Category: Syndicated

LOTR: the card game because of all the text on the cards. Seriously. People are reluctant to play because of cards with texts. I don’t mind that much, as I really enjoy it solo, but from time to time a multiplayer game would be fun.

LOTR: the card game because of all the text on the cards. Seriously. People are reluctant to play because of cards with texts. I don’t mind that much, as I really enjoy it solo, but from time to time a multiplayer game would be fun.

Best new game so far and by a large margin is Comancheria which just came out from GMT. It is a solo game about the Comanche over 100 years of their history in North America. Beautiful components, nice tutorial to get you into the game and great player aids to help playing. And by far one of the smoothest solo systems I have met, giving you just the right amount of illusion of control and a glimpse on what your enemies will do, but throwing enough stuff into your way to trip you up. Really enjoyed playing ut and looking forward to more plays.

Honorable mention: Euphrat & Tigris isn’t new at all, but I actually played it the first time and man, it is a lot of fun in a box. I really like how the kingdoms shape up, how conflict is handled and how you don’t necessarily have a “home” but are more like a dynasty grabbing areas and trying to control them, with your first areas just happening the ones where you probably have the most influence. Really neat game, totally can see why people like it so much.

But the best part of 2017 is that I have a semi regular play partner for Magic the Gathering again, and since that is one of only two games I rank a full 10, that one kinda runs in its own league 😉

Best new game so far and by a large margin is Comancheria which just came out from GMT. It is a solo game about the Comanche over 100 years of their history in North America. Beautiful components, nice tutorial to get you into the game and great player aids to help playing. And by far one of the smoothest solo systems I have met, giving you just the right amount of illusion of control and a glimpse on what your enemies will do, but throwing enough stuff into your way to trip you up. Really enjoyed playing ut and looking forward to more plays.

Honorable mention: Euphrat & Tigris isn’t new at all, but I actually played it the first time and man, it is a lot of fun in a box. I really like how the kingdoms shape up, how conflict is handled and how you don’t necessarily have a “home” but are more like a dynasty grabbing areas and trying to control them, with your first areas just happening the ones where you probably have the most influence. Really neat game, totally can see why people like it so much.

But the best part of 2017 is that I have a semi regular play partner for Magic the Gathering again, and since that is one of only two games I rank a full 10, that one kinda runs in its own league 😉

I really enjoyed each time I played – both with two players and four players. Very enjoyable game with smooth rounds and great components. A bit heacüvy on setup, but fine fir the play time of – in my cases – between 2 and 3 hours.

I really enjoyed each time I played – both with two players and four players. Very enjoyable game with smooth rounds and great components. A bit heacüvy on setup, but fine fir the play time of – in my cases – between 2 and 3 hours.

I played it a few times with my wife and it is fun, but for some reason it never flowed smoothly, it allways felt a bit klunky, which in the end probably was what stopped us from playing. I actually like the art style, it wasn’t the looks, it is just that we have many more civ style games with more actual variety to play nowadays, so it is hard to argue for it when talking about what to play. Still a good game and it does what it claims, providing a civ building experience (allthough a very euro-y one) in two hours play time.

I played it a few times with my wife and it is fun, but for some reason it never flowed smoothly, it allways felt a bit klunky, which in the end probably was what stopped us from playing. I actually like the art style, it wasn’t the looks, it is just that we have many more civ style games with more actual variety to play nowadays, so it is hard to argue for it when talking about what to play. Still a good game and it does what it claims, providing a civ building experience (allthough a very euro-y one) in two hours play time.

Setup is quite fast, since you just put out cards, select wonders based on card order and are done. Not much to it. Replayability might be an issue, since you use all cards all the time, except the wonders, but even there it is one of two for each row of the pyramid layout, so not that much diversity. The German version from Pegasus is the base game and the first standalone version combined, so you can play the base game, the standalone expansion (which has slightly different focus and completely new cards) or a combination ed game, where you use all tech cards together. I haven’t played it enough to be authorities, but from the look it sounds like at least the combined game will give you quite a lot of replayability, since the tech cards change a lot that way.

Be warned that the two player game even reduces the number of tech cards in the base game or standalone expansion, so you get even less diversity that way, where I can really see it losing replayability when played with two. But nobody stops you from houseruling the tech and wonder selection and actually making it more diverse that way – but it might hamper balance if you do.

Setup is quite fast, since you just put out cards, select wonders based on card order and are done. Not much to it. Replayability might be an issue, since you use all cards all the time, except the wonders, but even there it is one of two for each row of the pyramid layout, so not that much diversity. The German version from Pegasus is the base game and the first standalone version combined, so you can play the base game, the standalone expansion (which has slightly different focus and completely new cards) or a combination ed game, where you use all tech cards together. I haven’t played it enough to be authorities, but from the look it sounds like at least the combined game will give you quite a lot of replayability, since the tech cards change a lot that way.

Be warned that the two player game even reduces the number of tech cards in the base game or standalone expansion, so you get even less diversity that way, where I can really see it losing replayability when played with two. But nobody stops you from houseruling the tech and wonder selection and actually making it more diverse that way – but it might hamper balance if you do.

We played the two player game two times to learn the game and enjoyed it quite a bit. But we have the Duel game and so prefer that one when playing with just two and use the big box only for 5+ game nights, as it is then that the game really lights up. But the two player game of the big box really was fun and if we didn’t have the Duel box, I could totally see us playing it more often.

We played the two player game two times to learn the game and enjoyed it quite a bit. But we have the Duel game and so prefer that one when playing with just two and use the big box only for 5+ game nights, as it is then that the game really lights up. But the two player game of the big box really was fun and if we didn’t have the Duel box, I could totally see us playing it more often.