Category: Syndicated

Xenoshyft is fun, but the setup/teardown is far too long for a game like this. It’s deck-building castle defense, but you put out little stacks of cards from little slots in the horrible insert and afterwards sort all the cards into their little stacks and put them back into the little slots …

I was very happy when I got the digital implementation. And if I get it back out for play with my friends, I probably go for some “epic” variant that at least allows me to cut down on item shop setup (will still leave the troops board to set up, though).

I mean, it’s not that bad, it’s mostly like Dominion or Thunderstone. Only that you set up two friggin shops in Xenoshyft and not just one …

Xenoshyft is fun, but the setup/teardown is far too long for a game like this. It’s deck-building castle defense, but you put out little stacks of cards from little slots in the horrible insert and afterwards sort all the cards into their little stacks and put them back into the little slots …

I was very happy when I got the digital implementation. And if I get it back out for play with my friends, I probably go for some “epic” variant that at least allows me to cut down on item shop setup (will still leave the troops board to set up, though).

I mean, it’s not that bad, it’s mostly like Dominion or Thunderstone. Only that you set up two friggin shops in Xenoshyft and not just one …

Steampunk Rally was one I was very close to backing, but some of the cards carry text and therefore it sadly was a pass (my Wife doesn’t speak English). If they ever produce a german version, I am so into that one. The theme alone is something that easily grabs me.

Steampunk Rally was one I was very close to backing, but some of the cards carry text and therefore it sadly was a pass (my Wife doesn’t speak English). If they ever produce a german version, I am so into that one. The theme alone is something that easily grabs me.

By far and away the most plays with my wife: Progress: Evolution of Technology. It’s the game that turned a “ok, I play with you today” wife (which already was hard to achieve with her, because before she was “eww, no, thanks”) into a gamer wife who discusses game strategy with me.

For my weekly game group, because they are great intro games I can play with allmost everybody: Paperback and Waggle Dance. With Paperback being one of my wife and my favorites, too, and one of our preferred travel games (the whole thing fits into a 100+ deckbox unsleeved). It’s just great to have some games you know you can bring to the table if 2-3 noobs show up for the evening. And Paperback actually became a very common game at the weekly meet, even with the regulars. Since I started that group in 2015, definitely an important game for me.

The Golden Ages we are slowly getting into, it has a bit more moving pieces than other games we play, but it’s a great 4Xish civ builder with some neat twists. Very tight and strategic. And one of the games I want to play much more often (and one I hope I can get my wife into, too – she allready asked for it some times herself).

For solo play it’s allways LoTR: LCG for me. Still by favorite game of all those years, only maybe topped by MTG, but that doesn’t get played due to missing play partners for it. LOTR I can play on my own. I don’t see my love for that game ever waining, unless someone creates something in the same vain with a more generic theme (which would allow me much more to mix-and-match power cards – in LOTR I often stumble over “can’t put Steward of Gondor on a Noldor, dammit!”).

A great surprise with regards to it’s solo play was The Gallerist – I only played it solo first to learn the rules, but it’s a very nice take on the “beat your highscore” mechanics for solo play. The solo opponent essentially is a nasty clock that takes opportunities away from you, combined with a roster of predefined goals to reach. And the game is gorgeous, really looking forward to the day I can bring that out for multiplayer. Still some way to go, since it is tons heavier than my game groups are used to. It’s the game that made me look into heavier stuff than we normally play, because I discovered that heavy games not necessarily have convoluted mechanics (quite the opposite of something I write further down where I spread into war-games, which are the epitome of convoluted mechanics 😉 ).

With another group we are playing through all of Legends of Andor and the travel to the north really is a very good big-box expansion to it. It’s a companion for allmost 2 years now for us and a great way to spend an afternoon and evening with friends – some good meal, some Legends of Andor and some chat and maybe another, quicker, game.

Some other notable games were 7 Wonders: Duels (nice two player drafting that actually works) and Kashgar: Händler der Seidenstraße (interesting take on deck-building combined with ressource-gathering and contract-fullfillment). Both haven’t caught on as much as I would have liked, so don’t get as much play time as I would like. But both trigger some of my favorites easily with the drafting (well, more like “picking”) mechanics of Duels and the deck building (in this case public with three “hands”) in Kashgar.

One that took me really by surprise is Polis: Fight for the Hegemony. I got it for cheap in a group buy and boy is that a great game. Didn’t really expect that. It got me to look into other games on the border of euro-game to war-game, too, which lead to me discovering COIN games and CDGs. So definitely had a big impact on me in 2015.

Another one for solo, honorable 11th mention: Legends of Andor: Chada and Thron. I got it, because it is written in the game world of Legends of Andor and uses the public deck building mechanic from Kashgar, but is a good solo and coop game. So far only played it solo, it’s quite interesting. Kinda in the same league as Friday, but gives more of a story feel.

By far and away the most plays with my wife: Progress: Evolution of Technology. It’s the game that turned a “ok, I play with you today” wife (which already was hard to achieve with her, because before she was “eww, no, thanks”) into a gamer wife who discusses game strategy with me.

For my weekly game group, because they are great intro games I can play with allmost everybody: Paperback and Waggle Dance. With Paperback being one of my wife and my favorites, too, and one of our preferred travel games (the whole thing fits into a 100+ deckbox unsleeved). It’s just great to have some games you know you can bring to the table if 2-3 noobs show up for the evening. And Paperback actually became a very common game at the weekly meet, even with the regulars. Since I started that group in 2015, definitely an important game for me.

The Golden Ages we are slowly getting into, it has a bit more moving pieces than other games we play, but it’s a great 4Xish civ builder with some neat twists. Very tight and strategic. And one of the games I want to play much more often (and one I hope I can get my wife into, too – she allready asked for it some times herself).

For solo play it’s allways LoTR: LCG for me. Still by favorite game of all those years, only maybe topped by MTG, but that doesn’t get played due to missing play partners for it. LOTR I can play on my own. I don’t see my love for that game ever waining, unless someone creates something in the same vain with a more generic theme (which would allow me much more to mix-and-match power cards – in LOTR I often stumble over “can’t put Steward of Gondor on a Noldor, dammit!”).

A great surprise with regards to it’s solo play was The Gallerist – I only played it solo first to learn the rules, but it’s a very nice take on the “beat your highscore” mechanics for solo play. The solo opponent essentially is a nasty clock that takes opportunities away from you, combined with a roster of predefined goals to reach. And the game is gorgeous, really looking forward to the day I can bring that out for multiplayer. Still some way to go, since it is tons heavier than my game groups are used to. It’s the game that made me look into heavier stuff than we normally play, because I discovered that heavy games not necessarily have convoluted mechanics (quite the opposite of something I write further down where I spread into war-games, which are the epitome of convoluted mechanics 😉 ).

With another group we are playing through all of Legends of Andor and the travel to the north really is a very good big-box expansion to it. It’s a companion for allmost 2 years now for us and a great way to spend an afternoon and evening with friends – some good meal, some Legends of Andor and some chat and maybe another, quicker, game.

Some other notable games were 7 Wonders: Duels (nice two player drafting that actually works) and Kashgar: Händler der Seidenstraße (interesting take on deck-building combined with ressource-gathering and contract-fullfillment). Both haven’t caught on as much as I would have liked, so don’t get as much play time as I would like. But both trigger some of my favorites easily with the drafting (well, more like “picking”) mechanics of Duels and the deck building (in this case public with three “hands”) in Kashgar.

One that took me really by surprise is Polis: Fight for the Hegemony. I got it for cheap in a group buy and boy is that a great game. Didn’t really expect that. It got me to look into other games on the border of euro-game to war-game, too, which lead to me discovering COIN games and CDGs. So definitely had a big impact on me in 2015.

Another one for solo, honorable 11th mention: Legends of Andor: Chada and Thron. I got it, because it is written in the game world of Legends of Andor and uses the public deck building mechanic from Kashgar, but is a good solo and coop game. So far only played it solo, it’s quite interesting. Kinda in the same league as Friday, but gives more of a story feel.

I really like Shadowrun: Crossfire and – a bit lower on the scale – Xenoshyft: Onslaught because they give a new way with buying cards directly into your hand. I like that it turns the classic deck building idea into something where you directly gain a benefit from buying for your hand, without needing to go through your discard. The downside with Xenoshyft is setup – it’s kinda like Dominion or Thunderstone Advance, in that you set out a full store of stuff. That just takes a while to do. Shadowrun is much faster to set up. And obstacles are more varied in SR than in XS.

Paperback is among my favorites, too, mostly because it is so super easy to get new players into it. It is something I can play with allmost everybody at our weekly open game night.

I still like Ascension for it’s simplicity. It helps that I really like it’s quirky art style, too. In the same vain I like Star Realms. Both are just very easy to teach and play, but still giving deep play. And both are super easy to set up.

I am a bit curious about Time of Crisis, an upcoming deck builder crossed with war game from GMT about playing romans fighting for control. Sounds a bit like A Few Acres of Snow, but with a theme that is more in my line of interest. Obviously haven’t played it, since it doesn’t exist yet, but definitely one of the deck builders I am looking forward for 2016/2017.

I really like Shadowrun: Crossfire and – a bit lower on the scale – Xenoshyft: Onslaught because they give a new way with buying cards directly into your hand. I like that it turns the classic deck building idea into something where you directly gain a benefit from buying for your hand, without needing to go through your discard. The downside with Xenoshyft is setup – it’s kinda like Dominion or Thunderstone Advance, in that you set out a full store of stuff. That just takes a while to do. Shadowrun is much faster to set up. And obstacles are more varied in SR than in XS.

Paperback is among my favorites, too, mostly because it is so super easy to get new players into it. It is something I can play with allmost everybody at our weekly open game night.

I still like Ascension for it’s simplicity. It helps that I really like it’s quirky art style, too. In the same vain I like Star Realms. Both are just very easy to teach and play, but still giving deep play. And both are super easy to set up.

I am a bit curious about Time of Crisis, an upcoming deck builder crossed with war game from GMT about playing romans fighting for control. Sounds a bit like A Few Acres of Snow, but with a theme that is more in my line of interest. Obviously haven’t played it, since it doesn’t exist yet, but definitely one of the deck builders I am looking forward for 2016/2017.

Onirim felt more like solitaire than a real game to me. Nice aesthetics, but flimsy card stock and mechanically it is “shuffling, the game”. I barely get it out anymore.

Friday is a cute little funny solo deck builder with some neat ideas but the problem of “solvability” – after you see the main strategy to beat it, it is only luck of the draw that decides the outcome. A bit of a one-trick-pony, but still a fun one. Would get it out more often if it wasn’t for the next one.

Shadowrun: Crossfire – man, what a great deck builder. Especially with the High Caliber Ops expansion. It evens out the punishing nature a bit by adding obstacles that are not totally nasty and gives a few different missions to take on. My favorite is Freefire for All, because there you can make obstacles attack each other. Go for two runners, you get a little boost that way and it works quite nicely solo. By far the best of the three options you list in my book.

Onirim felt more like solitaire than a real game to me. Nice aesthetics, but flimsy card stock and mechanically it is “shuffling, the game”. I barely get it out anymore.

Friday is a cute little funny solo deck builder with some neat ideas but the problem of “solvability” – after you see the main strategy to beat it, it is only luck of the draw that decides the outcome. A bit of a one-trick-pony, but still a fun one. Would get it out more often if it wasn’t for the next one.

Shadowrun: Crossfire – man, what a great deck builder. Especially with the High Caliber Ops expansion. It evens out the punishing nature a bit by adding obstacles that are not totally nasty and gives a few different missions to take on. My favorite is Freefire for All, because there you can make obstacles attack each other. Go for two runners, you get a little boost that way and it works quite nicely solo. By far the best of the three options you list in my book.

Not yet on KS, but planned to land there as the third premium treatment by Victory Point Games: Darkest Night. The thing that intrigues me is the very different take on the “heroes fight a necromancer” trope with this game. Essentially it is almost as much about avoiding the necro,ancer as it is about fighting him. And one that might be fullfilled this year and ran early this year by the same company: Nemos War. I mean, come on, it is the friggin Nautilus!