I’ll probably add Twilight Struggle to my list soonish, too – the theme just fascinates me. I have hopes to get it played, though, because there is a german version out and games with historic background interest my wife, too. Allthough the play time m…

Forbidden Desert is really fun, get it out. It is not too long and a nice coop. Plays fine solo, too (I usually just play a bunch of explorers myself when doing so).

Hah, Space Empires 4X is on my wait list, too. I made a resolution for 2016 to either get Space Empires 4X or Great Battles of Alexander finally played. In my case both are targeted for solo play, so it’s more a result of their long play time, I need s…

Not that many for me, mostly bigger hex-and-counter stuff like **Great Battles of Alexander** or **Space Empires 4x** (which are part of my resolution for 2016 to get at least one of them played), some kickstarters that just haven’t found a chance to hit the table so far (**Karnivore Koala** and **Super Motherload**). Some stuff I got without actually thinking it through, like **Athlas: Duel for Divinity** and **The Duke**, which trigger my “oh, shiny, configureable chesss! Want!” reflexes, but never hit the table because they require someone dedicated to invest time into them. Some light filler stuff that just hasn’t come out to play yet like **The Game** and some parts of the **Lost Legacy** series. Actually, since I even finally got Mage Knight on the table, the only “shame” box currently is **Thunderbolt Apache Leader** which I haven’t played so far. And probably **Arctic Scavengers**, but that’s in english and so can only come out with my friends when my wife is not there to play, so it has a big minus there (probably a good candidate to trade away, too).

Liberty or Death and Falling Sky on preorder here, on the hunt for Cuba Libre. I just tell myself that each of those is actually 4 solo games each to justify it …

I am crazy, but not insane! I just recovered from being in MTG a few years ago, so no miniature gaming here, that would be a giant money sink 😉 But yes, a lot of that stuff is solo. I just claim I prepare for my retirement. I mean, it is already in 18…

sadly I opened up another can of worms in the hobby – looking into wargames. So, well, no, acquisitions haven’t died down, sadly 😉

Interesting. For me games get higher in rating if I play them more often and get a deeper understanding of them. Progress started out as a 7.5 I think and got up to a 9 now that I really know what I am doing when I destroy my opponents (or myself if I …

by TheGargoyle
Original language for the game is german and there are more (especially fan created) legends in german than in english, as far as I know.Regarding the expansions:The star shield is awesome, and it is a highly modular but still story d…

by TheGargoyle
I have had a few science victories when the science token was out for grabbing – in that case you need one less different science card to trigger the victory condition, which seems to have made it quite a bit easier to reach. I’ve nev…

well, might go faster with more plays, but there are lots of things you need to stack on the board (and sort beforehand and count out based on player count) and things like that, so yeah, at least for now it’s easily 15-20 minutes setup time for me.

**The Gallerist** falls into that category. Takes quite some time to set up all the pieces, even if you pre-sorted stuff in the (quite good!) insert. I’d say 15 to 20 minutes can easily come together for me when I get it out. And I even only ever played it solo so far! But man, that’s a really deep game. Not many choices to make, but every single round will really tax your brain to figure out your optimal move. And that’s the reason why I still take up with that giant box and the loads of stuff to get out for a game: the game is my go-to “burn your brain cells” game. The solo “AI” is more of a timer with some actions thrown in to hamper you and you play against a hierarchy of different achievements you have to reach, but it really is the best 2-3 hours of game play for me when I get it on the table. Other candidates are probably stuff from the wargame category, because if you play for 5-6 hours, the half-hour scenario setup doesn’t really matter at all.

Oh, the “cheating” word. Fun, because you know, it’s only cheating if someone wins or loses because of it. I didn’t claim that it is “proper shuffling” to do the pile “shuffle” and some sloppy overhands afterwards. I said that in some casual board game situations it’s just a way to get away with sloppy shuffles without breaking anything. Overhand shuffles are notoriously bad because of their tendency to clump. Someone doing overhand shuffles (remember, I wrote that I prefer to do riffle shuffles if the cards are up for it or otherwise mash shuffles with sleeved cards) will per definitiion not be “proper shuffling”. Which – in case of competetive settings – would in itself be a reason to complain. In casual settings the complain will be different, though. It won’t be “oh, you cheated because you shuffled in a way to keep your stacked deck distribution intact” like in a competetive setting, for example. It will be “you lazy bum shuffled bad and now all VP cards are clumped together, this sucks”. You see, you have different situations with competetive and casual settings. Competetive will want to make sure an even ground with regards to everything outside the luck and skill department. But a casual setting will want to make sure that the game is enjoyable. If you throw in bad shuffling, that can turn into a bad experience. The distribution makes sure part of that is taken care of. Yes, it’s still bad shuffling, but in the case of a shared deck of cards badly shuffled but at least half-way decently distributed, people won’t complain. Well, at least not more than they would anyway 😉 All I am saying is that people get hung up on the randomization part of shuffling far too much, even in situations where it is actually completely pointless. If you sit down to enjoy a game with some folks and someone is a known bad shuffler, hey, at least let him try to reduce the damage of that bad shuffling to the games enjoyment. Or, you know, become the shuffling machine for all the game nights. Your choice 😉

Star Realms is Ascension where the victory points were renamed into authority points which just happen to be counted down instead of up. Ok, Star Realms has a slightly different take on artefacts, names them bases and allows opponents to destroy them (…