On the calendar. Obviously I'm going to have to go to a lot of Yurp other than Essen. Do some biking. Some photo-ing. Some castle/tapestry looking. Some food eating. Some beach/laying (even though it's October).
Should I make a path? Should it start or end in Essen? Should Essen be in the middle of the path? Should I go from East to West? West to East? In the West do I go to UK or Spain? Somehow both? Just fuck 'em and end in France? How far East do I go? Vienna? Budapest? Down to Greece/Italy? Hoping to give work two middle fingers and go for at least 3 if not 4-5 weeks.
Power Grid: The Card Game will be at Essen Spiel. People I tend to agree with (that have played it already) are excited, which means I am more excited to try it than I would normally be for "X: The Card Game."
Also two more 2F-Spiele games, of which one has the interesting history of being pseudonymously published and anonymously donated to people by Friedemann under the name "Doppelt & Dreifach" earlier this year.
The interesting thing on the schedule is "Parsley Adventures" being the first event. Is this the same Parsley as Action Castle or is it another thing all together?
Since I'm trying to get every game in my collection played by the end of 2016, I might as well publish the list of remaining unplayed games. So anyone I play with regularly (mostly Russ, maybe convention-goers at PAX) can pick the ones they like before I get down to nothing but Battlestar Galactica. :P
I could have sworn that we've already played some of these games this year.
Fresh Fish (I remember playing this at MAGFest with you, Scott, Rym) Canal Mania (I remember this being the Whitest Game possible, has it really been last year since we played) Rails of New England (I sort of remember you playing this about the time we played Canal Mania) Navagedor (Didn't we play this at Zenkaikon, or am I thinking last year?) Speculation (could have sworn we played that this year at your house)
I wouldn't have put M:TG and LCGs/CCGs on the list mainly because of commitment involved, but that's just me.
Stuff I'd be up for:
Alchemists Imperial 2030 Homesteaders Suburbia Power Grid Power Grid: First Sparks Shadowrun: Crossfire Glory to Rome Shadow Hunters Phoenicia
The really short games could be easy to bust out.
Stuff that goes on at the keep:
Terra Mystica Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar Puerto Rico (Easy sell to get going)
Hm.. Canal Mania and Rails of New England were both back in October, just before Anthony went to California for a few months. Navegador was Zenkaikon 2015. M:tG is a special case since Anthony and I sometimes play games with preconstructed decks.
Anthony was also encouraging me to play Homesteaders again, so maybe this weekend.
Had some friends over and checked out some new games.
Sushi Go! Party: More sushi madness. Like the new cards and that it comes with a board to keep track of score and displaying some of the new cards. I like that some cards will screw you over if you have too many and you have to have a certain amount to score. Strategy comes into play with your opponents paying attention and whether or not they want to dick you over. We'll definitely bring to PAX.
Between Two Cities: Easy and fast co-op game that has drafting, tile laying, city building where you work with your the person to your left and right to build a city on a 4x4 grid to get the most points, but your city with the lower score is your final score. I enjoyed it a lot. Good warm up game and really cool in regards to co-op.
Camel Up Referee: Camels get unstacked. It's an interesting variant. It definitely shouldn't be played with the camera variant. Our game was super crazy with winners and losers being all over the place.
Dominion: Empires Expansion: Having not played the last 2 expansions, I checked out the new one. You have debt tokens to where have to pay off your debt first to be able to buy cards. We played the basic recommended set. New and interesting mechanics. Will definitely have to play more. The game now takes up 2 large 4 row boxes. Oy.
It's possible to win a game and be extremely frustrated by it. I won a game of Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar on Saturday and felt like the only choices I had in the game were sub-optimal. I ended up winning by 3 points but that was because of 10+ point swing on the last turn.
It's possible to win a game and be extremely frustrated by it. I won a game of Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar on Saturday and felt like the only choices I had in the game were sub-optimal. I ended up winning by 3 points but that was because of 10+ point swing on the last turn.
The temple tracks are really important - I ended up begging away at least 6-8 points over the course of the game, and was usually a turn late for the buildings I wanted.
I've been busy with large gaming weekends since the last post at the end of June. We spent the fourth of July gaming with friends, followed by ConnectiCon, and finally a bunch of new games this weekend.
Collection Played in 2016: 69%. 51 games to go.
Witch's Brew(new to me) - I don't know what I was expecting from the game that was redesigned into last year's KdJ winner - it's a cruel version of Glass Road's action selection. Or a sideways trick taking game where you don't want to gain the lead... until you do. Worth another play at least.
maskmen - Like many climbing games, the difference between a good hand and a bad hand seems to be how you look at it (sometimes the best option is 'pass'). And endplay is a thing - it doesn't matter if you only have two cards left when they're the two lowest ranked wrestlers. With a full table of six players, you lose a lot of control - but you do have perfect knowledge of the deck.
Rights - Either Rym or Scott described it succinctly - it's Lost Cities x No Thanks. That's already a solid premise for a short game.
Stellar Conflict - Some of the factions are easier to use - which isn't surprising in general, but red is so consistent at winning games that I'm starting to wonder what I'm missing.
ButaBabel(new to me) - Reading the instruction manual is a necessary ritual for playing this game, it just adds so much. "Player with highest tower... is CLOSE to victory."
Age of Craft - I had maybe one of my worst games of Age of Craft ever, barely breaking 10 points before the end. In a lull staffing ConnectiCon we went through the translations for all of the other cards I have yet to play with, which seems like something I should do soon.
Tobago(new to me) - A 90s game that escaped its decade. If you value novelty, this is a novel game.
Mein Schatz - A fine memory game - the only thing holding it back is that we learned Mamma Mia a few months ago, and I have a hard time justifying these treasure chests over Uwe Rosenberg's pizza.
Nations: The Dice Game(new to me) - First game in the weekend of new games... was inoffensive.
Star Wars: Rebellion(new to me) - Second game in the weekend of new games... was good. It's a Corey Konieczka design of a type that I've lost interest in over the past four years - but it's a good implementation of such a design. (Reminder that I need to play Battlestar Galactica with Anthony to see if he cares enough to keep it)
Rattus Cartus(new to me) - Third game in the weekend of new games... was also good. Biblios Dice with more interesting decisions.
Five Tribes(new to me) - Fourth game in the weekend of new games... was great. I agree with the high rating on BGG, this was the highlight of the weekend. Anthony has been picking up a number of Bruno Cathala games lately (Mission Red Planet, Histrio, and Five Tribes) and I have enjoyed them more than other Cathala games I have played in the past (Cyclades, Jamaica, and 7 Wonders Duel). Anthony must be doing a good job curating.
It's possible to win a game and be extremely frustrated by it. I won a game of Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar on Saturday and felt like the only choices I had in the game were sub-optimal. I ended up winning by 3 points but that was because of 10+ point swing on the last turn.
That reminds me of a game of Imperial 2030 I won as the Swiss Bank. I could never keep control of any of the countries so I basically just spent most of the game collecting money and ended up winning without really doing anything. I know playing as the Swiss Bank is a valid strategy in Imperial, but usually it's voluntary.
Star Wars: Rebellion(new to me) - Second game in the weekend of new games... was good. It's a Corey Konieczka design of a type that I've lost interest in over the past four years - but it's a good implementation of such a design. (Reminder that I need to play Battlestar Galactica with Anthony to see if he cares enough to keep it)
Been reading up on this. The rebel strategy seems to be: Keep the ground units and transports at the base. Keep the space units together as a harassing force. Force the Empire to spread itself thin by subjugating Rebel planets. Sabotage Imperial manufacturing.
BGG has some better reference cards which I'll have ready for the next time.
Of all of the recent Kickstarters I've backed it had been the most delayed. It was $70 for all of Shogun in one box with 2 new expansions.
Are the expansions actually good? I own the base game and looked into getting Tenno's Court a couple years ago, and it seemed like it didn't really add anything to the game and the price was pretty ridiculous for what was included.
Comments
Should I make a path? Should it start or end in Essen? Should Essen be in the middle of the path? Should I go from East to West? West to East? In the West do I go to UK or Spain? Somehow both? Just fuck 'em and end in France? How far East do I go? Vienna? Budapest? Down to Greece/Italy? Hoping to give work two middle fingers and go for at least 3 if not 4-5 weeks.
Also two more 2F-Spiele games, of which one has the interesting history of being pseudonymously published and anonymously donated to people by Friedemann under the name "Doppelt & Dreifach" earlier this year.
OG just published a detailed rundown of the rules for Power Grid the Card Game. It sounds like a faithful recreation of the non-board parts of Power Grid that will play 3 people comfortably in half an hour.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I4tFI6BUnRGa-pH0nqMZDaclBmLnFpuLVWpxUEneTrY/edit?usp=sharing
Fresh Fish (I remember playing this at MAGFest with you, Scott, Rym)
Canal Mania (I remember this being the Whitest Game possible, has it really been last year since we played)
Rails of New England (I sort of remember you playing this about the time we played Canal Mania)
Navagedor (Didn't we play this at Zenkaikon, or am I thinking last year?)
Speculation (could have sworn we played that this year at your house)
I wouldn't have put M:TG and LCGs/CCGs on the list mainly because of commitment involved, but that's just me.
Stuff I'd be up for:
Alchemists
Imperial 2030
Homesteaders
Suburbia
Power Grid
Power Grid: First Sparks
Shadowrun: Crossfire
Glory to Rome
Shadow Hunters
Phoenicia
The really short games could be easy to bust out.
Stuff that goes on at the keep:
Terra Mystica
Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar
Puerto Rico (Easy sell to get going)
Anthony was also encouraging me to play Homesteaders again, so maybe this weekend.
http://www.polygon.com/2016/7/13/12164554/the-walking-dead-board-game-hits-kickstarter-asks-premium-price-for-pre-order
Kennerspiel des Jahres 2016 - Isle of Skye
Source
Isle of Skye is the second consecutive KdJ win for Pfister & Pelikan after Broom Service (albeit credited in the opposite order).
Sushi Go! Party:
More sushi madness. Like the new cards and that it comes with a board to keep track of score and displaying some of the new cards. I like that some cards will screw you over if you have too many and you have to have a certain amount to score. Strategy comes into play with your opponents paying attention and whether or not they want to dick you over. We'll definitely bring to PAX.
Between Two Cities:
Easy and fast co-op game that has drafting, tile laying, city building where you work with your the person to your left and right to build a city on a 4x4 grid to get the most points, but your city with the lower score is your final score. I enjoyed it a lot. Good warm up game and really cool in regards to co-op.
Camel Up Referee:
Camels get unstacked. It's an interesting variant. It definitely shouldn't be played with the camera variant. Our game was super crazy with winners and losers being all over the place.
Dominion: Empires Expansion:
Having not played the last 2 expansions, I checked out the new one. You have debt tokens to where have to pay off your debt first to be able to buy cards. We played the basic recommended set. New and interesting mechanics. Will definitely have to play more. The game now takes up 2 large 4 row boxes. Oy.
Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar on Saturday and felt like the only choices I had in the game were sub-optimal. I ended up winning by 3 points but that was because of 10+ point swing on the last turn.
I've been busy with large gaming weekends since the last post at the end of June. We spent the fourth of July gaming with friends, followed by ConnectiCon, and finally a bunch of new games this weekend.
Collection Played in 2016: 69%. 51 games to go.
Witch's Brew (new to me) - I don't know what I was expecting from the game that was redesigned into last year's KdJ winner - it's a cruel version of Glass Road's action selection. Or a sideways trick taking game where you don't want to gain the lead... until you do. Worth another play at least.
maskmen - Like many climbing games, the difference between a good hand and a bad hand seems to be how you look at it (sometimes the best option is 'pass'). And endplay is a thing - it doesn't matter if you only have two cards left when they're the two lowest ranked wrestlers. With a full table of six players, you lose a lot of control - but you do have perfect knowledge of the deck.
Rights - Either Rym or Scott described it succinctly - it's Lost Cities x No Thanks. That's already a solid premise for a short game.
Stellar Conflict - Some of the factions are easier to use - which isn't surprising in general, but red is so consistent at winning games that I'm starting to wonder what I'm missing.
ButaBabel (new to me) - Reading the instruction manual is a necessary ritual for playing this game, it just adds so much. "Player with highest tower... is CLOSE to victory."
Age of Craft - I had maybe one of my worst games of Age of Craft ever, barely breaking 10 points before the end. In a lull staffing ConnectiCon we went through the translations for all of the other cards I have yet to play with, which seems like something I should do soon.
Tobago (new to me) - A 90s game that escaped its decade. If you value novelty, this is a novel game.
Mein Schatz - A fine memory game - the only thing holding it back is that we learned Mamma Mia a few months ago, and I have a hard time justifying these treasure chests over Uwe Rosenberg's pizza.
Nations: The Dice Game (new to me) - First game in the weekend of new games... was inoffensive.
Star Wars: Rebellion (new to me) - Second game in the weekend of new games... was good. It's a Corey Konieczka design of a type that I've lost interest in over the past four years - but it's a good implementation of such a design. (Reminder that I need to play Battlestar Galactica with Anthony to see if he cares enough to keep it)
Rattus Cartus (new to me) - Third game in the weekend of new games... was also good. Biblios Dice with more interesting decisions.
Five Tribes (new to me) - Fourth game in the weekend of new games... was great. I agree with the high rating on BGG, this was the highlight of the weekend. Anthony has been picking up a number of Bruno Cathala games lately (Mission Red Planet, Histrio, and Five Tribes) and I have enjoyed them more than other Cathala games I have played in the past (Cyclades, Jamaica, and 7 Wonders Duel). Anthony must be doing a good job curating.
BGG has some better reference cards which I'll have ready for the next time.
Of all of the recent Kickstarters I've backed it had been the most delayed. It was $70 for all of Shogun in one box with 2 new expansions.