Do you really believe that? I'm an Archer guy and I'm not buying that game because of Cryptozoic.
I know some of their staff. While good people and gamers all, they are in no way pushing the hobby forward. They're cash grabbing. There isn't anything wrong with that but it's not a practice I will support with my limited cash-money.
Played Asgard this weekend. Seems like a good timing-intensive worker-placement game. Lots of little parts that work together make it fairly complex - perhaps too complex, but that remains to be seen. You take turns picking actions, resolving actions, and investing in end-game conflict to generate victory points. Most veeps wins.
Its primary drawback is fairly significant - the rules are not really very clear (which I believe to be a result of translation difficulties on the part of the developers). The most current revision clarifies many major ambiguities, but some still remain. As a result of the rules, the game takes a little while to teach, and requires some rulebook consultation during play.
There is also an instance where a game icon is re-used for a slightly different take on the same principle. This is maddening to say the least.
I'm intrigued enough to pick it up and play it with the correct rules.
I played Tzolk'in tonight, and it is legit. Resource management and worker placement game that feels like an alternate universe Caylus (with the bits, the favor track, and a resource cost to place workers). Even the start player space has some excellent layers of nuance to it since you can use it to accelerate the game or to put yourself in last place, depending on other game conditions. You need to plan multiple turns ahead because of the way the gears work.
It gets a bit repetitive one you realize where all the points come from. Also you soon realize upgrading your corn efficiency is not worth the turns you are wasting.
Also, played a surprise game of Eclipse after five months. Victory has a taste, and it is good.
For those who know me I have been heaping praise upon unpub, and their kickstarter just went live.
Even if you do want to play a ton of awesome games in January, there are some awesome board game levels where you will be able to get a bunch of published unpub stuff.
Also if you are interesting in going let me know would totally want a group of people to game with over a weekend.
UnPub is full of great people, and would absolutely benefit from having smart FRCF playtesters at the event. I went to UnPub 2 and 3, but if I can squeeze a weekend away from home in that timeframe, you'll see me at PAX South instead. Apples and oranges, I know, but time is harder to come by than money it seems.
Played Spyrium last night. Rock-solid worker placement game that teaches very quickly and is pretty intuitively designed. Need more plays to figure out longevity. Creates fairly tense play.
Oooooo nice, that one's definitely been on my "to check out" list of recent releases. It's the first big game from the guy who made Caylus since.... Caylus. So yeah, it had it's fair share of hype.
One thing I would definitely recommend is to take a look at the end-game board before you start or get too deep into the game.
The game is played in 6 rounds: 3 "A", 2 "B", and one "C." The "C" round always consists of the same 9 cards, albeit laid out randomly (which will change the way the round plays out every time). So the end game will have the same set of options every single time. It's useful to know what you'll see at the end so that you can intelligently plan your previous 5 rounds.
Also, the theme is extraordinarily thin. The vast majority of the game is speculating over resource conversion, and it shows. But if you don't mind a flimsy theme, it's great.
I played Splendor at ConnectiCon - it is a solid engine building card game. In an alternate universe where St Petersburg was going for SdJ, it might have become Splendor.
I've been reluctant to take a further look at Camel Up, simply because I'm always skeptical of race games, but I figured it'd be inevitable once it got nominated. Now I will really have to go take a look.
Wrote a big feature on Alien Frontiers and Crowdfunding. Sneakily submitted my own content to reddit without disclosure (ghasp!). Anyone spare an upvote?
I figure there was drama from all the updates and delays. I just never paid attention. With Kickstarter games, I figure when it gets here, it gets here.
I just wished Tokkaido came our prior to PAX Prime. Well, I'll try to bring it to South.
So this week my girlfriend wanted me to bring a board game over so that she gets an idea about the hobby. I decide to introduce King of Tokyo (close second being ticket to ride).
We played three games and I won each game. At the end I let her keep it if she wanted to try it with other people, I then brought up how the game was similar to Yazhee and she confessed that she never played that game nor knew of anyone mentioning it to her in the past.
I had a Scrym moment there trying to comprehend this for a good few minutes.
Game of Thrones - Dominated early and mid game, shut down Lannister while getting back stabbed by Tyrell. Tyrell then continued to attack me and ignore the Martell threat right next to them, Martell took the lead, Greyjoys ignored Starks. As a result Starks came in end game, came down to one move on the 10th turn between the Starks trying to take a 7th castle. Equal combat points were present and would come down to a card draw if played optimally however Tyrell trolled a 4 hour game by playing the absolutely wrong card.
Starks won.
Martell got so mad he flipped his shit, seems to have major anger problems, one of those people that scream at their screen while playing Dota 2 rather than play the game.
It was a great game up to that point but the salt was so strong from the Martell player. Don't think I can play a high strategy game with this guy. If he knows the game he trashes you and doesn't give 2 shits yet when he's ok but not completely god like, gets mad very easily.
Comments
Two seconds later: "Wait... why would I be excited about that?"
I know some of their staff. While good people and gamers all, they are in no way pushing the hobby forward. They're cash grabbing. There isn't anything wrong with that but it's not a practice I will support with my limited cash-money.
Its primary drawback is fairly significant - the rules are not really very clear (which I believe to be a result of translation difficulties on the part of the developers). The most current revision clarifies many major ambiguities, but some still remain. As a result of the rules, the game takes a little while to teach, and requires some rulebook consultation during play.
There is also an instance where a game icon is re-used for a slightly different take on the same principle. This is maddening to say the least.
I'm intrigued enough to pick it up and play it with the correct rules.
Also, played a surprise game of Eclipse after five months. Victory has a taste, and it is good.
Even if you do want to play a ton of awesome games in January, there are some awesome board game levels where you will be able to get a bunch of published unpub stuff.
Also if you are interesting in going let me know would totally want a group of people to game with over a weekend.
The game is played in 6 rounds: 3 "A", 2 "B", and one "C." The "C" round always consists of the same 9 cards, albeit laid out randomly (which will change the way the round plays out every time). So the end game will have the same set of options every single time. It's useful to know what you'll see at the end so that you can intelligently plan your previous 5 rounds.
Also, the theme is extraordinarily thin. The vast majority of the game is speculating over resource conversion, and it shows. But if you don't mind a flimsy theme, it's great.
I played Splendor at ConnectiCon - it is a solid engine building card game. In an alternate universe where St Petersburg was going for SdJ, it might have become Splendor.
EDIT: I didn't realize the story had 4 pages I see you talk about it :-p
I will say that writing for Escapist was a much better experience than MTV or Wired ever was, all other things considered.
I just wished Tokkaido came our prior to PAX Prime. Well, I'll try to bring it to South.
BG list.
Most of it was due to Jeremy. I wouldn't mind getting rid of more of them.
We played three games and I won each game. At the end I let her keep it if she wanted to try it with other people, I then brought up how the game was similar to Yazhee and she confessed that she never played that game nor knew of anyone mentioning it to her in the past.
I had a Scrym moment there trying to comprehend this for a good few minutes.
Dominated early and mid game, shut down Lannister while getting back stabbed by Tyrell.
Tyrell then continued to attack me and ignore the Martell threat right next to them, Martell took the lead, Greyjoys ignored Starks.
As a result Starks came in end game, came down to one move on the 10th turn between the Starks trying to take a 7th castle. Equal combat points were present and would come down to a card draw if played optimally however Tyrell trolled a 4 hour game by playing the absolutely wrong card.
Starks won.
Martell got so mad he flipped his shit, seems to have major anger problems, one of those people that scream at their screen while playing Dota 2 rather than play the game.
It was a great game up to that point but the salt was so strong from the Martell player. Don't think I can play a high strategy game with this guy. If he knows the game he trashes you and doesn't give 2 shits yet when he's ok but not completely god like, gets mad very easily.