What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Just fired off a review copy request for Excavation Earth, sounds great. Also, it’s Turczi, one of the Anachrony designers

Michael Barnes wrote: Just fired off a review copy request for Excavation Earth, sounds great. Also, it’s Turczi, one of the Anachrony designers

FYI, So Very Wrong About Games talked about their first impressions of this game this week if anyone wants to know more. They loved the way market pricing was sticky in the game and didn't swing back and forth wildly like it does in some euros. Thought it was a bit overwrought, though.

Checked back in with Mage Knight- haven’t played it in like 8-9 years? Got a hold of the “Ultimate Edition” which hearkens back to the bad old days of pre-Zev Wizkids in terms of shoddy quality. My copy had a busted silica gel packet so there was dust on everything. Good times.

Anyway, I just ran the first scenario and I was surprised how easily it all came back. I did have to check rules and remember the weird token/crystal/die thing with the Mana. It’s actually not nearly as complicated as people make it seem. Yeah, there are a lot rules but they aren’t hard to handle. Maybe it’s becacuse these Lacerda games have changed my perception of what a “heavy” game is.

Coming back to it, it is still a really great game and really there still isn’t anything quite like it. It gets held up to Magic Realm, but really it’s more like a Heroes of Might and Magic board game. I can’t really think of another game where you have one character and you roam around accumulating a small army to take over keeps, burn monasteries, and so forth.

The card play is still puzzly and challenging. It’s still interesting to work out which cards to gain and which troops to pick up. There’s so much game there, and I’ve really kind of missed it.

Mage Knight is great, but you kind of hit the nail in the coffin... it is so much like HoMM, and miserable in multiplayer, so I think I'll just play HoMM.

I got Good Puppers from Asmadi Games in the mail today, after some serious fulfillment issues (nothing Asmadi's fault, the container ship their games were on capsized in the middle of the ocean so they had to rush reprint them). First off, the art is incredibly cute. Like incredibly ridiculously cute. Plus it came with adorable stickers. Second, this game fits squarely into the "clever card game" Asmadi niche a la Red7, Impulse, Innovation etc. (Not as wild as the Chudyk games, but what is). There are 100 cards numbered 00-99. 10 breeds of dogs (the tens digit) and 10 tricks they can do (the ones digit). Each round everyone plays a card face down, then they are revealed and players take turns playing them from highest to lowest. You play each breed into it's own pile, and they activate their trick when you play them. Most tricks involve burying bones, which means tucking cards from the draw pile under specific breed piles for end game points. After you activate your dog you take a dog into your hand from a face up market of dogs (which has players+1 cards in it). The last player to play their card also gets the extra card into their tableau, but they don't get to activate the extra cards trick. Each breed also has an endgame effect to score extra points if you build your tableau in certain ways. The game ends when the draw pile runs out (the draw pile scales with player count also)

That may or may not make much sense, reading it? But it plays nice and smooth, with some cool cardplay and decisions that make you feel clever. If you like clever card games and adorable cartoon dogs it's an easy recommend.

Brass is a really fascinating design and Birmingham is the best version of it. It took me a couple of years, really, to get it. But it is totally about seizing opportunities created by other players’ actions and also setting up a highly abstracted vertical integration strategy. I’m not sure I love it, but every time I play it I’m captivated by the design work. It’s definitely Wallace’s masterpiece I think.

I got ahold of Too Many Bones and although I like it- maybe even a lot- it has got to be the biggest emperors new clothes story in games today. It’s a neat game but folks it is basically a more refined and comprehensice Quarriors with a board element. The production is...kind of OK? Sorry I’m not won over by the $2 deck boxes, crappy poker chips, or the neoprene. The graphic design is absolute trash- characters are repellently ugly, they use an italicized Comic Sans (I see you), and the whole thing looks like a 20 year old game that you’d find on the clearance shelf.

But it’s $130.

That’s more than the stunning games EGG does, which look tasteful and modern. And have more components.

I just ran a solo character in the shortest scenario and I really enjoyed playing it despite everything else. I like how relatively focused and contained it is, I liked the. upgrade progression, and I liked the story choices. The combat was fun, thinly and puzzly but still with dice in the mix.

I’ve been wanting to play it all day so I guess that is a good sign.

Is "Bones" another word for dollars?

Next game I will utter “man this game cost TOO MANY BONES” thereby delivering the titular line.

God, the Gearlok main characters make me shudder every time I see them from a graphic design perspective. Not my thing, aesthetically. Repulsive.

I've been wanting to play Too Many Bones for a couple of years now, but visually I feel exactly the same way you do, Barnes. I keep hearing how great it is, but every time I look at it I think it looks cheap & ugly.

I recently had a good chunk of guilt-free cash, and I was trying to decide between this one and Kanban EV, and I went for the latter. It just arrived yesterday, but I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. So, I guess someone else gets to buy yours for 50 bucks. I'm really looking forward to diving into it this weekend.

Yeah, cheap and ugly. The Gearlocs are just about the worst looking fantasy race ever. And this is coming from someone that owns Gelfling dolls.

Kanban is so freaking great. I think it may be the best looking and best produced board game I’ve ever owned. When I open it I’m just thrilled at how modern, minimalist, and artful it looks. The production is just amazing...Rococo has it beat on opulence.

It takes some learning and early sessions are bound to be a mess so do not break it out for your first post-pandemic game night. Just set it up and play along with the rules and see where it goes. You’ll get a feel for how the work stations impact each other and how the goal cards really give you direction.

It’s become kind of the high water mark for the ultra heavy Euro IMO.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that while mousepads, poker chips, and plastic cards may be "premium" components they aren't really anything special.

Michael Barnes wrote: It takes some learning and early sessions are bound to be a mess so do not break it out for your first post-pandemic game night. Just set it up and play along with the rules and see where it goes. You’ll get a feel for how the work stations impact each other and how the goal cards really give you direction.

It’s become kind of the high water mark for the ultra heavy Euro IMO.

Yeah, for sure. I'm planning on only doing solo for a while. Fortunately, a guy in my group has the original Kanban and has always sung its praises. So when I'm ready, we can get together for a Saturday session or something.

ChristopherMD wrote: I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that while mousepads, poker chips, and plastic cards may be "premium" components they aren't really anything special.

I can tell you with the utmost confidence that the neoprene mats that will be in Phantom Division make a world of difference in flicking. Worlds beyond anything cardboard can do. But yeah, in a typical game? I have never went in for the expense.