It is portable, that is the main benefit. It IS a table hog. But at least the solo game was very rewarding. I haven’t played it multiplayer, so I can’t Talk about that.

It is portable, that is the main benefit. It IS a table hog. But at least the solo game was very rewarding. I haven’t played it multiplayer, so I can’t Talk about that.

The Gallerist is lots of brain-burny fun solo. It really works well, and the game carries its theme very well. Totally like it as a solo experience, it is a bit heavy on the setup side, though. But it is manageable and the components are gorgeous.

Setup is even heavier with Mage Knight, allthough you can make it a bit easier with a broken token insert or other forms of organization. It is super brain-burny puzzle solving, embedded in a generic (if a little bit twisted) fantasy theme. I had a lot of fun playing it solo, but it is a long one to play, especially the first few plays. And you are bound to forget or misplay some rules, as the rules are on the complex side of things, lots of exceptions and nooks and crannies in them. The Gallerist is much more streamlined, but you can’t be a megalomaniac mage knight in the gallerist 😉

Friday is on the rather simple and fast side. A nice take in deck building with some neat twists. Essentially you need a few games to find the best strategy to take it on, from then on the game can feel “solved”, which is a bit sad. It still is fun to play every now and then, but mostly you only go through the motions. I play lots of deck builders, I think it only took me 3 games to find my way in it, so it only rarely hits the table anymore. Still, it is hard to beat for fast setup and play and it still provides entertainment. It is just the thrill of beating it that is gone.

Suggestions outside your ideas: look into the COIN games. Rules are on a level with Mage Knight, but a bit more streamlined. Currently you can easily get Cuba Libre (Cuban Rvolution), Falling Sky (Caesar vs Gallic Tribes), Andean Abyss (columbian drug cartells) and A Distant Plain (Afghanistan). Especially the first two are great entries due to the smaller map and lesser complexity than some of the other titles in that series. Complex and brain burny, a bit more setup, but manageable (I would say same as The Gallerist) and tons of fun solo (there are procedures to run the factions you don’t control, or you just run all factions yourself). My current favorite to solo is Cuba Libre, but that could change with Falling Sky, since that is thematically more in my line of interest.

And then there are the purely solo games from the State of Siege line. Smaller titles from that line (like Soviet Dawn) can feel a bit random and repetetive, but the bigger titles (for example Cruel Necessity about the uk civil war under Cromwell) really provide deep game play. And of course right now that line provides Dawn of the Zeds in its 3rd edition, which adds multiplayer coop and 1-vs-X player modes on top of fantastic solo play. It is the by far most fleshed out game of the series and well worth it if you can get your hands on a copy.

The Gallerist is lots of brain-burny fun solo. It really works well, and the game carries its theme very well. Totally like it as a solo experience, it is a bit heavy on the setup side, though. But it is manageable and the components are gorgeous.

Setup is even heavier with Mage Knight, allthough you can make it a bit easier with a broken token insert or other forms of organization. It is super brain-burny puzzle solving, embedded in a generic (if a little bit twisted) fantasy theme. I had a lot of fun playing it solo, but it is a long one to play, especially the first few plays. And you are bound to forget or misplay some rules, as the rules are on the complex side of things, lots of exceptions and nooks and crannies in them. The Gallerist is much more streamlined, but you can’t be a megalomaniac mage knight in the gallerist 😉

Friday is on the rather simple and fast side. A nice take in deck building with some neat twists. Essentially you need a few games to find the best strategy to take it on, from then on the game can feel “solved”, which is a bit sad. It still is fun to play every now and then, but mostly you only go through the motions. I play lots of deck builders, I think it only took me 3 games to find my way in it, so it only rarely hits the table anymore. Still, it is hard to beat for fast setup and play and it still provides entertainment. It is just the thrill of beating it that is gone.

Suggestions outside your ideas: look into the COIN games. Rules are on a level with Mage Knight, but a bit more streamlined. Currently you can easily get Cuba Libre (Cuban Rvolution), Falling Sky (Caesar vs Gallic Tribes), Andean Abyss (columbian drug cartells) and A Distant Plain (Afghanistan). Especially the first two are great entries due to the smaller map and lesser complexity than some of the other titles in that series. Complex and brain burny, a bit more setup, but manageable (I would say same as The Gallerist) and tons of fun solo (there are procedures to run the factions you don’t control, or you just run all factions yourself). My current favorite to solo is Cuba Libre, but that could change with Falling Sky, since that is thematically more in my line of interest.

And then there are the purely solo games from the State of Siege line. Smaller titles from that line (like Soviet Dawn) can feel a bit random and repetetive, but the bigger titles (for example Cruel Necessity about the uk civil war under Cromwell) really provide deep game play. And of course right now that line provides Dawn of the Zeds in its 3rd edition, which adds multiplayer coop and 1-vs-X player modes on top of fantastic solo play. It is the by far most fleshed out game of the series and well worth it if you can get your hands on a copy.

Yeah, it gets worse with LOTR:LCG – only a few cards as 1of or 2of, but some of the staples a!IMG the 2of, which you really want as 3of. But additional cores come with all the quest decks, so you buy a pile of duplicates you more or less can’t use for anything to get your third Steward of Gondor or Will of the West. Pick. I’ll probably still give in, as the second core at least gives me a way to keep both Journey down the Mansion and that Carrick quest prebuilt, as I like both, and I get a thematic “big box” for my cards, but still, it feels wrong.

Yeah, it gets worse with LOTR:LCG – only a few cards as 1of or 2of, but some of the staples a!IMG the 2of, which you really want as 3of. But additional cores come with all the quest decks, so you buy a pile of duplicates you more or less can’t use for anything to get your third Steward of Gondor or Will of the West. Pick. I’ll probably still give in, as the second core at least gives me a way to keep both Journey down the Mansion and that Carrick quest prebuilt, as I like both, and I get a thematic “big box” for my cards, but still, it feels wrong.

I probably won’t refuse to teach anything, as I run an open boardgame, but I would feel queasy if I would have to teach a war game of the more complex kind (like allmost anything by Richard Berg for example 😉 ). The gigantic number of rules alone would make it a big pain.

For more complex games (and actually often even with simpler ones), I usually do a first “open play” of the game. Everyone has everything on the table and I run them through the motions, choosing different strategies (if available in the game) for different players. Works like a charm, people get to touch the components, handle them, and just learn by playing and being played.

Well, I probabably wouldn’t like to teach Mage Knight, because that is a game where I allways forget some rules when I play solo.

The Gallerist, on the other hand, is quite easy to teach how to play. The number of actions available is quite limited, for a game of that complexity, and most of them are thematically grounded, which I think allways helps with teaching. Sure enough, just knowing HOW to play the game doesn’t tell you how to play the game WELL. And even if you know how to play, mechanically, you will sit there, staring at the board, not knowing what to do at all in your first moves.

I probably won’t refuse to teach anything, as I run an open boardgame, but I would feel queasy if I would have to teach a war game of the more complex kind (like allmost anything by Richard Berg for example 😉 ). The gigantic number of rules alone would make it a big pain.

For more complex games (and actually often even with simpler ones), I usually do a first “open play” of the game. Everyone has everything on the table and I run them through the motions, choosing different strategies (if available in the game) for different players. Works like a charm, people get to touch the components, handle them, and just learn by playing and being played.

Well, I probabably wouldn’t like to teach Mage Knight, because that is a game where I allways forget some rules when I play solo.

The Gallerist, on the other hand, is quite easy to teach how to play. The number of actions available is quite limited, for a game of that complexity, and most of them are thematically grounded, which I think allways helps with teaching. Sure enough, just knowing HOW to play the game doesn’t tell you how to play the game WELL. And even if you know how to play, mechanically, you will sit there, staring at the board, not knowing what to do at all in your first moves.