Barnes on Games- Talon Head to Head with Kyle Mann, Mexica in Review, Shadowrun: Crossfire
Writing on game components is BARBARISM. At least it used to be.
I've got two for you this week- one that about five of you will care about, one that maybe one of you will care about. First up is my Head to Head with Kyle Mann over GMT's Talon. I waffled on it a bit, wavering between three and four stars on it but I realized that what it does- making a SFB/FedCom style game highly playable and fun is definitely worth the higher mark, although I think something is lost in the streamlining and the game's fiction is…better left undiscussed. Kyle gave it five stars, which I think is over the mark, but that's how he saw it. Here's the link for that one.
The other item is the new Iello reprint of Wolfgang Kramer/Michael Kiesling classic, Mexica. This was the third of the Ravensburger/Rio Grande "Mask" trilogy and it seemed to never quite get the attention that Tikal and Java did. Which is a shame, because this one is really just as good. It's a good game with lots of aggressive blocking, some area control, some building and of course action point budgeting. The new edition has cool resin buildings and a warpity-warp board. Here's that link.
Aside from that, I haven't played a whole lot this week after having a minor surgery (guts were poking out of my body) so I've not been out nor have I had folks over. I did do a little solo messin' around with Shadowrun: Crossfire, which I got in a "why the hell not" trade. It's super dorky, it really puts me back into the late 80s and early 90s. It comes with a full background book that reads like an RPG setting guide. Other than reminding me of the feckless days of youth, I dunno, it's pretty unremarkable. Either that, or I think I might actually hate the game. There's virtually nothing in the game that I find compelling, interesting or even average. It all just feels very low-end, like the kind of game you buy when you just start getting into games and you think it's awesome... but you really haven't played much else so you don't know any better. It feels kind of like a mish-mash of ideas better served elsewhere The sticker thing on the cards is kind of dumb, but whatever. It's on trend. I love how the game goes to great lengths to make it seem like an RPG (You pick a race! You pick a class! You spend money and can level up!) but at the end of the day it is about playing the right color cards to move a marker. And it's co-op, so you can play those color cards on OTHER player's cards, whoo ha. I've got the expansion and the character pack mixed in, I really have no idea what is what at this point or if anything makes it materially better. Pretty sure this one is on the outbound.
I'm awaiting the arrival of Titus Tentacle today from HABA. I've loved every HABA game I've played lately, so maybe they'll score another hit with me.
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How is this different from the typical "death by a thousand passive aggressive cuts" of most contemporary euros? That form of "aggression" doesn't appeal to me all that much.
It isn't like that. You can directly block someone in with buildings or canals or deny access to an area. It's not Kemet or Blood Rage where it's in your face aggressive, no, but you can seriously impact another player's next turn.
I kind of wish I had the original Mexica myself (and Java for that matter) to have the matching set...but the new edition looks really great and the resin buildings are much cooler than the lightweight plastic in the original edition.
Gosh, I want Java really bad now.
This is a very soloable title, and I've gotten three sessions in solo with just an hour or two to spare in the schedule. This past Wednesday night I was up at the big gaming group session north of Baltimore and pulled it out at 10:15, in spite of being more than an hour from home on a very rainy night. Out came Talon, and we had one ship hollowed out before I had to leave at 11:15. And that included teaching the game to guys that had been sipping on scotch whiskey for the two hours beforehand.
C&C can't do that as much because of the setup involved. Hold the Line is in the neighborhood, but honestly, with Talon you open the board on the table, lay down a couple of chits and go. The rules are very accessible even for new players.
It's not that the game is easy, it's that it's playable. There is some serious tactical action available that's about four minutes away from your first move.
I'm really liking the head-to-head format for those reviews by the way. I betcha they get more interesting as you find your groove and get a little more comfortable with putting digs in on each other. That's good reading especially when people disagree on the game. Granted it's for a commercial web site, but that doesn't mean you can't get a little grittier on your delivery.
I am curious how they get made. Do you agree to an outline beforehand? What pre discussion is necessary to ensure there is room to differ? Are they written a paragraph at a time and emailed back and forth? Or is it a phone conversation that gets transcribed?
Regarding the getting "grittier".... How awesome would it be, if, after Barnes makes a particularly well reasoned and articulate point, the other reviewer went all Chevy Chase circa 1979 on his ass.... "Barnes, you ignorant slut...."
Making one of these is a matter of me OKing the assignment- usually two folks come forward and say they want to, or it may be a situation where we have two people that want to cover a game (as is the case with Talon). It's basically just batting a Word doc back and forth without a setup, usually one person kicks it off and then we let them go until there's not much left to say. I like them because it gets people away from the intro-rules/process-opinion-qualifiers-conclusion structure and more into detail.
I don't know that Shadowrun is badly designed so much as that it's just so...meh. It is so by-the-numbers routine that it's almost painful. The two games I played were too difficult, I thought, but it seemed like it was that kind of "oops, drew the wrong card!" difficulty that usually signals a lazy or uninspired co-op design. I didn't really see the point in having the classes and so forth when you can buy any card and there's not really much value in specializing unless there's a card effect that impacts playing all one color or multiple colors. Already trying to work up a trade for it.
*a lot.
It's the Goldseiber size boxes that bug me, the "giant bookcase" size things that are as fat as a square box but only 3/4 as long as a long box. MAKE UP YOUR MIND, AFRICA!
Michael's crazy; Talon's easily a 5-star game. It's definitive for the genre. I really think GMT's gonna have a massive hit on their hands here. Space combat without all the bunk.
Hope you recover quickly Michael. Not least because you sign my paychecks.
It has a very low entry barrier, and you kill things pretty doggone quickly. I think it will do very well with the current short-attention-span gaming environment.
No doubt GMT will reprint, but if you have a birthday coming up in April or May you might want to secure your surprise gift now.
I'm just never in on a game that's selling out at stores or at the top of the Hotness. I'm out of my element here. I need to go back to a nice, tepid game of Field Commander Alexander to settle myself down a bit.
As an addendum to my note, Tony just emailed me and told me he's getting cascading distributor re-orders already, so my guess is the existing stock will be gone very soon - probably a week or less.
Gene
And there it goes. A flurry of distributor orders today, and we are now sold out.
I'll work on getting a Talon P500 Reprint option up for by the time the customer update goes out next week.
Gene
GMT moved 500 copies to distributors in 5 hours today.
Michael Barnes wrote: 20+ copies at MM today.
www.miniaturemarket.com/gmt1511.html
Something's up with the site or the listing. Adding it to cart does nothing at the moment.
Edit: OIC. Out of stock, actually. That was quick.
Odd game to have catch fire. Some should become available again since the last 500 boxes were distributor purchases.
If anyone is interested in taking a shot at this on Vassal in a Play-by-Email game give me a ring. It plays any number of players so I should be able to accommodate anyone that wants to give it a go.
I went to put a rating on this and . . . it's not in the TWBG database! Tyranny!