And I totally agree that FFF is random nonsense, albeit nonsense where you still have some measure of control over your fate. It also cuts out the 90 minutes or so it takes to work out who won a game of Monopoly, and condenses it into 5 minutes once the equilibrium starts tipping in the favor of one or two players.
I would describe Ice Cream Scream's board position at the end of that game as a "full web".
And I totally agree that FFF is random nonsense, albeit nonsense where you still have some measure of control over your fate. It also cuts out the 90 minutes or so it takes to work out who won a game of Monopoly, and condenses it into 5 minutes once the equilibrium starts tipping in the favor of one or two players.
I would describe Ice Cream Scream's board position at the end of that game as a "full web".
I'm good at making full web. I never lost at Web of Power using pretty much the same strategy. Of course, I haven't played that in over 100 moons.
I was surprised how much fun Welcome to the Dungeon was. The No Thanks comparison is spot on.
I still haven't gotten to play Camel Cup. Food Chain Magnate is still awesome. I'm down for playing Oh My Goods and Quartermaster General many more times.
Big thanks to Anthony for teaching The Gallerist. That's the one that got away from me at BGG.CON, and I totally dug it.
I am not a fan of Kodama (I also really didn't like Belle of the Ball, sadly, since Daniel Solis is a super nice dude. I roomed with him at BGG). The tree-building mechanic is neat, but all of my moves felt obvious. On top of that, the random season rules felt odd. Maybe a bit tacked on in order to create elements of strategy, but it all feels a bit random.
I want to read up more on Age of Craft, as it felt better than it should be. "Dominion with dice" is an oversimplification, because the draft and the trading adds so much to it.
Tomorrow is international Tabletop day, which is going to be pretty big at the local store. I even got the owner to add "play Tigris & Euphrates" to the all-day scavenger hunt that he's running.
Still going there to play with the Friday game group - whichever one of these bags of games I don't bring today I'll probably bring tomorrow. BUT WHICH ONE?
I voted for T'Zolkin bag before I saw Oh My Goods in the other bag. I want to change my vote.
Noted - I think the Friday group will be more into Wings for the Baron than potential Saturday strangers. I plan to teach OMG with the "advanced" variant rules (because they aren't all that advanced)
I voted for T'Zolkin bag before I saw Oh My Goods in the other bag. I want to change my vote.
Noted - I think the Friday group will be more into Wings for the Baron than potential Saturday strangers. I plan to teach OMG with the "advanced" variant rules (because they aren't all that advanced)
I am still confused about one of the advanced rules in OMG. What exactly happens on the final turn when you activate all chains?
I am still confused about one of the advanced rules in OMG. What exactly happens on the final turn when you activate all chains?
Basically, you get money. If you have wood in your hand, put it on your charburner. Then if you have clay in your hand, put it in your brickworks (don't remember if that's the real name) along with your charcoal etc. Since $5 is one point, you'll pick up points.
One clarification from the designer on BGG: A newly-acquired assistant can be placed in the building your worker was that round. You already finished working in it, after all.
I am still confused about one of the advanced rules in OMG. What exactly happens on the final turn when you activate all chains?
Basically, you get money. If you have wood in your hand, put it on your charburner. Then if you have clay in your hand, put it in your brickworks (don't remember if that's the real name) along with your charcoal etc. Since $5 is one point, you'll pick up points.
So even if your buildings have no workers, and didn't produce anything, you can still chain any spare goods into them? Does that include goods from other buildings? Can I chain all my cows into leather on the final turn even if my tannery didn't do jack shit that turn?
One clarification from the designer on BGG: A newly-acquired assistant can be placed in the building your worker was that round. You already finished working in it, after all.
These are some good clarifications. Or. Goods clarifications.
OK I'll stop. Glad to hear the designer specified the assistant rule.
The last turn advanced rule doesn't seem vague to me. It lets you convert all the crap leftover in your hand to cash, which is worth VP. You can only activate the chain side of each building, not the full production aspect.
So even if your buildings have no workers, and didn't produce anything, you can still chain any spare goods into them? Does that include goods from other buildings? Can I chain all my cows into leather on the final turn even if my tannery didn't do jack shit that turn?
The first edition - Royal Goods - targeted casual gamers, so short playing time (~30 minutes) was more important than reducing luck. Now that this game became popular among experienced gamers, they asked for more control and being able to use the production chains more often.
Therefore the 2nd edition of Oh My Goods - same material - has these 5 rule changes: 1. In phase I, before everybody gets 2 cards, everbody may exchange his/her complete handcards. So discard your complete hand and draw the same number of new cards. 2. If you hire an Assistant, you can't build this turn. More than 2 Assistants are allowed. 3. You don't loose the card you don't build but take it back on hand 4. In the very last round: Use all your production chains, no matter if there is a person working or not. 5. Market office: This gives you +1 card only if you have at most 3 handcards.
1+4 gives you a lot of control over your cards and allows you to use all yours production chains at least once. Dylan, I recommend you to give it another try with these rule changes.
I only played four games this week that I rate an 8 - which is around average, except I played 20 different games this week thanks to Tabletop Day on Saturday. No 9s or 10s is also sad… especially because Food Chain Magnate, Tigris & Euphrates, and Shadowrun: Crossfire all almost happened on Saturday. I also took advantage of a Tabletop Day sale, and finally got everything entered in for the Spring Auction, so there’s some turnover in the collection this week.
Collection Played in 2016: 44%. 86 games to go. Games added this week: Twin Tin Bots, Show Manager, Oh My Goods, Trajan, Wings for the Baron. Trade Pile: Caylus, Ra.
Cacao - Something about 2p reminds me of Traders of Osaka - the best move is the one where your opponent gets nothing.
Patchwork - Something about this game works in my brain - it’s all timing and planning.
Carcassonne - I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game of Carcassonne end in a tie before - but this five-player game ended with Anthony and myself tied for first.
Ra - The spread on the final score of this was large - 15/20/22/25/60 (or thereabouts). I’ve decided to let go of my copy - I still like it well enough, but in the past two years I’ve only played the store’s copy, and only with one particular group of people.
In the Year of the Dragon(new to me) - My assumption is holding true - this is the Feld game most likely to stick for me.
Witness - This is how we kicked off Tabletop Day, and it continues to be a favorite. I really want to get a group on some of the harder cases soon.
Love Letter - Batman Love Letter has one rules change which I like - you get a point for eliminating a player. There are some strings attached, but I like the idea of using that as a general rule...
Tem-purr-a(new to me) - A fine push-your-luck game with an unnecessary rule that makes it too easy to avoid danger. Pass.
Small World - The fixed number of rounds combined with (largely) open information still make this feel like a straightforward min-maxing exercise from turn one - the process of figuring out who plotted the best path through the game doesn’t appeal to me. The extra artifacts/locations in Underground didn’t really change my mind...
Click Clack Lumberjack(new to me) - I like the name “Bling Bling Gemstone” more, but can’t get too upset at a game about hitting a plastic tree.
Oh my Goods! - The designer’s variant rules increase my rating for this - being able to cycle cards means there’s an incentive to keeping a large hand. The last two buildings matter now, since you can chain to/from them.
Wings for the Baron(new to me) - Interesting first play - I was sure everyone but me was finding the entire experience thoroughly miserable, but was told otherwise at the end of the game. I was so preoccupied with making sure everything ran smoothly that I forgot to enjoy myself for most of the middle of the game.
The Thing(new to me) - Plenty of fun decisions (I’m a fan of gathering dice pools in role-playing games, after all) even though the large number of shared resources in the middle of the table isn't what I would do. The game doesn’t afford many opportunities for a shy player to assert themselves.
Codenames - Played with a grid of board game boxes, and a 12-year-old clue giver. Fortunately, we also had a 12-year-old on our team who understood his clues (sewing = Through the Desert? I didn’t see it, but he did... better than any of the adults.)
Concept(new to me) - Charades, played entirely with pictograms. Would totally play this again, if someone suggested it. Another lesson - playing with a 12-year-old will not work as well without the second 12-year-old to act as interpreter. (baby + death = Spinach)
San Juan - All-purple-buildings made a solid go of it, but I couldn’t find a Market Hall early or a City Hall late.
Last Will - This game really is more straightforward than it seems at first, and I like it. Thematically, second place is really last place - you ended with nothing, and now you have nothing to show for it.
I'm pushing to add a few copies of Patchwork to the PAX library as a tournament game.
15 minute perfect information two player game with fuzzy positional heuristics (it has a classic money now/score later tension point) and a random setup.
I'm pushing to add a few copies of Patchwork to the PAX library as a tournament game.
I took special notice of Patchwork while working the library. Every time it came in, it went immediately out. I think there is only 1 copy in the library. We need a bunch more. I've never played it, but it's not like I could get my hands on it!
Wings for the Baron(new to me) - Interesting first play - I was sure everyone but me was finding the entire experience thoroughly miserable, but was told otherwise at the end of the game. I was so preoccupied with making sure everything ran smoothly that I forgot to enjoy myself for most of the middle of the game.
It's kinda of a shame the "design the best airplane"-game quickly becomes "smuggle the most gold out of Germany"-game.
I'm pushing to add a few copies of Patchwork to the PAX library as a tournament game.
I took special notice of Patchwork while working the library. Every time it came in, it went immediately out. I think there is only 1 copy in the library. We need a bunch more. I've never played it, but it's not like I could get my hands on it!
The app is pretty good, and worth the $2.99 or whatever even to play just a few matches against AI. The online match notifications have busted periodically, causing people to miss turns in asynch, which blows, but that's the only flaw of the app. I'd give it another try. If we added it as a PAX tourney game, we'd snag several more copies.
The most notable thing about the past two weeks isn’t the number of games I had never played (eight games) but the number of games I traded away in the Games Keep spring auction (27, and seven more in the queue for the next auction). I actually use my ratings and play data to 1) keep track of games I own that I haven’t played in awhile, and 2) let go of games I never suggest. These are the next ones out the door. The turnaround in my collection has jumped up pretty high after I started looking at the data this way, but I expect it to come back down again over time.
Collection Played in 2016: 51%. 74 games to go. Games added: Foppen, Rights. Trade Pile: Agricola, The Bottle Imp, Eclipse, Eminent Domain: Microcosm, HUE, Machi Koro, Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper
Trajan - Exhibit one in “games I played years ago and finally obtained a copy of.” Likely to stabilize as one of the Feld games I enjoy.
Keyflower - Exhibit two. Fantastic game that I never see played around here.
Wings for the Baron - We played a game with the “campaign rules”, which I strongly prefer. Now I want to see if Germany can win the war for once.
The Thing - Anthony calls these “Dan games” because… well, they play the best with the remnants of my RPG group. Or maybe I was the one who started calling them Dan games.
Dead of Winter - Another Dan game, which we foolishly played without Dan. While it wasn’t bad - it was fine - it took a surprising amount of time to finish. Nearly double what I would expect from my previous game of Dead of Winter.
Twin Tin Bots(new to me)(Kickstarter!) - Difficult and rewarding, although I’m a bit concerned about Analysis Paralysis. The ‘zap’ action that lets you control other robots is clever.
Compounded(new to me)(Kickstarter!!) - Has a kickstarter je ne sais quoi. It bothers me when a game includes trading but nothing in the game compels me to trade… (I would rather have both)
The World of Smog: On Her Majesty's Service(new to me)(Kickstarter!!!) - It’s a race game with the elements I don’t care for in Hansa Teutonica - you toss a bunch of hurdles at the other players to grind out incremental advantages. And a deck full of rather nasty cards along the lines of “steal a point from another player”.
Histrio(new to me) - And now, in case Anthony is worried that I am going to bounce off every new game he showed me this week - this is my favorite game published in 2016 so far.
Trambahn(new to me) - Quick, two player card game designed by 18XX/Russian Railroads designer Helmut Ohley. If that sounds like something you would like… you’re probably correct.
Show Manager(new to me) - I’ve been slowly picking up most of the out-of-print Queen games at Games Keep. This is a winner - wasn’t sure at first, but the second play hinted at lots of deeper strategic options. And the fake stars on these cards are so much more fun than the ones in the recent printing of Dream Factory.
Planet Steam(new to me) - M.U.L.E.-like game that led me down a rabbit hole on Google, which ended with me backing Sumer on kickstarter.
Mage Knight - A coop game for my birthday - the 10th non-solo game of Mage Knight I’ve ever played, and the first time I’ve played since 2014. I’m up to 34 plays, overall.
Mein Schatz(new to me) - Light memory game along the lines of Mamma Mia, but much simpler.
I think your forgot "Between two cities" in your list. Definitely feel the same about Compounded. Unless you're making Card-for-Card-level trades, the natural tendency is to hoard or recycle your materials.
Show Manager felt like a game of "filling the inside straight". Definitely up for another round of "Wings of the Baron".
Jenga had 42 checkouts while Click Clack Lumberjack had 31
Forbidden Island had 39 Forbidden Desert had 2
Now the surprises:
- Abraca...What? 26 - Discount Salmon 19 - Velociraptor! Cannibalism & The Worst Case Scenario Survival Game 17 - Pixel Lincoln (Platformer the deck builder) 16 - Channel A 15 - Deck Building the Deckbuilding Game, 8 Minute Empire, Mancala and Pictionary 13 - Unexploded Cow 12 - Twister, Machi Koro, Cranium, & Candy Land 8 - Lupin the 3rd, Coconuts, & Illuminati 7 - Unpub the Card game & Wizard 2
The losers with 1 are Tornado, Spot It, Settlers of America, Livingstone, Hansa Teutonica, For Sale, Caveman and the Quest for Fire, Backgammon, 20th Century and the Game of 49.
Yeah, this is covering two weeks and isn't 100% complete.
I also played Netrunner, Oh My Goods!, Web of Power, Above and Below, Race for the Galaxy, Ticket to Ride, and Between Two Cities. Just didn't have much interesting to say.
In case you didn't see it anywhere else - Spiel des Jahres 2016 nominees:
Codenames
Imhotep
Karuba
SdJ recommended games:
Spyfall
Animals on Board
Die fiesen 7
Krazy WORDZ
Qwinto
Kennerspiel des Jahres 2016 nominees:
Isle of Skye
Pandemic Legacy
T.I.M.E. Stories
KdJ recommended games:
7 Wonders Duel
Blood Rage
Mombasa
Imhotep is the only nominee that hasn't made its way to the US yet. Codenames is a safe choice - it's already a hit. Karuba is a fine choice and is more typical of the kind of game we think of as an SdJ game.
T.I.M.E. Stories and Pandemic Legacy don't strike me as the sort of games that the jury tends to choose for the KdJ. If Pandemic Legacy does win, I'm pretty sure that makes Daviau and Leacock the third and fourth North Americans to take home any kind of SdJ award after Moon and Vaccarino, who both have multiple awards.
Comments
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/153938/camel
CAMEL. CUP.
And I totally agree that FFF is random nonsense, albeit nonsense where you still have some measure of control over your fate. It also cuts out the 90 minutes or so it takes to work out who won a game of Monopoly, and condenses it into 5 minutes once the equilibrium starts tipping in the favor of one or two players.
I would describe Ice Cream Scream's board position at the end of that game as a "full web".
I still haven't gotten to play Camel Cup. Food Chain Magnate is still awesome. I'm down for playing Oh My Goods and Quartermaster General many more times.
Big thanks to Anthony for teaching The Gallerist. That's the one that got away from me at BGG.CON, and I totally dug it.
I am not a fan of Kodama (I also really didn't like Belle of the Ball, sadly, since Daniel Solis is a super nice dude. I roomed with him at BGG). The tree-building mechanic is neat, but all of my moves felt obvious. On top of that, the random season rules felt odd. Maybe a bit tacked on in order to create elements of strategy, but it all feels a bit random.
I want to read up more on Age of Craft, as it felt better than it should be. "Dominion with dice" is an oversimplification, because the draft and the trading adds so much to it.
Still going there to play with the Friday game group - whichever one of these bags of games I don't bring today I'll probably bring tomorrow. BUT WHICH ONE?
One clarification from the designer on BGG: A newly-acquired assistant can be placed in the building your worker was that round. You already finished working in it, after all.
OK I'll stop. Glad to hear the designer specified the assistant rule.
The last turn advanced rule doesn't seem vague to me. It lets you convert all the crap leftover in your hand to cash, which is worth VP. You can only activate the chain side of each building, not the full production aspect.
Collection Played in 2016: 44%. 86 games to go. Games added this week: Twin Tin Bots, Show Manager, Oh My Goods, Trajan, Wings for the Baron. Trade Pile: Caylus, Ra.
Cacao - Something about 2p reminds me of Traders of Osaka - the best move is the one where your opponent gets nothing.
Patchwork - Something about this game works in my brain - it’s all timing and planning.
Carcassonne - I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game of Carcassonne end in a tie before - but this five-player game ended with Anthony and myself tied for first.
Ra - The spread on the final score of this was large - 15/20/22/25/60 (or thereabouts). I’ve decided to let go of my copy - I still like it well enough, but in the past two years I’ve only played the store’s copy, and only with one particular group of people.
In the Year of the Dragon (new to me) - My assumption is holding true - this is the Feld game most likely to stick for me.
Witness - This is how we kicked off Tabletop Day, and it continues to be a favorite. I really want to get a group on some of the harder cases soon.
Love Letter - Batman Love Letter has one rules change which I like - you get a point for eliminating a player. There are some strings attached, but I like the idea of using that as a general rule...
Tem-purr-a (new to me) - A fine push-your-luck game with an unnecessary rule that makes it too easy to avoid danger. Pass.
Get Bit! (new to me) - Nah.
Small World - The fixed number of rounds combined with (largely) open information still make this feel like a straightforward min-maxing exercise from turn one - the process of figuring out who plotted the best path through the game doesn’t appeal to me. The extra artifacts/locations in Underground didn’t really change my mind...
Click Clack Lumberjack (new to me) - I like the name “Bling Bling Gemstone” more, but can’t get too upset at a game about hitting a plastic tree.
Oh my Goods! - The designer’s variant rules increase my rating for this - being able to cycle cards means there’s an incentive to keeping a large hand. The last two buildings matter now, since you can chain to/from them.
Wings for the Baron (new to me) - Interesting first play - I was sure everyone but me was finding the entire experience thoroughly miserable, but was told otherwise at the end of the game. I was so preoccupied with making sure everything ran smoothly that I forgot to enjoy myself for most of the middle of the game.
The Thing (new to me) - Plenty of fun decisions (I’m a fan of gathering dice pools in role-playing games, after all) even though the large number of shared resources in the middle of the table isn't what I would do. The game doesn’t afford many opportunities for a shy player to assert themselves.
Codenames - Played with a grid of board game boxes, and a 12-year-old clue giver. Fortunately, we also had a 12-year-old on our team who understood his clues (sewing = Through the Desert? I didn’t see it, but he did... better than any of the adults.)
Concept (new to me) - Charades, played entirely with pictograms. Would totally play this again, if someone suggested it. Another lesson - playing with a 12-year-old will not work as well without the second 12-year-old to act as interpreter. (baby + death = Spinach)
San Juan - All-purple-buildings made a solid go of it, but I couldn’t find a Market Hall early or a City Hall late.
Last Will - This game really is more straightforward than it seems at first, and I like it. Thematically, second place is really last place - you ended with nothing, and now you have nothing to show for it.
It's a very Geeknights game IMO.
I had the chance to play the base game which was really fun. Since I didn't actually own it, this gave me the chance to get everything in one go.
In other news, Shogun's on the boat and I should have it soon.
Collection Played in 2016: 51%. 74 games to go. Games added: Foppen, Rights. Trade Pile: Agricola, The Bottle Imp, Eclipse, Eminent Domain: Microcosm, HUE, Machi Koro, Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper
Trajan - Exhibit one in “games I played years ago and finally obtained a copy of.” Likely to stabilize as one of the Feld games I enjoy.
Keyflower - Exhibit two. Fantastic game that I never see played around here.
Wings for the Baron - We played a game with the “campaign rules”, which I strongly prefer. Now I want to see if Germany can win the war for once.
The Thing - Anthony calls these “Dan games” because… well, they play the best with the remnants of my RPG group. Or maybe I was the one who started calling them Dan games.
Dead of Winter - Another Dan game, which we foolishly played without Dan. While it wasn’t bad - it was fine - it took a surprising amount of time to finish. Nearly double what I would expect from my previous game of Dead of Winter.
Twin Tin Bots (new to me) (Kickstarter!) - Difficult and rewarding, although I’m a bit concerned about Analysis Paralysis. The ‘zap’ action that lets you control other robots is clever.
Compounded (new to me) (Kickstarter!!) - Has a kickstarter je ne sais quoi. It bothers me when a game includes trading but nothing in the game compels me to trade… (I would rather have both)
The World of Smog: On Her Majesty's Service (new to me) (Kickstarter!!!) - It’s a race game with the elements I don’t care for in Hansa Teutonica - you toss a bunch of hurdles at the other players to grind out incremental advantages. And a deck full of rather nasty cards along the lines of “steal a point from another player”.
Histrio (new to me) - And now, in case Anthony is worried that I am going to bounce off every new game he showed me this week - this is my favorite game published in 2016 so far.
Trambahn (new to me) - Quick, two player card game designed by 18XX/Russian Railroads designer Helmut Ohley. If that sounds like something you would like… you’re probably correct.
Show Manager (new to me) - I’ve been slowly picking up most of the out-of-print Queen games at Games Keep. This is a winner - wasn’t sure at first, but the second play hinted at lots of deeper strategic options. And the fake stars on these cards are so much more fun than the ones in the recent printing of Dream Factory.
Planet Steam (new to me) - M.U.L.E.-like game that led me down a rabbit hole on Google, which ended with me backing Sumer on kickstarter.
Mage Knight - A coop game for my birthday - the 10th non-solo game of Mage Knight I’ve ever played, and the first time I’ve played since 2014. I’m up to 34 plays, overall.
Mein Schatz (new to me) - Light memory game along the lines of Mamma Mia, but much simpler.
Show Manager felt like a game of "filling the inside straight". Definitely up for another round of "Wings of the Baron".
#1 game is Dominion with 105 check outs (MAGFest had like 8 copies of this for tourney play so it makes sense)
#2 game was Exploding Kittens with 98
Jenga had 42 checkouts while Click Clack Lumberjack had 31
Forbidden Island had 39 Forbidden Desert had 2
Now the surprises:
- Abraca...What? 26
- Discount Salmon 19
- Velociraptor! Cannibalism & The Worst Case Scenario Survival Game 17
- Pixel Lincoln (Platformer the deck builder) 16
- Channel A 15
- Deck Building the Deckbuilding Game, 8 Minute Empire, Mancala and Pictionary 13
- Unexploded Cow 12
- Twister, Machi Koro, Cranium, & Candy Land 8
- Lupin the 3rd, Coconuts, & Illuminati 7
- Unpub the Card game & Wizard 2
The losers with 1 are Tornado, Spot It, Settlers of America, Livingstone, Hansa Teutonica, For Sale, Caveman and the Quest for Fire, Backgammon, 20th Century and the Game of 49.
I also played Netrunner, Oh My Goods!, Web of Power, Above and Below, Race for the Galaxy, Ticket to Ride, and Between Two Cities. Just didn't have much interesting to say.
- Codenames
- Imhotep
- Karuba
SdJ recommended games:- Spyfall
- Animals on Board
- Die fiesen 7
- Krazy WORDZ
- Qwinto
Kennerspiel des Jahres 2016 nominees:- Isle of Skye
- Pandemic Legacy
- T.I.M.E. Stories
KdJ recommended games:- 7 Wonders Duel
- Blood Rage
- Mombasa
Imhotep is the only nominee that hasn't made its way to the US yet. Codenames is a safe choice - it's already a hit. Karuba is a fine choice and is more typical of the kind of game we think of as an SdJ game.T.I.M.E. Stories and Pandemic Legacy don't strike me as the sort of games that the jury tends to choose for the KdJ. If Pandemic Legacy does win, I'm pretty sure that makes Daviau and Leacock the third and fourth North Americans to take home any kind of SdJ award after Moon and Vaccarino, who both have multiple awards.