Category: Syndicated

Yeah, Twilight Struggle would be rad! The perfect game to play sunday morning in bed before breakfast! I didn’t know about Baseball Highlights, will have to take a look at that one, it got quite good reviews. For other deckbuilds, Star Realms and Ascension are both fun to play on android. And well, Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is much more fun to play if you don’t have to go through all the card types every time you set up locations. Same with Sentinels of the Multiverse and the damage tracking. Both games (PACG and SotM) are IMO more fun to play on a computer due to the high “maintenance rate” of setup (for PACG) and keeping track (for SotM).

Yeah, Twilight Struggle would be rad! The perfect game to play sunday morning in bed before breakfast! I didn’t know about Baseball Highlights, will have to take a look at that one, it got quite good reviews. For other deckbuilds, Star Realms and Ascension are both fun to play on android. And well, Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is much more fun to play if you don’t have to go through all the card types every time you set up locations. Same with Sentinels of the Multiverse and the damage tracking. Both games (PACG and SotM) are IMO more fun to play on a computer due to the high “maintenance rate” of setup (for PACG) and keeping track (for SotM).

Everything coming out for LOTR:LCG that contains player cards. I just want more cards to build my decks with, the more the merrier. It is my guilty obsession to build decks for LOTR:LCG and – due to it’s great solo playability – those actually get played unlike my MTG decks …

Other than that, if you want to tempt me, ingrain your game with science. Leaving Earth was very tempting, but the horrible high shipping costs drove me away, until I found a group preorder that lowered that barrier. Stuff from Phil Eklund always tempts me, whatever the actual theme. And board games based on historic events will draw me in right away and trigger my “want it!” reflexes. Which makes a big pile of cosims really dangerous. I am not too much into the nitty-gritty-detailed war games, but if it is something crossing the border from war game to euro, I am doomed.

well, and if there are mechs in your game. I really have a hard time to stay away from games with mechs. Luckily DVGs Valkyrie didn’t make it on Kickstarter and they haven’t talked about it for ages, so I am safe from that one. But Night of Man just snuck in under my protective shield. I mean, mechs AND hovercars? How could I withstand?

Everything coming out for LOTR:LCG that contains player cards. I just want more cards to build my decks with, the more the merrier. It is my guilty obsession to build decks for LOTR:LCG and – due to it’s great solo playability – those actually get played unlike my MTG decks …

Other than that, if you want to tempt me, ingrain your game with science. Leaving Earth was very tempting, but the horrible high shipping costs drove me away, until I found a group preorder that lowered that barrier. Stuff from Phil Eklund always tempts me, whatever the actual theme. And board games based on historic events will draw me in right away and trigger my “want it!” reflexes. Which makes a big pile of cosims really dangerous. I am not too much into the nitty-gritty-detailed war games, but if it is something crossing the border from war game to euro, I am doomed.

well, and if there are mechs in your game. I really have a hard time to stay away from games with mechs. Luckily DVGs Valkyrie didn’t make it on Kickstarter and they haven’t talked about it for ages, so I am safe from that one. But Night of Man just snuck in under my protective shield. I mean, mechs AND hovercars? How could I withstand?

Sorry, but it is not as if VotK had any money cards – you trade actual friggin things you want to put into your tomb. “I trade this sarcophage and this mask and this table for some book, but before I play this little figurine to reorder the market, because thats what this stuff obiously is all doing”. Nope, sorry to say, but the theme and the card abilities really don’t base on each other.

I really love the game, it is one of the best small deck builders around, but the card names and images are just stuff to allow to recognize cards faster than reading the text over and over again. But there is a big disconnect between the mechanics and the theme.

It actually is a problem for my wife in that game – she learns games much better (and enjoys playing theme) if the mechanics in the context of the game make sense. Which made VotK far more complex for her than for me, who can ignore wonky themes and just play the mechanics.

Sorry, but it is not as if VotK had any money cards – you trade actual friggin things you want to put into your tomb. “I trade this sarcophage and this mask and this table for some book, but before I play this little figurine to reorder the market, because thats what this stuff obiously is all doing”. Nope, sorry to say, but the theme and the card abilities really don’t base on each other.

I really love the game, it is one of the best small deck builders around, but the card names and images are just stuff to allow to recognize cards faster than reading the text over and over again. But there is a big disconnect between the mechanics and the theme.

It actually is a problem for my wife in that game – she learns games much better (and enjoys playing theme) if the mechanics in the context of the game make sense. Which made VotK far more complex for her than for me, who can ignore wonky themes and just play the mechanics.

One I like: Valley of the Kings. The theme makes no sense at all to start with: “you are a pharao filling his grave with goods for afterlife” – whut? Add to that the thing that nine of the card abilities have any connection at all to the items depicted on the cards (and the abilities don’t have any connection to the theme, too) and you end up with an abstract deck builder where the theme is something that happened by accident. It is a great fun abstract deck builder, but really, don’t get it for the theme 😉

VotK makes Dominion into ameritrash by comparison 😉

One I like: Valley of the Kings. The theme makes no sense at all to start with: “you are a pharao filling his grave with goods for afterlife” – whut? Add to that the thing that nine of the card abilities have any connection at all to the items depicted on the cards (and the abilities don’t have any connection to the theme, too) and you end up with an abstract deck builder where the theme is something that happened by accident. It is a great fun abstract deck builder, but really, don’t get it for the theme 😉

VotK makes Dominion into ameritrash by comparison 😉

Not really an AI but a dummy procedure that puts pressure on you. I am normally nit a big fan of these kinds of solo variants, enjoying a full-blown automatted player mire, or at least some kind of cheating automa, but this was one of the better experiences for a “dumb procedural timer” as an opponent. Not too much to manage and kept the tension up.

Not really an AI but a dummy procedure that puts pressure on you. I am normally nit a big fan of these kinds of solo variants, enjoying a full-blown automatted player mire, or at least some kind of cheating automa, but this was one of the better experiences for a “dumb procedural timer” as an opponent. Not too much to manage and kept the tension up.

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.