been itching to play Le Havre, so we took it out this week! It's one of Peter's favorites, so he's always ready to play. The only thing that makes him hesitate is that this game tends to make me quite unhappy. Since I was the one asking for it, he was happy to oblige! :)
In this game, I decided to forgo food. Who needs food!? :P I starved my people over and over again and kept having to take loans. And then I had to take loans to pay for having loans. It was a vicious cycle! But I built so many industrial buildings and ships that I was completely invincible by the end of the game! I made enough money to pay off my 8 loans in the final few rounds and then just kept pumping out coke money! :P Peter had some crazy thing going with the Emporium form the Grand Hameau expansion. At first, he thought that the Emporium allowed him to buy unlimited upgraded goods, but we checked the internets and the consensus was that the card was mistranslated. It was still incredibly powerful, allowing him to buy one of each upgraded good. He made lots of money! But I did too! AND I had way more buildings! :) And I won!
Swimming, swimming in my loan pool...
Elysium
Elysium is one of my favorite games of 2015 and it makes me a bit sad that we don't play it very often any more. We played it like mad when we first got it and for a good long while afterwards and Peter doesn't love it nearly as much as I do, so those are definitely factors in its table time's decline.
I love Hades cards in this game because they allow you to transfer extra cards into your Elysium. I got myself a cap of invisibility at the start of the game and kept it in available for use over the course of the game in order to ensure I could afford to keep taking the first player tile. I love going first because options = :). Peter was working on his level-1 legend and had a full set before long! But I had family legends and end-game scoring bonuses galore! And I won! :)
Ginkgopolis + Ginkgopolis: The Experts
Gink! I want to do a little dance every time Peter agrees to play!
During the drafting, I made a stupid error by drafting the Mayor immediately. Had I waited to see Peter's cards before I decided on an expert, I would have seen the Engineer, who I really like because he rewards hoarding tiles (doubles the points you score by returning tiles when they run out) and I'm good at hoarding tiles :P. But the Mayor was good too. He lets you switch colors without paying extra resources and gives you 1 VP per district in the city at the end of the game.
I felt like I was doing very poorly this entire game. I DID have a few cards that made points, but I felt like Peter would just dominate with his tile hoarding. I had trouble getting anything other than urbanization cards and urbanization bonuses aren't exactly helpful for developing your tableau! However, I did do a fairly good job of increasing the number of districts in the game by capitalizing on the Mayor's ability to switch tile colors without using resources. And I had so many resource-gaining abilities that I ended the game by placing my last resource! AND I WON! I thought all hope was lost when Peter gained a good 26 points with his Engineer!
Terra Mystica + Terra Mystica: Fire & Ice
This week, I drew TWO expansion factions! Weird! That never happens! I drew the Acolytes and River Walkers. I had no idea which one I wanted because I don't really like either, so I ended up letting Peter choose for a few VP. He chose the River Walkers. He chose well because after he did, I decided that I wanted them. But it was too late. I was doomed to pilot the Acolytes for the remainder of the game.
I dislike the Acolytes because they are doomed on the cult track and I like the cult track! I love getting cult track bonuses! Let's just say that I didn't get many cult track bonuses during this game. :(
Clinic
We played Clinic for the second week in a row in preparation for having to teach it at DTC. I must say I am not at all looking forward to trying to teach this thing. I understand it, but deary dear dear is it going to be tough to teach! :(
Anyway, we decided to play the smaller clinics to challenge our clinic building muscle a little further than last week. I knew I wouldn't be building 3 clinics this time. That's pretty close to impossible on the tighter board. Instead, I decided to build one of my buildings up to the top, ensuring I had functional rooms on each floor (functional rooms give you good points at the end!) and build a second building just to get the two-building bonus. Peter was screwed by time in our last game, so he immediately set his sights on building corridors and elevators EVERYWHERE! He had a crazy efficient hospital! In fact, he was so efficient that he was barely spending any time! Although I was worried I'd take a huge hit due to all the time I was spending to move my staff and patients around compared to Peter, I didn't do much about it until about halfway through the game. That was quite stupid, but whatever. I built some corridors and an elevator and that was enough to save me some time. I WAS making way more money than Peter and stayed ahead of him in points, but that wasn't really to my advantage because that gave Peter first dibs on patient admission and everything else :(. It was a close game, but my super tall hospital did end up stealing the show! :P
51st State: Master Set
Nope. No week would be complete without a game of 51st State Master Set! :P I just adore this game! This week, we decided to switch the Winter expansion for New Era. We had been playing with Winter for a while and I wanted a change.
I drew Hegemony and Peter got New York. He started making points very quickly, while I was trying to get a production engine going. I did have a bit of trouble with that, but it wasn't serious. I caught up quickly. And then I took over! I love Hegemony because they love to bang bang! I got myself a Mesmerisers' Dwelling, which gave me a point every time I razed, a Rifle, which gave me a card every time I razed, a bunch of guns, and a Confessor to dump those guns on and I was unstoppable! Mwahahaha! Actually, I had a whole bunch of other scoring cards, but guns were my main thing, which was appropriate. :)
The Voyages of Marco Polo
It looks like no week would be complete without a game of Voyages of Marco Polo either! :P I love this game too! And Peter really loves it too, so it's a win-win situation for us!
This week, Matteo Polo was among the drawn characters again and because I beat him so badly with Matteo last week, Peter decided to take him. He said that if he won with Matteo, that would mean that Matteo is overpowered and we should ban him. :P Guess what happened? :P :P :P
I picked Rubruk and regretted it early in the game. I had a plan, but I had a bit of a delay in actually executing it. One of the cards close to Venezia allowed us to exchange camels and silk for buckets of cash and I wanted to get to it as quickly as possible so I could travel as quickly as possible. I picked two difficult travel goals and wanted to make sure I could accomplish them, along with plopping Rubruk's two extra trading posts down along the way. Despite the delay, I managed to make it to all my destinations just before time (or rather, my dice) ran out! And my score was about 40 points ahead of Peter's, so I think we can put to rest the notion that Matteo is overpowered.
The Ravens of Thri Sahashri
We finished Ravens! I really didn't enjoy the rules on the second card and was disappointed by the contents of the third, but I won't go into further detail for fear of spoiling things for others. I still love the game, but Peter is done with it. He mostly played as Feth and I mostly played as Ren and we developed a very effective system of communicating, mostly due to the sheer number of times we played the game in a short span of time. I'm sure we will return to it in due time, but I think I'll have to commandeer Feth. :)
FUSE
We started a game of Fuse while we were waiting for my mom to come by for a visit over the weekend. And we never finished it. :( We had 3 minutes left on the clock when my mom arrived and we had almost half the deck of bombs to defuse! :( We were doing horribly. I attribute our poor performance to distraction and rustiness.
Shipyard
I have been a bit hesitant to play Shipyard since the last time we played because I did so well in that game I knew I couldn't compete with myself! :P Because that's what it's all about for me! :P In that game, I built some monster ships and had a monster score. In this game, I built a bunch of smaller ships and felt completely directionless because my goal was to have as many different kinds of parts and people on my ships as possible. I don't like feeling like I have to do EVERYTHING. I like focus. I felt so scattered that I just wasn't having fun at the beginning. However, after a while, everything started to come together and I grew less frustrated. I tried to build small ships that satisfied the requirements of their canal tiles well, but all of them had a different focus. That both settled my mind and helped me maximize the points I got from my ships. And I won! :) I didn't beat my previous score (I just barely got to the 100 VP mark), but I didn't do too badly either...
Subdivision
This week, BoardGameBliss had a crazy fire sale on Subdivision and that reminded me to get it played! :) I let Peter select the scenario and he picked the "School Districts" because it's the only one we had never played. This scenario removes the school zone tiles from the game and adds two clusters of schools to players' boards to make for a very tight little map. I thought it would be an easy map to deal with compared to the "Highways" one we had been playing, but I was wrong. I ended up getting seduced by the bonus goal tiles that wanted lakes and ended up blocking two of my zone tiles! :( That was 10 points lost! Peter was smarter. He didn't let himself get lured by the evil bonus goals and had 10 points more than me at the end! Oh well. We really must try this scenario again!
Kingsburg + Kingsburg: To Forge a Realm
Back to Kingsburg this week! I picked the busty fairy as my helper and Peter went for the decidedly flat-chested, creepy-looking trickster. I somehow managed to get and stay ahead on buildings and soldiers throughout the course of the game and pretty much doubled Peter's score! I'm not sure how that happened because all our previous games of Kingsburg have been super close. The recent ones have been particularly tight! I guess having a Basilica, Barracks, and a well-endowed fairy godmother makes you invincible!
Dominion: Empires
Peter won with gold :(. Boo. The events were Weddings (gives you 1 VP and 1 gold for 4 coins and 3 debt) and Advance (trash an action card to gain one costing up to 6) and the Landmarks were Palace (3VP per copper-silver-gold set) and Fountain (15 VP if you have 10 coppers), so the game was ALL ABOUT money! Peter totally cheesed the game, filling up his deck with gold and then taking enough coppers to satisfy the Fountain's requirement and then going to town with the provinces and silvers. Like Peter, I too gained lots of gold, but I also gained many action cards that didn't prove to be quite as useful as money. I did make very good use of my Crowns (which essentially allow you to play action or money card twice on a turn) and I did acquire way more Provinces than Peter, but I totally neglected coppers and silvers and ended up losing by 9 points. We initially thought we had a tie, but Peter had forgotten to count his Palace points. :(
Quadropolis
I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I DID IT! I DID IT! I DID IT! I BEAT PETER, THE "QUADROPOLIS TYRANT"!!!! :P :P :P Hehe. That took too long. :shake:
I didn't think the monuments had it in them, but a couple of well-placed monuments surrounded by a bunch of gardens are pretty sweet! I mostly focused on making my monuments work and maxing out the cultural buildings, spreading them through ALL the districts in my city. I also made sure to take all the harbors and cultural buildings that came with free VPs! I needed everything I could get to overthrow the Quadropolis tyrant! :P I also decided to stay completely away from the red industrial and grey office buildings; those red things can be a serious liability, but I had so many parks hat it hardly would have mattered...Whatever. All I needed was one energy to power my little residential area and I managed to get that from a harbor tile! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) Happiness! Oh! And I made 100 VP!
1. The Walled City: Londonderry & Borderlands - This was a DTC auction acquisition. I honestly didn't even remember bidding on it when I got the message :P. I'm nuts. It might not be the best with only two players, but it wasn't expensive, so I want to give it a try. It's pretty and Canadian. All pretty Canadian things deserve a shot! :)
2. The King of Frontier - Won in BGG auction! I didn't get this when it was on the BGG Store because they were out of the expansion and I didn't want the game without the expansion because I'm crazy. Well, now I have both...
3. The King of Frontier: More Buildings!
We are going to Dice Tower Con! I will not be reporting on that until later, but I will have a list of my top 10 games and top 5 expansions of 2015 for you to peruse! :) I am going to try to get Three Kingdoms Redux played again at DTC, so I can provide a review when I return. I haven't been able to review it yet because it has faded a bit in my memory and I don't think 3 plays is enough for a proper review for it anyway. Also, look forward to a full review for Scythe when I return! :P
Several readers requested Mina's Fresh Cardboard microbadges and [user=Thorin2001][/user] was kind enough to make two versions! If you have a second, please vote for your preferred version. :) Thanks!
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