Barnes on Games- Darkest Night in Review (part one), Eldritch Horror returns, more Argent

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I lost all interest in Forbidden Stars very quickly. But I have to admit that you've got me wondering about Argent. I've been trying to find a modern heavy Euro-ish game to buy into. I toyed with the idea of getting Caverna and Terra Mystica but everything I read turned me off big time. At this moment it's 504 that I'm thinking about the most and I didn't think anything could change that... but when you write about Argent I do consider plunging into that instead. Everything about it sounds very appealing to me.

Only a fuddy duddy would call Forbidden Stars workmanlike.

Urbanization is a modern HEAVY EURO-ISH game, JJ. IT's pretty decent, but dry. Really, really dry. I rather like it but it took me several plays to kind of "get it".

The Village is a great MEDIUM EURO-ISH game. Really enjoying it, and I love the stolen idea of killing people off when time rolls on. It's really very deep. It's also very fun, which is odd for a game like this.

Caverna is better than Agricola only in that there's more things you can do, so it's sort of like an Agricola where you rarely get blocked for your action. Not a huge fan, but it's a good game. I think it's the kind of game where you are in the Ag camp or the Ca camp (see what I did there, lab man?).

Terra Mystica is fucking horrible. It's a messy design and it's really kind of tedious. That's after one play, so maybe I'm wrong, but I wouldn't play it again.

I'm looking at Argent with disdain, because I'm pretty sure I'd love it, and I don't want to spend any money.

After all the forum discussion on Argent this week I went ahead and ordered it and the expansion from Coolstuff. Now I just have to make my way over there and pick it up.

I played Eldritch Horror at the Dice Tower con this year with 6 players. Never again! That being said, I thought the game was pretty cool, just way too long with that many players and boredom set in. I think it would be great solo or up to 3 players, possibly 4. I may pick it up sometime in the near future, or possibly Relic instead.

Forbidden Stars sounds like the kind of game that I really dig, considering Twilight Imperium and Runewars are among my favorites. I can't wait to read that one.

I finally get to try my copy of Forbidden Stars on Sunday, probably with three. I look forward to finding out that Barnes is wrong.

Yeah, Forbidden Stars is awesome. It'll likely be my GOTY 2015, not that anyone gives two shits about my list. The only big conflict game by FFG that tops it is TI3. Runewars, Starcraft, AGOT are squarely behind it.

I can't agree with the "card creep" observation in Eldritch. FFG has done a great job keeping things modular. You only use the Mystic Ruins deck if you're using Syzygy or one Prelude. Mechanically, it works the same as Expeditions, so no new rules there, which is really nice. They could add a Forsaken Remnants or Strange Lore stack later, and it wouldn't add sprawl (except in the box) because you would never use all three options at the same time.

I'm not sure I would want it to remain perfectly static, anyway. They're doling out new mechanisms slowly (Mystic Ruins isn't really a new mechanism, but Adventures are, and I suppose the sideboard movement options, but all pretty simple stuff). I guess you can call that creep, but it isn't like the old Arkham mess. The most you would ever have in play are two optional modules, depending on the GOO and Prelude. That could lead to a rare situation where two sideboards are in play (once Under the Pyramids comes out), but that's the max sprawl possible. Contrast that with Arkham. I don't feel any sense of dread opening the EH box and getting a game started up.

I don't know yet if Forbidden Stars is better than StarCraft. In some ways definitely, in others not really. It's kind of a toss up. It is MUCH cleaner than SC for sure though.

My biggest complaint is that I think with 3-4 players it's actually longer for us than StarCraft.

That is true, Waddball...and the times I've played with Strange Remnants have all been with Syzygy AND the Cosmic Alignment thing. So the full deal. But I still think the game is toeing that line, threatening to start getting into those irritating counters and such you only use once in every ten games and only if certain elements are in play.

The problem I have with Adventures and the Ruins are that they are really just more ways to push the mysteries along...I'm not sure they really add any depth or additional narrative, really they just give you more options if you can't do what the mystery requires for whatever reason.

Definitely glad to have it, and I do like encountering the new content.

Michael, I see your point. I'm reassured, though, that so far they've introduced at most one "new" thing in each expansion, and everything so far has been simple. Using Eldritch tokens as a stand-in for any number of specific effects is great, so for token bloat we've really only got Adventure and Ruins, both just one new token on the board and only used under certain circumstances. But yeah, add another, and another...it's a potential worry.

I think Adventures definitely contribute to the narrative (especially in Mountains of Madness; I'm leery of the more "on rails" stack in Strange Remnants), but I doubt they add much depth. Still, this is an adventure game front and center, and it's pretty minimal mechanical fuss when I compare it to basically anything in the Arkham expansions.