Ah. I wouldn't go that far in praising the Touch controller. I played around with Touch at PAX and it was certainly impressive, but it wasn't uniquely qualified for VR tabletop game control. I'd say the success of any tabletop VR game is tied closer to how well the developer implements use of the controller, regardless of which one it happens to be.
Vive vs Touch is a big ball of competing pros and cons. I sold my Oculus after a while and am rolling with the Vive because it's the only controller-enabled option at this point. Whenever Touch rolls out, I'll reassess.
Over the past two weeks, Anthony and I burned through a lot of medium/heavy games... Trickerion, Caverna, German/Russian Railroads, Le Havre, Tuscany/Viticulture, Brew Crafters, even Poseidon. No explanation for the sudden rise in 2p gaming, other than a lot less Overwatch in the evening. A lot of games added to the trade pile while I'm making room on the shelf.
Collection Played in 2016: 73%. 45 games to go. Games added: Road to the Palace, Pecunia, Tricks & Deserts, String Savanna. Trade pile: Battlestar Galactica, Tumblin-Dice, Bruges, Red7, Fearsome Floors, Tales of the Arabian Nights, Imperial 2030
Balloon Challenge(new to me) - We played it (slightly) wrong, but that's better than some of the rules mishaps I've read about online. These minimalist designs are hit and miss, but Balloon Challenge is closer to hit.
The King of Frontier - The new building tiles are great. I tried to buy all the land and pissed away my points in the process.
Russian Railroads - Bumped my rating to a 9. I have now played with the German Railroads boards (new to me) and I think they're an excellent addition. Still haven't played with the coal.
Scythe(new to me) - A good first impression, but I have concerns. In the second game, I was getting away with a lot of things I shouldn't have just because no one wanted to oppose me in 3-4 poorly defended hexes, and I don't know how long it will hold my interest if too many players stay heads down in their own business.
Poseidon(new to me) - A 2p game with Anthony, not ideal for a stock market game, but the potential is there. I'll be trying to get this played with one particular group on Friday.
Imperial 2030 - After playing this again, I'm convinced I don't need to own it. Especially after playing Poseidon (and with 1846 on the way in October).
Road to the Palace(new to me) - First game in the Japanese import box. Initial impression is good... the manipulation required to get anything to score (and prevent your left hand opponent from scoring) is subtle.
Pecunia(new to me) - Second game in the Japanese import box. Hilariously fun, worth it if only to witness the cascading chain of disasters that can leave you with no people. You can see it coming in advance... but maybe not far enough to change course in time.
Le Havre - I loaded a fleet full of coke twice, but Anthony's building empire was worth 12 francs more in the end. Most importantly, he enjoyed the game much more this time.
Brew Crafters(new to me) - A kickstarter game that made a good first impression! It is the second edition, though, so I'm presumably getting the benefit of hindsight.
Legendary: Big Trouble in Little China(new to me) - I'm not the fan of Legendary, Anthony is. It's one of his favorite games, and one I'm willing to play, and if Lo Pan happens to possess Jack Burton's truck? That's gravy.
Had a good weekend of board games, even though PAX would have been way better.
X-COM: Did a tutorial game, then got railed on Normal mode, then beat Normal mode by the skin of our teeth. The base only took 1 hit, and we didn't even try to stop it. The UFOs however... One country had fallen into panic, and every single other country was one space away. Several were one space away for 2-3 turns. Luckily, a ton of troops and research let us barely finish the final mission in one shot.
Ton of games with the kid. Turns out that My First Bohnanza is just Bohnanza with different bean names. It comes with baby mode rules and a 7-step plan to increase rule complexity until you play real Bohnanza. Need 3 players so we didn't get it to the table, but curious to see how well this actually works
Dragon & Flagon: It was fun. We played twice. But I have no plans to ever buy it. I love some Robo Rally programmed chaos but I don't like the variable player powers. It had enough neat stuff going on (mixture of a time-based player order track with the Robo Rally-style programming) but I'm already over this game, although I would consider trying the team-based pirate ships map.
Fuji Flush: Very good! A fun and easy to learn twist on following suit and getting rid of all of your cards. There's a constantly shifting sense of temporary alliances and taking down the leader.
Fabled Fruit: Hesitant on this. Only got a demo, and it was described as Fluxx for more serious gamers. 6 stacks of cards with special rules and actions on them. Collect cards to progress in the game. The twist is that there are tons of stacks, but you only use 6. Roll a different variety each time. It sounds like 504-lite. It might be a super fun game, but I doubt I would want to cart around the full box of cards when equal fun could be had out of smaller card games.
The Networks: I am still digging this game. Playtested an untitled 2017 expansion that smooths some things out and makes the game more depth. Much needed for a euro that only lasts 5 turns. For instance, starting load out is now handled via a draft, rather than everyone getting generic stuff at start.
Apart from Conquest, what did they do with the license? I feel like their Warhammer offerings were pretty limited and any sort of mini related product would directly compete with Games Workshop.
Apart from Conquest, what did they do with the license? I feel like their Warhammer offerings were pretty limited and any sort of mini related product would directly compete with Games Workshop.
Blood Bowl Team manager, Death Angel, Forbidden stars, Relic (Which was a reskin of Talisman) and they also had the RPG rights.
Feel bad for the people playing Conquest, since I doubt they're going to finish the cycle they're currently in.
They had a lot more than you realize. Last year, what was being demoed at FFG con booths outside of Netrunner/X-Wing? It was Warhammer Quest: Adventure Card Game, Warhammer: Diskwars, and Fury of Dracula (which is a Games Workshop game, not sure if they lost all GW or just Warhammer).
FFG has seen this coming a mile away. They're been building their own universes for a while now. The Realms of Terrinoth go all the way back to 1999 and have been the setting for not just Descent (huge money maker) but plenty of big FFG board game releases. Runebound/Runewars/Runewhatevers. Now they are making a full-on Rune minis game. They saw it coming and said fuck it, burned the bridge themselves.
FFG, owned by Asmodee NA, is in turn owned by some serious fucking investment capital people. They probably looked at GW like a cancer.
Got in several new games this PAX, so gonna go over them quickly.
Russian Railroads: I liked this game, but it does seem to suffer from a couple issues, namely that only a couple paths are optimal, so going deep in the wrong areas won't get you anywhere. The amount of math in it is also high for a board game. End scores of 400+ is a bit much to keep track of and get 100% correct.
Isle of Skye: Blind bought this based on winning the Kennerspiel, and it is really good. Good mix of auctioning and tile-laying with a good amount of randomness to keep things interesting over multiple plays.
Deep Sea Adventure: Only got to play this once, but it was the most fun I had during a game all weekend. I'm a fan of push your luck stuff, and this delivers quite nicely. Bought this for myself.
Fresh Fish: This came out as my favorite game of the weekend, also bought it. Really simple and solid mechanics. This was also the only (serious) game I won, so that helped.
Mysterium: Good asymmetrical coop game. The style of the game is particularly strong. Shame we didn't end up winning, but it was a good time.
Quadropolis: While I do think this is a solid game with tight mechanics, my overall impression wasn't great, just good. I would play it again, but wouldn't buy it.
The Grizzled: I feel like this could be a fun game, but would need a few more plays to really assess. We got wrecked pretty early, so didn't get a chance to find its groove.
Jungle Speed: Glad to finally play this one. Took a bit to get used to the patterns, but I ended up winning both games I was in, the second time by a large margin.
Rhino Hero: Fun quick game. Probably would only play it often if I had kids.
Nevermore: Decent card game. It felt a bit overly complicated and didn't play smoothly. Not sure how I would fix it, just noting it.
Geek Out!: Meh. This probably would've gone over better if the opposing team was quicker, but the game dragged on way too long. Desperately needs a timer.
Time's Up! Title Recall!: This was a lot better because it did have a timer. The game was also really close. I like the mechanic of figuring out the trivia deck, and then restricting how you can give clues. That way you don't get the same frustration as pure charades.
Adorable Pandaring: This game is pretty boring. Granted it is meant to be quick and casual, but there is going too far in that direction. I'm glad it only took 10 minutes.
Dumpster Brawl: This game is trash. Stay away.
I think that was all of them, if I missed one it's because it wasn't interesting. Also got in a few games I have played before: Glory to Rome, 6 Nimmt, Concept, Codenames, Sheriff of Nottingham, and 7 Wonders: Duel, just to name the ones off the top of my head.
The Grizzled is a solid game. Limited communication co-op in the vein of Hanabi and The Game.
I've seen some amazingly high Rhino Hero towers at cons.
Does anyone ever make it back to the sub in your Deep Sea Adventure games? I despise this game due to some awful sessions with it. I also started an internet war by claiming you didn't go back up to the sub inbetween turns. The rules don't say to! Finally someone reached the Japanese designer and he corrected me. Turns out they left out a full rule when writing the English translation.
I'm also a big fan of Quadrapolis. I bought that one after BGG.CON. The expert mode is great.
FFG, owned by Asmodee NA, is in turn owned by some serious fucking investment capital people. They probably looked at GW like a cancer.
Rate-of-return on the 40K products probably had a lot to do with it. The Star Wars license isn't cheap, but they're making money hand over fist with mini-sales.
Just looked at the FFG site. They just finished the last pack for the Conquest cycle, that can't have been a coincidence.
FFG, owned by Asmodee NA, is in turn owned by some serious fucking investment capital people. They probably looked at GW like a cancer.
Rate-of-return on the 40K products probably had a lot to do with it. The Star Wars license isn't cheap, but they're making money hand over fist with mini-sales.
Just looked at the FFG site. They just finished the last pack for the Conquest cycle, that can't have been a coincidence.
There's a lot of evidence that FFG isn't renewing its license with GW. Like you said, the last pack for the Conquest cycle was just announced and the playtesters have said they haven't gotten anything new. FFG quietly released some print-on-demand mini-expansions for the Warhammer Quest card game, there was absolutely no talk of GW products at GenCon, and probably the biggest hint... the RuneWars miniature game, which directly competes with GW.
That is unfortunate. It was one of my favorite new games I played this weekend. I purchased it. Nice fast, easy, and push your luck is always fun.
As for some new games I played this weekend;
Scythe: I really love the theme of this game along with the figures. I got the girl with rifle and bear. I imagined I was a grown up version of Lyra Bellacqua with Iorek Byrnison from The Golden Compass. I feel the game ended before I could really do anything. Perhaps, it was because it was my first playthrough that I couldn't see all the optimal moves to get more things done. There is so many different objectives to go for, so it makes it a bit difficult to figure out what to do. I feel a few more plays and I'll definitely get maximum enjoyment. The set up/explanation took almost the same amount of time as the playing.
Isle of Skye: Jeremy liked it enough that he bought it. It has an interesting mechanic for purchasing tiles. I got screwed the first time around with purchasing because the game DOESN'T have enough single coins. How the FUCK do you miss that? Singles coins are needed the most. The game does scratch that Carcassonne itch.
I know I played a few other new games on Thursday night, but I was kinda high at the end of it to remember. All I remember is pigs, butts, and piling shit in Scott's pile. Those rules were SO weird.
It's weird that Matt Morgan says expert on Quadropolis is where it's at, but I've heard otherwise. I want to play expert mode at least once to see what it's all about.
Repeat games:
Agility: I didn't play up to 4 players, but played 2 games with 3 players and it worked out well. The extra Agility Tracks you can get online made it easy. Realized the way to win is to make sure you get 3 dogs out as soon as possible. I also go lucky with my cards to get optimal placement on the round track. They really need to fix some of the colors for the dogs. I'll have to go thru and mark the orange/red one to distinguish which is which.
Between Two Cities: Key to winning: sit between two pro players.
Ginkopolis: Solid game with Pence, Anthony, & Jeremy. I can always play that game. I really want it to be on iOS.
There aren't enough board games on iOS that I really enjoy. It makes me sad. Either that, or App Store makes it really hard to find them in the listings.
I made a similar mistake in my first Scythe playthrough. Eyes went wide at the variety of objectives, and after shooting out to early lead, I wound up focusing hard on being the player to get the 4th star (trigger endgame), not actually being the one who got the most victory points. I stalled a bit and got my ass beat.
Unlike Deep Sea Adventure, my opinion on Quadrapolis is still flexible. I bought Quadropolis but have only played basic twice and expert once. I liked the challenge of expert, and would like to play both modes some more.
On Scythe, the game is overall pretty good, but has a few problems that make me not want to play it more. First, it takes too long for what it is. I can get a similar gaming experience in half the time, so why wouldn't I?
Secondly, I like how they tuned the rules of the game to prevent someone from just dominating or snowballing with combat. You can't just attack people right out of the gate because water. You can't really ruin someone by picking on them with combat because their stuff just goes back to start. Ties go to the attacker, but you can't sustain constant offense because you spend crabs and cards to attack whether you win or lose. You also can't sustain attacks because you lose popularity whenever you send workers home, and everyone surrounds their mechs and leaders with workers.
On paper, this is great. You attack only at times when it makes sense to do so. Like if someone has a huge pile of resources on the ground you can steal. Or attack a weak opponent to get victory points. You don't just concentrate on military, control the entire board, and then nobody else can even do anything.
In reality, this caused me a lot of problems. I was the wolf guy. I was supposed to combat. My combat was strong. Every turn of the game I checked to see if there was a spot to attack. I was itching to fight. I was so strong at fighting. There was just never even one time when fighting was a good idea. The only reward for doing so was a single star. The cost of doing so was always enormous. The damage it would do to the victim was always minimal.
Also, movement was so restricted, even with magical tunnels, that there was just no way for me to get to the spots that were vulnerable to attack, or to attack the opponents that were leading in the game to bring them down. I think part of the problem was that there were 5 players on the map. The map does not change size with the number of players. In a few player game, everyone has tons of room to move around. With a lot of players, everyone is cramped. I was the only person to start with players on both sides of me. Everyone else had at least one open spot to one side of them to expand into.
If Scythe would just reduce its length by half, change the map when the number of players change, and give more rewards for winning and/or more penalties for losing combat it would be pretty great.
That sounds like a pretty accurate assessment, placing Scythe in the "good but not great" category. I had a very similar experience where I was primed for an unstoppable attack, but I stalled out, waiting several turns for the opportune moment to use this great power. It never came.
Scythe set off my skeptical radar when I saw the map. You are correct that it is a fixed map size regardless of player count. The map even has territories built into it for the 5th and 6th factions, which have been developed, but won't release until next year's expansion. I'm always keep an eyebrow raised when I play what might be an incomplete game.
Oh, also the guy that gets to teleport to the center is OP. The center needs to have a built in neutral defense of some kind like Eclipse considering how much of a benefit it grants.
I know I played a few other new games on Thursday night, but I was kinda high at the end of it to remember. All I remember is pigs, butts, and piling shit in Scott's pile. Those rules were SO weird.
The pigs were ButaBabel. The butts... no idea. We did play Tricks & Deserts that night.
ButaBabel is fantastic, but it needs to up its game: too easy for mistaken plays to hit towers.
I would remake it with small physical plastic interlocking stackable bits: build physical towers. Interlock to prevent misplacement, add rules for knocking a tower over (yours or another's), but otherwise mostly the same game.
ButaBabel is fantastic, but it needs to up its game: too easy for mistaken plays to hit towers.
I would remake it with small physical plastic interlocking stackable bits: build physical towers. Interlock to prevent misplacement, add rules for knocking a tower over (yours or another's), but otherwise mostly the same game.
Even if you play Buta Babel without any misplays, just being real-time vote who wins with a funny rulebook is not enough to make it worth many replays. Needs one more component, and dexterity would do the trick.
Interesting to see you invoke Eclipse. I got a fair bit of push back on Twitter when I drew some parallels between my Scythe experience to that of an Eclipse game.
Sure, they are very different games in many different ways. Most direct game comparisons don't hold up to close scrutiny. But in a realistic sense, they both scratched the same itch. I'd never play both back to back. I'd be hungry for something else after either.
My overall feeling is that I would prefer to play Eclipse, which I think ruffle some feathers. The Jamey Steigmeier fan club is pretty strong.
Scythe: I really love the theme of this game along with the figures. I got the girl with rifle and bear. I imagined I was a grown up version of Lyra Bellacqua with Iorek Byrnison from The Golden Compass. I feel the game ended before I could really do anything. Perhaps, it was because it was my first playthrough that I couldn't see all the optimal moves to get more things done. There is so many different objectives to go for, so it makes it a bit difficult to figure out what to do. I feel a few more plays and I'll definitely get maximum enjoyment. The set up/explanation took almost the same amount of time as the playing.
Oh, also the guy that gets to teleport to the center is OP. The center needs to have a built in neutral defense of some kind like Eclipse considering how much of a benefit it grants.
I ended up playing the Russian Lady with the Bear who has the teleport to the center power. Even though the factory powers are better than the starting abilities, over-relying on them can stunt your growth in other ways. Even though I got an early power, I was dead last when it came to geting other points. Although 1 more heart might have made me more competitive.
Scythe: I really love the theme of this game along with the figures. I got the girl with rifle and bear. I imagined I was a grown up version of Lyra Bellacqua with Iorek Byrnison from The Golden Compass. I feel the game ended before I could really do anything. Perhaps, it was because it was my first playthrough that I couldn't see all the optimal moves to get more things done. There is so many different objectives to go for, so it makes it a bit difficult to figure out what to do. I feel a few more plays and I'll definitely get maximum enjoyment. The set up/explanation took almost the same amount of time as the playing.
Oh, also the guy that gets to teleport to the center is OP. The center needs to have a built in neutral defense of some kind like Eclipse considering how much of a benefit it grants.
I ended up playing the Russian Lady with the Bear who has the teleport to the center power. Even though the factory powers are better than the starting abilities, over-relying on them can stunt your growth in other ways. Even though I got an early power, I was dead last when it came to geting other points. Although 1 more heart might have made me more competitive.
I think it depends a lot what powers are in there. Pence got a power where he could just make a mech or a building by losing a popularity. No need to build up resources. It was crazy strong. The other powers in the middle were not nearly as good.
Comments
Vive vs Touch is a big ball of competing pros and cons. I sold my Oculus after a while and am rolling with the Vive because it's the only controller-enabled option at this point. Whenever Touch rolls out, I'll reassess.
What I can't speak to is how easily the magic of Touch is realized for the average VR developer.
Collection Played in 2016: 73%. 45 games to go. Games added: Road to the Palace, Pecunia, Tricks & Deserts, String Savanna. Trade pile: Battlestar Galactica, Tumblin-Dice, Bruges, Red7, Fearsome Floors, Tales of the Arabian Nights, Imperial 2030
Balloon Challenge (new to me) - We played it (slightly) wrong, but that's better than some of the rules mishaps I've read about online. These minimalist designs are hit and miss, but Balloon Challenge is closer to hit.
The King of Frontier - The new building tiles are great. I tried to buy all the land and pissed away my points in the process.
Russian Railroads - Bumped my rating to a 9. I have now played with the German Railroads boards (new to me) and I think they're an excellent addition. Still haven't played with the coal.
Scythe (new to me) - A good first impression, but I have concerns. In the second game, I was getting away with a lot of things I shouldn't have just because no one wanted to oppose me in 3-4 poorly defended hexes, and I don't know how long it will hold my interest if too many players stay heads down in their own business.
Poseidon (new to me) - A 2p game with Anthony, not ideal for a stock market game, but the potential is there. I'll be trying to get this played with one particular group on Friday.
Imperial 2030 - After playing this again, I'm convinced I don't need to own it. Especially after playing Poseidon (and with 1846 on the way in October).
Road to the Palace (new to me) - First game in the Japanese import box. Initial impression is good... the manipulation required to get anything to score (and prevent your left hand opponent from scoring) is subtle.
Pecunia (new to me) - Second game in the Japanese import box. Hilariously fun, worth it if only to witness the cascading chain of disasters that can leave you with no people. You can see it coming in advance... but maybe not far enough to change course in time.
Le Havre - I loaded a fleet full of coke twice, but Anthony's building empire was worth 12 francs more in the end. Most importantly, he enjoyed the game much more this time.
Brew Crafters (new to me) - A kickstarter game that made a good first impression! It is the second edition, though, so I'm presumably getting the benefit of hindsight.
Legendary: Big Trouble in Little China (new to me) - I'm not the fan of Legendary, Anthony is. It's one of his favorite games, and one I'm willing to play, and if Lo Pan happens to possess Jack Burton's truck? That's gravy.
X-COM: Did a tutorial game, then got railed on Normal mode, then beat Normal mode by the skin of our teeth. The base only took 1 hit, and we didn't even try to stop it. The UFOs however... One country had fallen into panic, and every single other country was one space away. Several were one space away for 2-3 turns. Luckily, a ton of troops and research let us barely finish the final mission in one shot.
Ton of games with the kid. Turns out that My First Bohnanza is just Bohnanza with different bean names. It comes with baby mode rules and a 7-step plan to increase rule complexity until you play real Bohnanza. Need 3 players so we didn't get it to the table, but curious to see how well this actually works
Dragon & Flagon: It was fun. We played twice. But I have no plans to ever buy it. I love some Robo Rally programmed chaos but I don't like the variable player powers. It had enough neat stuff going on (mixture of a time-based player order track with the Robo Rally-style programming) but I'm already over this game, although I would consider trying the team-based pirate ships map.
Fuji Flush: Very good! A fun and easy to learn twist on following suit and getting rid of all of your cards. There's a constantly shifting sense of temporary alliances and taking down the leader.
Fabled Fruit: Hesitant on this. Only got a demo, and it was described as Fluxx for more serious gamers. 6 stacks of cards with special rules and actions on them. Collect cards to progress in the game. The twist is that there are tons of stacks, but you only use 6. Roll a different variety each time. It sounds like 504-lite. It might be a super fun game, but I doubt I would want to cart around the full box of cards when equal fun could be had out of smaller card games.
The Networks: I am still digging this game. Playtested an untitled 2017 expansion that smooths some things out and makes the game more depth. Much needed for a euro that only lasts 5 turns. For instance, starting load out is now handled via a draft, rather than everyone getting generic stuff at start.
FFG loses Games Workshop license? Oh snaaaap.
FFG loses Games Workshop license? Oh snaaaap.
Feel bad for the people playing Conquest, since I doubt they're going to finish the cycle they're currently in.
FFG has seen this coming a mile away. They're been building their own universes for a while now. The Realms of Terrinoth go all the way back to 1999 and have been the setting for not just Descent (huge money maker) but plenty of big FFG board game releases. Runebound/Runewars/Runewhatevers. Now they are making a full-on Rune minis game. They saw it coming and said fuck it, burned the bridge themselves.
FFG, owned by Asmodee NA, is in turn owned by some serious fucking investment capital people. They probably looked at GW like a cancer.
Russian Railroads: I liked this game, but it does seem to suffer from a couple issues, namely that only a couple paths are optimal, so going deep in the wrong areas won't get you anywhere. The amount of math in it is also high for a board game. End scores of 400+ is a bit much to keep track of and get 100% correct.
Isle of Skye: Blind bought this based on winning the Kennerspiel, and it is really good. Good mix of auctioning and tile-laying with a good amount of randomness to keep things interesting over multiple plays.
Deep Sea Adventure: Only got to play this once, but it was the most fun I had during a game all weekend. I'm a fan of push your luck stuff, and this delivers quite nicely. Bought this for myself.
Fresh Fish: This came out as my favorite game of the weekend, also bought it. Really simple and solid mechanics. This was also the only (serious) game I won, so that helped.
Mysterium: Good asymmetrical coop game. The style of the game is particularly strong. Shame we didn't end up winning, but it was a good time.
Quadropolis: While I do think this is a solid game with tight mechanics, my overall impression wasn't great, just good. I would play it again, but wouldn't buy it.
The Grizzled: I feel like this could be a fun game, but would need a few more plays to really assess. We got wrecked pretty early, so didn't get a chance to find its groove.
Jungle Speed: Glad to finally play this one. Took a bit to get used to the patterns, but I ended up winning both games I was in, the second time by a large margin.
Rhino Hero: Fun quick game. Probably would only play it often if I had kids.
Nevermore: Decent card game. It felt a bit overly complicated and didn't play smoothly. Not sure how I would fix it, just noting it.
Geek Out!: Meh. This probably would've gone over better if the opposing team was quicker, but the game dragged on way too long. Desperately needs a timer.
Time's Up! Title Recall!: This was a lot better because it did have a timer. The game was also really close. I like the mechanic of figuring out the trivia deck, and then restricting how you can give clues. That way you don't get the same frustration as pure charades.
Adorable Pandaring: This game is pretty boring. Granted it is meant to be quick and casual, but there is going too far in that direction. I'm glad it only took 10 minutes.
Dumpster Brawl: This game is trash. Stay away.
I think that was all of them, if I missed one it's because it wasn't interesting. Also got in a few games I have played before: Glory to Rome, 6 Nimmt, Concept, Codenames, Sheriff of Nottingham, and 7 Wonders: Duel, just to name the ones off the top of my head.
I've seen some amazingly high Rhino Hero towers at cons.
Does anyone ever make it back to the sub in your Deep Sea Adventure games? I despise this game due to some awful sessions with it. I also started an internet war by claiming you didn't go back up to the sub inbetween turns. The rules don't say to! Finally someone reached the Japanese designer and he corrected me. Turns out they left out a full rule when writing the English translation.
I'm also a big fan of Quadrapolis. I bought that one after BGG.CON. The expert mode is great.
I still hate that fucking game.
Just looked at the FFG site. They just finished the last pack for the Conquest cycle, that can't have been a coincidence.
All signs point to the license deal being over.
As for some new games I played this weekend;
Scythe: I really love the theme of this game along with the figures. I got the girl with rifle and bear. I imagined I was a grown up version of Lyra Bellacqua with Iorek Byrnison from The Golden Compass. I feel the game ended before I could really do anything. Perhaps, it was because it was my first playthrough that I couldn't see all the optimal moves to get more things done. There is so many different objectives to go for, so it makes it a bit difficult to figure out what to do. I feel a few more plays and I'll definitely get maximum enjoyment. The set up/explanation took almost the same amount of time as the playing.
Isle of Skye: Jeremy liked it enough that he bought it. It has an interesting mechanic for purchasing tiles. I got screwed the first time around with purchasing because the game DOESN'T have enough single coins. How the FUCK do you miss that? Singles coins are needed the most. The game does scratch that Carcassonne itch.
I know I played a few other new games on Thursday night, but I was kinda high at the end of it to remember. All I remember is pigs, butts, and piling shit in Scott's pile. Those rules were SO weird.
It's weird that Matt Morgan says expert on Quadropolis is where it's at, but I've heard otherwise. I want to play expert mode at least once to see what it's all about.
Repeat games:
Agility: I didn't play up to 4 players, but played 2 games with 3 players and it worked out well. The extra Agility Tracks you can get online made it easy. Realized the way to win is to make sure you get 3 dogs out as soon as possible. I also go lucky with my cards to get optimal placement on the round track. They really need to fix some of the colors for the dogs. I'll have to go thru and mark the orange/red one to distinguish which is which.
Between Two Cities: Key to winning: sit between two pro players.
Ginkopolis: Solid game with Pence, Anthony, & Jeremy. I can always play that game. I really want it to be on iOS.
There aren't enough board games on iOS that I really enjoy. It makes me sad. Either that, or App Store makes it really hard to find them in the listings.
Unlike Deep Sea Adventure, my opinion on Quadrapolis is still flexible. I bought Quadropolis but have only played basic twice and expert once. I liked the challenge of expert, and would like to play both modes some more.
Secondly, I like how they tuned the rules of the game to prevent someone from just dominating or snowballing with combat. You can't just attack people right out of the gate because water. You can't really ruin someone by picking on them with combat because their stuff just goes back to start. Ties go to the attacker, but you can't sustain constant offense because you spend crabs and cards to attack whether you win or lose. You also can't sustain attacks because you lose popularity whenever you send workers home, and everyone surrounds their mechs and leaders with workers.
On paper, this is great. You attack only at times when it makes sense to do so. Like if someone has a huge pile of resources on the ground you can steal. Or attack a weak opponent to get victory points. You don't just concentrate on military, control the entire board, and then nobody else can even do anything.
In reality, this caused me a lot of problems. I was the wolf guy. I was supposed to combat. My combat was strong. Every turn of the game I checked to see if there was a spot to attack. I was itching to fight. I was so strong at fighting. There was just never even one time when fighting was a good idea. The only reward for doing so was a single star. The cost of doing so was always enormous. The damage it would do to the victim was always minimal.
Also, movement was so restricted, even with magical tunnels, that there was just no way for me to get to the spots that were vulnerable to attack, or to attack the opponents that were leading in the game to bring them down. I think part of the problem was that there were 5 players on the map. The map does not change size with the number of players. In a few player game, everyone has tons of room to move around. With a lot of players, everyone is cramped. I was the only person to start with players on both sides of me. Everyone else had at least one open spot to one side of them to expand into.
If Scythe would just reduce its length by half, change the map when the number of players change, and give more rewards for winning and/or more penalties for losing combat it would be pretty great.
Scythe set off my skeptical radar when I saw the map. You are correct that it is a fixed map size regardless of player count. The map even has territories built into it for the 5th and 6th factions, which have been developed, but won't release until next year's expansion. I'm always keep an eyebrow raised when I play what might be an incomplete game.
I would remake it with small physical plastic interlocking stackable bits: build physical towers. Interlock to prevent misplacement, add rules for knocking a tower over (yours or another's), but otherwise mostly the same game.
Sure, they are very different games in many different ways. Most direct game comparisons don't hold up to close scrutiny. But in a realistic sense, they both scratched the same itch. I'd never play both back to back. I'd be hungry for something else after either.
My overall feeling is that I would prefer to play Eclipse, which I think ruffle some feathers. The Jamey Steigmeier fan club is pretty strong.