Category: Syndicated

I think the CL charts are rather easy to get due to them being really simple compared to other COIN games. In the case of the gov bot they tend to be too simple, though. But that way you have at least one opponent you can crush. So yeah, the gov bot can easily be “solved”. But playing solo, you don’t play just one bot – solving the government and crushing it in part helps other bots and they will run right over you (actually in case of the Mafia and the Directorio they will sneak by and cheat you), so the game still works great. The bits in CL definitely faded into the background after a few rounds due to their simplicity.

I think the CL charts are rather easy to get due to them being really simple compared to other COIN games. In the case of the gov bot they tend to be too simple, though. But that way you have at least one opponent you can crush. So yeah, the gov bot can easily be “solved”. But playing solo, you don’t play just one bot – solving the government and crushing it in part helps other bots and they will run right over you (actually in case of the Mafia and the Directorio they will sneak by and cheat you), so the game still works great. The bits in CL definitely faded into the background after a few rounds due to their simplicity.

I think Wiz War needs more than 2 players to shine. You need the chaos of more than 2. And you need to accept that you get tons of rules wrong and misplay stiff and kinda cheat. Otherwise it breaks down in rule lawyering and bickering. It has a very high “rules are on the cards except when they aren’t” factor, meaning you have base rules that get overridden by card rules all the time, but those card rules never being fully explained and defined. It is fun, I agree, but I think you need a specific crowd for it to work.

I think Wiz War needs more than 2 players to shine. You need the chaos of more than 2. And you need to accept that you get tons of rules wrong and misplay stiff and kinda cheat. Otherwise it breaks down in rule lawyering and bickering. It has a very high “rules are on the cards except when they aren’t” factor, meaning you have base rules that get overridden by card rules all the time, but those card rules never being fully explained and defined. It is fun, I agree, but I think you need a specific crowd for it to work.

I only played CL of the two, so can’t provide direct insights, but from my experience with Night of Man, which has an AI kinda similar in structure to the CoH (although admittedly simpler), I found the COIN AI much more believable at times. I think it comes from COIN games being at a strategic level and NM (and CoH) on tactic level. Bad moves are much more visible and recognizable on that level, I think. So during my plays of CL, while the government not was rather bad, it didn’t feel “off” – and the other two boys felt outright sneaky. In NM the AI works, but every so often I am unsatisfied with the behaviour of the enemy, tactic wise. I still loose in both games, so I am not talking about the AIs being too easy. They still beat me. But in one game it felt as if at least two bit factions outplayed me, while in the other game it sometimes felt like the AI won due to dumb luck.

I only played CL of the two, so can’t provide direct insights, but from my experience with Night of Man, which has an AI kinda similar in structure to the CoH (although admittedly simpler), I found the COIN AI much more believable at times. I think it comes from COIN games being at a strategic level and NM (and CoH) on tactic level. Bad moves are much more visible and recognizable on that level, I think. So during my plays of CL, while the government not was rather bad, it didn’t feel “off” – and the other two boys felt outright sneaky. In NM the AI works, but every so often I am unsatisfied with the behaviour of the enemy, tactic wise. I still loose in both games, so I am not talking about the AIs being too easy. They still beat me. But in one game it felt as if at least two bit factions outplayed me, while in the other game it sometimes felt like the AI won due to dumb luck.

I kinda wonder: in one of your videos you talked about liking roleplaying games. But those are filled with “I try to do this, roll for check for success”. So did the RPGishness of this not come through enough for you to feel more in an RPG mood that accepts skill checks? To me this game looks more and more like a better implementation of Pathfinder ACG than actually LOTR LCG, so I am wondering if it could carry that idea, or if t would fall apart just like Pathfinder ACG did for me (the story not being carried enough by mechanics and so it turning into “draw card, roll dice, next”).

I kinda wonder: in one of your videos you talked about liking roleplaying games. But those are filled with “I try to do this, roll for check for success”. So did the RPGishness of this not come through enough for you to feel more in an RPG mood that accepts skill checks? To me this game looks more and more like a better implementation of Pathfinder ACG than actually LOTR LCG, so I am wondering if it could carry that idea, or if t would fall apart just like Pathfinder ACG did for me (the story not being carried enough by mechanics and so it turning into “draw card, roll dice, next”).

Pandemic (the regular board game) is one for me. It may be that I played the dice version first, which is fun, fast, and furious. I expected the full game to be somehow more and better and richer – but compared to the dice game, it was an over long snoozefest.

Pathfinder ACG is another one where I expected somehow more than “flip card, roll dice, next one”. But I could have been OK with it, because I love leveling up and the limited deck construction (too limited for me, but still) looked interesting. But the German translation is downright catastrophic. I could have gone over the introduced inconsistencies with regard to key concepts, but what killed it in the end was a card that said the exact opposite in the bad translation than in the original card.

Assault on Doomrock is the one that hurts me the most, because I love the production quality, the game concept and the quirky and silly theme and all the pop culture references. But sadly the game itself is rage inducing unfair. It is one of the few games where I want to flip the table. It even is only a small part of the game – but it is the fights, where you feel completely helpless and without chances, often even before you start, due to bad rolls that lea e you without a single attack. I play lots of State of Siege games, so I know games to be punishing, but at least they punish you after giving you a fair chance. This one puts you in a fight and tells you that you suck and are a complete failure and the kills you.

Pandemic (the regular board game) is one for me. It may be that I played the dice version first, which is fun, fast, and furious. I expected the full game to be somehow more and better and richer – but compared to the dice game, it was an over long snoozefest.

Pathfinder ACG is another one where I expected somehow more than “flip card, roll dice, next one”. But I could have been OK with it, because I love leveling up and the limited deck construction (too limited for me, but still) looked interesting. But the German translation is downright catastrophic. I could have gone over the introduced inconsistencies with regard to key concepts, but what killed it in the end was a card that said the exact opposite in the bad translation than in the original card.

Assault on Doomrock is the one that hurts me the most, because I love the production quality, the game concept and the quirky and silly theme and all the pop culture references. But sadly the game itself is rage inducing unfair. It is one of the few games where I want to flip the table. It even is only a small part of the game – but it is the fights, where you feel completely helpless and without chances, often even before you start, due to bad rolls that lea e you without a single attack. I play lots of State of Siege games, so I know games to be punishing, but at least they punish you after giving you a fair chance. This one puts you in a fight and tells you that you suck and are a complete failure and the kills you.

Loads of 7 Wonders: Duel – sometimes 3-4 games a day. My wife really caught on to it and seems to be focused on burning it down or something 😉 (we were up to 130 plays of Progress: Evolution of Technology before, this looks to become the next big thing with already around 70 plays). Luckily I got the expansion for it at Essen and so am prepared for the onslaught …

At Essen I got to play Camel Up: Cards (really liked it, fast and funny card based racing game), Quadropolis (which I liked quite a bit more than Suburbia or Among the Stars, because the scoring was much simpler and it just felt better to play to me – but the components really felt super-cheap, sadly) and Five Tribes (the game mechanics are fun, but the theme isn’t even pasted on, it’s sitting on a card board aside from the game and just points at it 😉 ).

Other than that some Red 7 which I got at Essen, but only played it afterwards. Perfect game for waiting for food at the restaurant and with the modular rules a really nice choice as a have-allways-with-you game, because you can adapt it to lighter or more thinky situations.

Loads of 7 Wonders: Duel – sometimes 3-4 games a day. My wife really caught on to it and seems to be focused on burning it down or something 😉 (we were up to 130 plays of Progress: Evolution of Technology before, this looks to become the next big thing with already around 70 plays). Luckily I got the expansion for it at Essen and so am prepared for the onslaught …

At Essen I got to play Camel Up: Cards (really liked it, fast and funny card based racing game), Quadropolis (which I liked quite a bit more than Suburbia or Among the Stars, because the scoring was much simpler and it just felt better to play to me – but the components really felt super-cheap, sadly) and Five Tribes (the game mechanics are fun, but the theme isn’t even pasted on, it’s sitting on a card board aside from the game and just points at it 😉 ).

Other than that some Red 7 which I got at Essen, but only played it afterwards. Perfect game for waiting for food at the restaurant and with the modular rules a really nice choice as a have-allways-with-you game, because you can adapt it to lighter or more thinky situations.