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2011 - A Retrospective

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02 Feb 2016 12:01 - 02 Feb 2016 12:08 #221432 by OldHippy
Replied by OldHippy on topic 2011 - A Retrospective
Ah yes, 2011, the year my first son was born and probably the last year I was totally involved in what got released. Mage Knight was a shock for me. An adventure game that doesn't rely on card text at all? Never mind the lack of dice, it's the lack of text that is so shocking to me. To think that the story is moved forward by the players actions instead of reading shit off a card. After playing this and Mansions in the same year I saw the highlight of both what card text games can do and the polar opposite with story through actions instead. It was weird to see two games, both well done in my mind, go about this so differently. I still like both of them too although Mansions is a trickier game to make work well.

I bought into Quarriors that year, and bought every expansion since. I still like that game and think that each expansion improved it until by the time Quests came out it was a very solid game. I've resisted all the dice masters stuff because it seems like it would be redundant with a huge box of Quarriors around the house. I also prefer original content and I'm not so big on the endless parade of licensed properties that dice masters is a part of.

But goddamn what a great year 2011 apparently was. Survive, King of Tokyo, Mansions of Madness, Mage Knight, Eclipse, Blood Bowl TM, Quarriors...

Great job Egg!
Last edit: 02 Feb 2016 12:08 by OldHippy.
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02 Feb 2016 12:28 #221436 by Almalik
Replied by Almalik on topic 2011 - A Retrospective
Nice article Egg! I agree that Feudality is an awesome hidden gem (I'd also include Wiraqocha and Scrumbrawl from that year, so what do I know?).

Looking through the 2011 games on BGG, I was disappointed that Battleship Galaxies never received any expansions. I was hoping for a simple space game to play with the kids. Games from 2011 I'd really like to get back to the table: Bios:Megafauna, Space Empires 4x, and Cave Eeeevil!

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02 Feb 2016 12:41 #221437 by iguanaDitty
Replied by iguanaDitty on topic 2011 - A Retrospective

lala wrote:

iguanaDitty wrote: 3) You really need a core group to play it at least 10 times. It took our group a year and a half to accomplish this. It can be hard to commit to that kind of thing.


just to be clear I'm not criticising you igD, I'm saying isnt it mental?


In my case I was the limiting factor. Since my daughter was born (she's 6 now) my wife and I alternate Fridays off, so at most I'm gaming twice a month. And if something else comes up I would prefer to do that week, or I just don't feel like dealing with other people, I'm down to once a month. It's starting to get to the point where we are exploring opening up other timeframes, but I want to get back into music again. And now with Pandemic Legacy, the other main couple who is playing now has a baby and have their own family and whatnot commitments.

Oddly in some ways the Legacy games make keeping this kind of group easier as it's a commitment we've made to play through this game so even though it might be some time between plays we all try to figure out a time that will work.

I see folks who play a crap ton of games and in some respects wish I was there, but at the same time I am not making that the priority in my life.

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02 Feb 2016 13:52 #221446 by Joebot
Replied by Joebot on topic 2011 - A Retrospective

lala wrote: Eclipse is one of the most terrible things I've ever played on the ipad. I know a F2F game would be different but based on the app and the rules, and Reading around a bit, I feel like I couldnt be less interested in that shit.


That was exactly my reaction as well. I never played the Eclipse boardgame, but the iOS app was such a boring piece of shit that I never had any desire to seek it out. There was a jarring disconnect between the visuals (Spaceships! Aliens! Laser guns!) and what you actually do (I can't even remember, something about orange planets helping your science track?? Fuck, I'm getting sleepy just thinking about it).

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02 Feb 2016 15:08 #221456 by metalface13
Replied by metalface13 on topic 2011 - A Retrospective
Great format for an article, Egg! I think there's a lot of us here like me who don't get to play many or all of a year's release, or at least enough play throughs to form an opinion. But five years on kinda gives us a chance to keep up, or at least see what isn't worth bothering with anymore.

Mage Knight is awesome. Part of the experience for me is creating the story through your in-game actions. Oddly enough I had never noticed there wasn't a "text on cards" mechanic.
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02 Feb 2016 15:23 #221461 by wadenels
Replied by wadenels on topic 2011 - A Retrospective

Almalik wrote: Nice article Egg! I agree that Feudality is an awesome hidden gem (I'd also include Wiraqocha and Scrumbrawl from that year, so what do I know?).

Looking through the 2011 games on BGG, I was disappointed that Battleship Galaxies never received any expansions. I was hoping for a simple space game to play with the kids. Games from 2011 I'd really like to get back to the table: Bios:Megafauna, Space Empires 4x, and Cave Eeeevil!


Scrumbrawl and Bios Megafauna are big 2011 stand-outs for me. Four (five?) years on and I'm still playing them both.

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02 Feb 2016 16:10 #221470 by VonTush
Replied by VonTush on topic 2011 - A Retrospective

I don't think any of us could have predicted just how big this idea would eventually become in 2015.


Reading this made me remember a conversation...Hell coming up on two years ago at this point:
fortressat.com/forum/19-trash-culture-ca...type?start=30#171214

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02 Feb 2016 16:55 #221478 by Cranberries
Replied by Cranberries on topic 2011 - A Retrospective

lala wrote: Good work on Wallace too! yeah, that was quite the drama haha. Nerd Rage!


Does anyone remember the Steam/Age of Steam brouhaha? Apparently the designer of Fjords, the deceased Franz-Benno Delonge was also a professional mediator. He ruled in favor of Winsome Games and Wallace decided to ignore the ruling. I guess John Bohrer was banned from BGG in 2010 for being creepy. There were no real winners there.
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02 Feb 2016 17:09 #221480 by OldHippy
Replied by OldHippy on topic 2011 - A Retrospective

craniac wrote:

lala wrote: Good work on Wallace too! yeah, that was quite the drama haha. Nerd Rage!


Does anyone remember the Steam/Age of Steam brouhaha? Apparently the designer of Fjords, the deceased Franz-Benno Delonge was also a professional mediator. He ruled in favor of Winsome Games and Wallace decided to ignore the ruling. I guess John Bohrer was banned from BGG in 2010 for being creepy. There were no real winners there.


We all won when John Bohrer decided to release an actual game called "Age of Scheme: Routes to Riches" which was one of the oddest and funniest things to happen in boardgames. I remember even Christian Peterson said Wallace was a dick - or words to that effect. Bohrer just got angrier and angrier until he had no defenders left except Clearclaw.

boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/38637/age-scheme-routes-riches

There's some funny old threads on there, including one where Wallace asks John personally to change the name of the game.

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02 Feb 2016 17:45 #221484 by engineer Al
Replied by engineer Al on topic 2011 - A Retrospective
Nice job, Egg!

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02 Feb 2016 17:54 #221485 by ChristopherMD
Eclipse and King of Tokyo are the only games from 2011 to hit my forever shelf. Eclipse mainly because it reminds me of playing Master of Orion II, which is an all-time favorite. MOO2 was a micro-management game above all else and a resource management board game works best to duplicate it in a couple hours. King of Tokyo isn't my ultimate kaiju game (I do have ideas for that), but its damned good light fun and the setting is part of that. I also think every dice game should use large dice now.

I haven't played it, but Rune Age also came out in 2011. I believe several people here consider it an underrated deck-builder.
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02 Feb 2016 17:57 #221486 by OldHippy
Replied by OldHippy on topic 2011 - A Retrospective

Mad Dog wrote: I believe several people here consider it an underrated deck-builder.


Shit yes, the best deck builder ever made. It does more with less than any game I know of. I totally forgot it came out in 2011.

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02 Feb 2016 18:06 #221487 by Michael Barnes
Rune Age has aged exceptionally well...it didn't seem like it at the time, but it is one of the best and most compelling deck builders.

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02 Feb 2016 18:30 #221489 by wadenels
Replied by wadenels on topic 2011 - A Retrospective
I forgot about Rune Age too. I kind of got out of games where deckbuilding is the central mechanic, but if I were to get back in I'd re-buy Rune Age with the expansion and be content. If it had been something other than Terrinoth (Warhammer?) it probably would have done better.

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02 Feb 2016 21:28 - 02 Feb 2016 21:32 #221501 by Mr. White
Replied by Mr. White on topic 2011 - A Retrospective
Great article, Egg!

This is the sort of article that's fun for me to read. Reflecting back on what stuck and what sucked. I don't keep up with all the new releases, so weekly reviews of multiple titles doesn't do much for me. However, a retrospective like this I can digest a little better as chances are if I haven't played it, I've at least had plenty of time to read about it so know a little of what you're talking about. Heck do a 10 or 15 year one as well. :)

For me, I think BB:TM is the best of 2011. It's a great game, but I have yet to buy the two expansions. I've played games with them and I'm not super thrilled about the extra rules. For the most part they seem to add more crap to manage, but don't seem to multiply the fun. Getting new teams would be nice, but like I posted at BGG, I'd really like FFG to release at least one more expansion to provide some order or 'good' teams to this game. There's just too much evil as it stands. 3 order teams to 9 chaos. A conference that was high elves, amazons, and lizard men would make perfect sense. As would Norse, amazons, and lizards. Worse case they could do one of those POD (do they even POD anymore?) things that contains the star players for these races that could then be shuffled into the existing conference decks. Represent!

I dunno...it feels like the game has come so far, in respect to teams, but stopped short. IMO, this serves to spotlight the huge gaps. It's easier for me to just get down with the core six.

Still haven't tried Rune Age. I've gone back and forth on it over the past year, but my son is so involved in Pokemon I'm not sure I need to buy a game that plays at deckbuilding when we have a favorite that actually requires it.
Last edit: 02 Feb 2016 21:32 by Mr. White.
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