BOARD GAME UNBOXINGS: SOME THOUGHTS

Another slow week of board game playing, so I thought I would give my initial thoughts on some games I recently unboxed and read through the rules.

FOUNDERS OF GLOOMHAVEN: Looks great but complicated. The rulebook looks clear but has allot of terminology. It is the sort of game where the impression I get is that it looks more complicated than it actually plays. Components are simple and some races may have issues identifying their colors (i.e. brown vs grey vs orange).

LEGENDARY CREATURES: The game looks fantastic. The rules seem interesting. However, there seems to be a couple of fiddly looking rules which may affect the enjoyment of it, especially as they appear easy to forget. Really looking forward to trying this one.

SMITHS OF WINTERFORGE: Another game that looks great. However, I feel like this may be a King's Forge but more complicated. I don't know if the extra complexity is going to make it worth it. Also am considering a small houserule out of the gate (you get +1 tokens = number of dice rolled if you fail a roll) because the dice rolling seems like it could be brutal.

RISING 5: RUNES OF ASTEROS: Looks nice. The rules seem pretty simple. I got the KS version at a decent price so have the mini-expansions to play around with. The rulebook layout feels a bit off, but still want to get it to the table.

VOYAGES OF MARCO POLO: Such a small rulebook. So many components. This feels like a Stone Age type game. Few rules, but nice to play. Looking forward to giving this one a go, but fear the visual appeal is a bit low with all the hotness around these days.

Hopefully I will get some more games played this week to get back to normal reviews.

BOARD GAME REVIEW QUICK THOUGHTS

So another week where I haven’t had a chance to play games enough to get a final opinion. So instead I will give my first impressions of a bunch of games I have played. 

Outlive: a pretty cool game. It is essentially Fallout as if you are managing your shelter. I like the pressure mechanics and the worker strength. Some of the rules and terminology feel very odd though. 

Barbarians the Invasion: a cool game. Effectively a worker placement game that is card driven. This is pretty enjoyable. There is one balance issue with the starting gods and starting player order, but this is solved by just doing a reverse turn order draft of the gods. 

Empires Age of Discovery: There is allot to like about this game. Unfortunately it also feels very restrictive. For example, only one person can get a soldier (or two if you pay), meaning it is very hard to keep up in an arms race. For the length of the game, I am unlikely to be very forgiving of it. 

So that was three games I have played and my initial thoughts on them. 

INTERNATIONAL TABLETOP DAY: WHAT DID I PLAY

So with another International Tabletop Day gone, I just thought I would give some quick thoughts on some of the games I played.

CONCEPT: A nice starting game for a large group. It was pretty loosely played until people moved on. Always fun in small doses, but sometimes tends to be overdone.

KEYFLOWER: Brought this out of the dust. Got some rules wrong but always fun. Everyone played consistently so that was good.

TIMELINE: Another filler type game. I lose this allot because I just don't remember specifics unless I focus on them. But also fun, especially when one of the three cards I actually know comes out.

RHINO HERO SUPER BATTLE: Very, very fun. A bit more gamey than Rhino Hero, without adding complexity. It has been added to the wishlist, although it is held back from a must buy because I don't like the random dice mechanic.

XCOM: Another game I adore that has been unplayed for far too long. Added in the expansion, but we lost. The expansion ramps the difficulty up and tries to break your engine. Very fun.

ROLL PLAYER: Was meant to just fill in time as a 2 player, 30 minute game, but 2 more people joined in. It was really good, as I normally play this solo. The only downside was a bit of unfamiliarity with the expansion when I was teaching, but it came together okay.

SEA OF CLOUDS: Another adored game that I haven't got to the table for far too long. It was a close game between the other two players, although I lagged far behind. Still it was very fun and with a bit more artifact luck, I could've stolen it.

CHARTERSTONE: Played a completed game. This part I didn't like. However, I really like the mechanisms. I would love to use the game to design a couple of boards (1 each side) in order to make it a bit more intuitive. Instead, the placement layout seemed very random and it was easy to overlook things.

SAGRADA: I really liked this game. It is very different from Roll Player, which I wasn't expecting. One is a spatial puzzle while the other is a manipulation puzzle. The amount they are compared I would've thought they are similar. Really enjoyed it and high on the wishlist.

THE GAME: Always like the stress in this game. Played the hard variant (3 cards per turn played minimum), but nearly pulled it off, Really like this game.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: It was okay. Jumped in because not much else was happening. I am pretty average on this game and really don't enjoy being the traitor. Luckily I wasn't so could just focus on completing skill checks.

So that was my ITTD haul. A pretty good haul of played games for a weekend.

SOLO BOARDGAME FAST THOUGHTS: ROLL PLAYER, ONE DECK DUNGEON AND SUPERHOT

So I thought I would put up my thoughts on a few games that I have been playing solo lately and my thoughts on them. I will say that I have been enjoying all three of these games but haven't quite played them enough to fully review them.

Roll Player: Roll Player is a nice puzzle game that forces you to make some tough choices (sometimes). Here, you draw and roll some dice, then the dice are seeded from lowest to highest. The higher you pick, the more the AI will do on there turn. The expansion also adds an extra layer of things to do, which is good, although the majority of the fun is still from the core skeleton of the game. The biggest thing it adds is another fail state for the end game to challenge you. Definitely a very good game of dice allocation and would recommend it. 

One Deck Dungeon: Another puzzle-type game. Here you roll your dice allocation, hope to beat the monsters arrayed against you and advance lower into the dungeon. Eventually you want to beat the boss. Once again, the recent stand-alone expansion adds character progression and a few extra mechansims. A bit more dictated by luck but small and fun to pull out.

Superhot: An interesting game where you are managing two decks simultaneously in order to not hit the fail condition and complete your objectives. You are balancing your speed of movement to avoid attacks with actually defeating enemies to make sure you keep the decks "balanced". A very interesting puzzle and some simple rules make an intriguing game. It is designed primarily as a solo game so it is quite fun. I fear it is a bit too fiddly for its own good but I still very much enjoy it.

So those are three games that I want to play a bit more before fully revieiwing. This is more my initial thoughts on them. Some I definitely want to play more multiplayer or just have a couple more games under my belt before my final thoughts.

New Trailers- Quick Thoughts

Here are my quick impressions of some of the trailers currently kicking around the internet.

Trailer 1: Movie- Fright Night 2 (http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2165418265)

Another year, another sequel. Although this is a DVD release. It doesn’t look too interesting, with it appearing to take the male vampire and replacing it with a female vampire from the recent Fright Night remake. This obviously changes the dynamic so that there is allot more fan-service for male fans, and this is what it looks like it is relying on. It doesn’t appear to be worth the time.

Trailer 2: Movie- Bounty Killer (http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi773040409)

A new movie. It looks like allot of fun, but it does kind-of remind me of Priest. I like the female Bounty Killer’s colourful design and the spunk she showed during the trailer. The gypsy’s facepaint also looked cool. It looks like a good action film if it doesn’t end up taking itself too seriously in it’s final product. This is reminding me of Priest for some reason, however.

Trailer 3: PC Game- Rome: Total War 2 (http://au.ign.com/videos/2013/08/01/total-war-rome-ii-find-a-way-trailer)

Although another sequel, I understand this one.  There is only so much medieval warfare to go around, and I loved the first game. “This is nonsense”. No senator, This is SPARTA! Catapults firing from aboard ships wrecking a city is awesome, the now compulsory Medal of Honor beach landing looks cool (see it looking much more boring in the Ryse: Son of Rome trailer today folks), and all the formations look cool. Getting more and more excited about this game, so hopefully it will live up to expectations.

Signing off,

 The Waffle Punches.

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