I really nee to get a group going again fir Mare Nostrum. Enjoyed every play I had with it. Rome has to go fully aggro, it really is their thing, I would usually try to go for the cuties win. You can do other stuff on the side, they can get quite some trade empire going due to surrounding areas and their ressources, especially if they get some wonders that help there. With carthago, the pyramid is one obvious way for them, so try to keep down their ressources, if you can. I allways just reveal 5 heroes, as I find it cuts down AP and adds some interesting variability to the game (as it doesn’t have anything like variable start setup outside that variant). With all heroes/wonders revealed, I could see people go fir the same combos over and over again.

Ah man, I envy you for getting Twilight Struggle to the table. It is one of the games I really want to olay but don’t get my wife into yet. I am working towards it, though, by slowly intriducing CDGs into our game rotation in the hope that one day TS or its sister game 1989 might be accepted by her 😉 (edit: typos)

Man, I haven’t participated in one of these threads in a while. Last week was quite interesting due to the wide range of played games. One I was really happy about was the first two plays of Sola Fide, which was only appropriate for the year of Luther (the game is about the reformation war). An interesting game with its push and pull over the different church circles of Germany. We didn’t yet use the drafting, only the default starter decks, but from that I can see the game opening up when adding drafting and I look forward to that. The basic deck is a bit too restricting for the pritestant player I feel, with some cards that are duds late game and no way to discard for value like the catholic player can. But still, I really enjoyed it.

Another interesting one was my first play (solo) of the newly arrived Sword & Sorcery. Totally loved it, even though it took tons of time and table space and was a bit much to set up and track. Totally see it hitting the table more often, if I can get some people together for it, since it really feels like a DnD RPG in a box.

Our game group got some new stuff, too, by playing Karnivore Koala, a maybe more obscure card+dice game about cute koala tribes hunting mutated animals in a posteucalyptic world. Weirdly random fun and nonsense.

In addition to that we got out Between two cities again, which I quite like – sadly not too many others do, at least nit enough for it to get regular table time. I like that it is a rather chill drafting game with some semi-coop aspects that work nicely. Combined with a more lightish structure this is a good filler-plus for game nights.

Other than that my wife and I got in our share of our regulars like 7 Wonders: Duel (allmist 80 plays on the base game and still big fun, allthough I would like to try out the expansion, but my wife is reluctant to new stuff), Progress: Evolution of Technology (which after allmost 150 plays for gets a little bit played out but is still my wifes favorite game ever), Red7 (which at 66 plays slowly works itself up the ladder) and The Duke (still under 20 plays, but definutely one I allways enjoy when we get it out and my favorite cafe house game currently).

Regarding reviews: yep, tons of reading before buying, but it isn’t the leading factor on buying. But it helps to tip me either way when I am on a fence. There have been a few games that weren’t full duds, but at least felt meh when I played them, when I discovered the mechanics didn’t gel well with me. But there is one that is really rage inducing for me, despite that I really want to love the game: Assault on Doomrock. Went for it when all the reviews I watched and read were good and looked like the game would be right for me, but my plays so far were so horribly unfair random punishment dealt out to me from the game system, that I wanted to flip the table. I am an avid solo player and met my share of random punishment (I love to play VPG state of siege games for example, or Hostage Negotiator or Space Hulk: Death Angel, so I really know what random means), but none of my other games felt ever so totally unfair like what AoD dishes out. Damn.

Regarding superpowers: no game deserves that treatment, anything you love would get stale quite fast if it got that level of attention 😉

(all typos due to my onscreen keyboard. that’s my story and I stick to it, anyway)