If you like Uwe Rosenberg, there is a Big Box of his game Nusfjord that is getting a second printing. The original is long unavailable and even this has not been readily available.
2 Likes
I played Molly House the other week. another Cole Wehrle game, this time designed by a student and polished into a finished game
itâs roll and move around a perfectly symmetrical board, play one and pick up cards by âcruisingâ nearby to the houses in each corner, and collectively building a poker hand to determine how successful a festivity is in a house. once the deck is empty, the discards are shuffled + a proportion are revealed as âevidenceâ, which is added to the house of the matching suit if a matching threat is also revealed. once a house has enough evidence, it is raided & canât host festivities
the deck is 4 suits (one for each house), 1-9 + a Jack, Queen, Constable (0, threat) and a Rogue (wild, threat)
the core of the game has some potential. if it were only building handsâŠ!
thereâs a lot not to like:
- rolling to move
- individual scoring (cruised card go to your tableau & have âjoyâ)
- difficulty of shared scoring (maximum of two cards can be scored by the community each festivity)
- complex special casing for discarding threat cards
- âbetrayerâ mechanism for players to inform on a house & be discovered
- being exposed when a house gets raided nets you an indictment card. which has a random chance to sentence you to death at the end of the game
it has the Wehrle trademark incomprehensibly-laid-out rulebook. being exposed is a frequent occurrence, and is detailed in passing nowhere near where it may occur. and has a special case (actually something just like being exposed but not the same). and the fussy rules about what uncovered informers cannot do, specific to actions taken at the house they informed on
the nail in the coffin is the end + win conditions:
- community joy hits threshold, highest individual joy wins
- all 4 houses are raided (or one raided twice), successful informants score based off other playerâs tableaux
- 5 rounds played and neither of the above, no one wins
we were en route to a community win when the final end of round revealed enough evidence for a second raid on a house. as only one player had successfully informed on a raided house, they were spared the gallows and won by default. feels very random and unpredictable
I can see a good game hidden in all the crap, a plain old card game with card counting, poison cards, miseré rules for aiming for low hand. make it whist-themed, much like people might have played at an actual molly house. as for this game, I think it can be best enjoyed if you ignored the game and engaged with the theme, making a big show of each festivity and berating those who invite Constables or put up middling cards.
3 Likes
1 Like
This is devious and challenging, even just at two. Intrigued to play it with four or more when I inevitably take it over to my fiancĂ©âs parents.
1 Like
Iâve never tried the two-player Bottle Imp variant. 3-4 is probably still ideal but 5-6 works surprisingly well.
I recently played through half of this game (9 of the 18 chapters). I like the gameâs look and variety. Itâs a lot like The Crew but the new rules introduced are attached the characters you choose. Seems to be a little on the easy side so far, but that could very well change in the second half.
Speaking of trick-taking games, I also recently played a few rounds of Schadenfreude. It made a good first impression. Fun but odd and maybe ultimately a little too chaotic, but Iâm looking forward to playing some more to form a real opinion.
1 Like
I hadnât even looked at that Bottle Imp two-player variant until today. It feels a lot more all-or-nothing than the other player counts, with one clear winner who (likely) gets a lot of points and one loser. But it works, and I like how they went with that âdevilâs eyeâ aesthetic rather than simply saying to lay out the cards.
1 Like
Starcraft Board Game is a masterpiece. But if you wanna feel that part, you need to find 4 players who deeply researched Starcraft video game, well known the model of damage in the video game and like to learn an offline Starcraft with energy again.
1 Like
I like the Starcraft board game. I own it and havenât found it too hard to teach. I once played it with a friend and his daughter who was something like 14 at the time. My friend and I fought each other the whole game and his daughter ended up winning.
Itâs too bad they lost the license for that and also for Forbidden Stars, so now that game isnât available in any form.
Funny thing is, I think Nexus Ops feels more like playing the Starcraft computer game than the Starcraft board game does.
1 Like
The rule is not that hard but the strategy of the order system and combat card in game is tense. We have one player who played Starcraft but never learned it right, so in the end he complained about why splash damage in a space theme game (he thought itâs only in the game like DoTA or WOW) and we have to explain about how it works in the Starcraft 1. I guess we need to find some other non-video game background player next time lol.
I just finished up a weekend with my siblings +sisterâs husband. They are all very invested in board games, my brother most of all. My brotherâs favorite type of game is a Euro-style âpoint salad.â These are games where you have multiple objectives, currencies, and doodads that all mass together into elusive âVictory Points.â I think he loves these because he was born in Germany. He must have imbibed the joy of numbers and economics while nursing.
We played the following games: Hues and Cues*, Forest Shuffle, Brass: Birmingham, Detective: City of Angels, 7 Wonders, and Great Western Trail.
In an amazing upset, I won our game of Brass: Birmingham. It came down to a tiebreaker and my income was through the roof. I also won Detective: City of Angels, but I suspect that this had to do with my starting first.
The last game we played was Great Western Trail. It was a grueling 3 and half hour game and i was dizzy and confused by the end of it. Whatâs more important? Buying cows or removing bandits from the canyon? Why did I just build that house there this late in the game? Should I rush to Kansas City or make sure I complete this goal Iâm committed to?
I need to rest my brain.
*This was Cookbooksâ choice. She refuses to play any âpoint saladâ game and spent the weekend thrift shopping instead.
5 Likes
I played several new (to me) games over the weekend that Iâd been curious about.
MoonRakers
Deckbuilder with negotiation between players. This game looks very nice (especially the deluxe edition that we played with) but Iâm not entirely sold on it. Iâd play it again but the victory seemed to come down to who got lucky draws first in the final round, since no one was going to cooperate anymore at that point.
Ra and Write
I like Ra a lot and this game was an interesting twist on it but itâs not one I will bother buying.
Fromage
I liked this one more than I had expected at first glance. It seemed like one of those games that make you keep track of too many disparate ways to score points, but the way it comes together works. Iâd like to play it again to form a more solid opinion.
Aha!
1 Like
Finally got to play my copy of Plum Island Horror, over the span of two weeks as my partner and I fell into and then crawled out of covid sickness. We lost. But really enjoyable and fun. Excited for the expansion.
5 Likes
from this post about a 1991 anime convention
7 Likes
Anyone recommend Orleans? I see that you can pre-order a new print of it, and I have always thought the art looks nice and it looks busy in a fun way. I also hear it is pretty approachable.
Had a GREAT time learning and playing Power Grid with my inlaws last night. Thatâs a good game.
3 Likes
Last night I played my third-ever 18xx game and my first one in person. Itâs a Euro-influenced one called Railways of the Lost Atlas. It has a lot of variability and scaling options. (Last night was a two-player abbreviated game that took only two hours even with teaching me, and it didnât feel like an incomplete experience.)
Coincidentally, they just launched a Kickstarter campaign today for an expansion and a reprint of the base game.
Iâve wondered whether it would be worthwhile to own a game of this type. This one seems like it would be a good choice.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/asterisk-games/landmarks-of-the-lost-atlas
4 Likes
personally think a fixed map, same corporations, etc. are part of the defining characteristics of an 18xx, so having them random & changing from game to game loses its soul. like playing Risk on a random world map. 18xx map design is hard, I suggest following some pre-made layouts
I think the beginner variant of 1830 would have a similar feel, each player gets a corporation and runs it without worrying about stock. just the routing, revenue, and train rusting game. this at least has bankruptcy & dumping, no privates is a big choice
21Moon is a âfunâ 18xx title with a small random setup. the purist attitude to randomisation in 18xx is âplayers should sit in random seats, everything else should be identical in each gameâ
1 Like
1 Like
If you have the starcraft board game, particularly the expansion. You should sell it.