Saw this game for sale at a convention yesterday. It looks interesting and with some potentially refreshing old design sensibilities. Didn’t grab it then, but may track it down. Who knows if I will ever get to table it. But even reading the rules for games sometimes is inspiring.
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I think I’ve now played enough Earthborne Rangers (the mostly non-violent ecological exploration game by former Arkham Horror card game lead designer) to know that it’s not going to have lasting appeal for me. It was fun to figure out the mechanics but I’m glad it’s someone else’s copy I’m playing because I wouldn’t want to own the game.
I also got to try a co-op go-on-a-quest game with a very generic title (City of Kings) recently. It’s fun in that you end up in tactical monster fights that seem hopeless at first but then figure out a way to succeed. Not sure it’s one I’d want to play extensively but I would play it again.
I also finally got to try that SETI game that I kept hearing about. I enjoyed it but it seems like it might be one of those games that can become a little exhausting with experience if you start to think too much about all of your options and try to wrest every drop of efficiency out of your actions. I’m probably going to get to play it again soon with the brand new expansion.
Finally, I got to try a Clank game for the first time (Catacombs). Press-your-luck games I sometimes find more annoying than fun, but I liked playing this one. The theme and art are a little more cartoonish than I typically like in my board games, but not enough to keep me from playing.
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I played that version of clank, too and i had a good time. I’m not sure if it’s because I won or not. I was the only one who could escape the catacombs, so it felt perfectly balanced to me.
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More new (to me) games I’ve played recently:
Andromeda’s Edge is ridiculously overproduced (at least the version I got to play). Seems like it’s probably unbalanced and there’s a fair amount of luck but I guess some combination of the two-tier worker placement (kind of like in Automania) and the ships that are basically toys to play with made me like it more than, say, Apiary.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/358661/andromedas-edge
London is a card game by the Brass designer in which you rebuild London after the fire. I’m not a fan of most “engine builders” but I’d play this one again. Much of your engine can be used only once. One of the currencies in the game is “poverty.”
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/236191/london-second-edition
I liked River of Gold but it’s one of those games where you slowly build toward an action that’s not really that exciting and hope you happen to end up with the most points. The foil-embossed board looks nice.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/399941/river-of-gold
I think Luthier (by the same designer as Distilled) has a lot of nice design elements but it’s another modern board game with maybe too many different things going on. I’ve tried to think why I like Ark Nova a lot when it kind of does the same thing, and maybe it’s because Ark Nova doesn’t have so many different parts of the board to focus on with different mechanics and scoring where if you forget about or neglect one you find out later it was at your peril.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/371330/luthier
Wroth was fun and nicely thematic but the character I happened to choose seemed overpowered. I like the way that the game is directly confrontational. I prefer most of the games I play not to be like that but it’s fun on occasion.
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London is A-tier
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I love Martin Wallace’s games, would love to give London a shot
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I’ve been playing this a second time over the past few days, this time BGA async rather than in person. I guess it’s kind of helpful to play it this way with nothing but the mechanics and no fancy alien ship miniatures to sway my opinion.
There are so many variables and random elements that it seems like it shouldn’t work as a “real” strategy game, but I’m finding it compelling all the same (unlike, say, Cosmic Encounter, which is a very fun idea and reportedly inspired Magic: The Gathering but that I didn’t really enjoy playing beyond the initial novelty).
It so happens that I found it used at a good price the other day. I can imagine a future scenario in which you get to play my copy if you’d like.
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I’d like to try it too! Bring it to Needmore 
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