Category: Syndicated

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!

the only “play before buying” I get is when there is an app out for a game – I did that with San Juan and again with Suburbia (where I didn’t get the physical game, yet, but quite probably will). I like exploring and I have quite a good grasp on what I like in games, so rules and playthroughs on YouTube are usually enough for me to see if I will like it. So far only very few duds in my buyingj, maybe 4-5 of around 100 games.

the only “play before buying” I get is when there is an app out for a game – I did that with San Juan and again with Suburbia (where I didn’t get the physical game, yet, but quite probably will). I like exploring and I have quite a good grasp on what I like in games, so rules and playthroughs on YouTube are usually enough for me to see if I will like it. So far only very few duds in my buyingj, maybe 4-5 of around 100 games.

Man, VPG is out for my money lately! Awesome soloable games with added coop benefits and cool themes with new twists – totally my thing. Happy I didn’t go fir the first ed stuff for darkest night now.

Man, VPG is out for my money lately! Awesome soloable games with added coop benefits and cool themes with new twists – totally my thing. Happy I didn’t go fir the first ed stuff for darkest night now.

If you are interested in a board, here are some more options:

Athlas: Duel of Divinity is a hex board where you build your fighters yourself from a big deck of cards with abilities, body parts and weapons. Then go to fight in a capture the flag scenario against an opponent with their own fighters. Kinda like Magic the Gathering meets chess on hexes.

Hoplomachus comes with a hex map again and a pile of chips that are your fighters you throw into the arena. There are different Versions of maps available you fight on. Great tactical gladiator fights, currently one of my favorite games. Great solo rules, too.

The Duke is what you get if someone takes chess, throws in some randomness and just thought it a good idea to have pieces toggle between two states with different movements. Quite a bit chaos in early games I read, since you first have to get used to the pieces and their way to move. Has rules to bild your own army (set if pieces) and some additional packs with thematic pieces. I have it, but haven’t played ut, sadly – nobody around here who I could rope into a game. The board is standard squares, but smaller than with chess.

If you are interested in a board, here are some more options:

Athlas: Duel of Divinity is a hex board where you build your fighters yourself from a big deck of cards with abilities, body parts and weapons. Then go to fight in a capture the flag scenario against an opponent with their own fighters. Kinda like Magic the Gathering meets chess on hexes.

Hoplomachus comes with a hex map again and a pile of chips that are your fighters you throw into the arena. There are different Versions of maps available you fight on. Great tactical gladiator fights, currently one of my favorite games. Great solo rules, too.

The Duke is what you get if someone takes chess, throws in some randomness and just thought it a good idea to have pieces toggle between two states with different movements. Quite a bit chaos in early games I read, since you first have to get used to the pieces and their way to move. Has rules to bild your own army (set if pieces) and some additional packs with thematic pieces. I have it, but haven’t played ut, sadly – nobody around here who I could rope into a game. The board is standard squares, but smaller than with chess.

Hoplomachus: Origins again for the solo trials. Still loads of fun, but now I wait for the xanadu map they forgot to send me, because otherwise I would skip too many solo trials in the line. Lord of the Rings: The Card Game with some revamped decks, one being a tactic/leadership dunedain + eagles. Kinda janky, but fun. Progress: Evolution of Technology got it’s regular play time. Soviet Dawn got to the table again, this time the revolution failed, but it was a tight run. The finnish army was a bit too much for me, especially after it upgraded. And Wir sind das Volk got to the table for some learning game. Great fun, I really like it’s game play and my wife at least enjoys it enough to suggest playing another learning game herself.

I’m not that interested in sports, even fantasy sports, so no sports game in my collection so far.

Most looking forward at the moment probably Liberty or Death, because it will be delivered this month to me. But it’s not exactly undelivered, so lets go with Falling Sky, because a COIN game in the gallic war is just great. And the COIN games are nicely euroish, so not only for war gamers. My play of Cuba Libre a little bit ago totally made me a COIN fan and pushed aside some other highlights I was looking forward to before.

Hoplomachus: Origins again for the solo trials. Still loads of fun, but now I wait for the xanadu map they forgot to send me, because otherwise I would skip too many solo trials in the line. Lord of the Rings: The Card Game with some revamped decks, one being a tactic/leadership dunedain + eagles. Kinda janky, but fun. Progress: Evolution of Technology got it’s regular play time. Soviet Dawn got to the table again, this time the revolution failed, but it was a tight run. The finnish army was a bit too much for me, especially after it upgraded. And Wir sind das Volk got to the table for some learning game. Great fun, I really like it’s game play and my wife at least enjoys it enough to suggest playing another learning game herself.

I’m not that interested in sports, even fantasy sports, so no sports game in my collection so far.

Most looking forward at the moment probably Liberty or Death, because it will be delivered this month to me. But it’s not exactly undelivered, so lets go with Falling Sky, because a COIN game in the gallic war is just great. And the COIN games are nicely euroish, so not only for war gamers. My play of Cuba Libre a little bit ago totally made me a COIN fan and pushed aside some other highlights I was looking forward to before.

Play the duke with a variant of the hoplomachus deployment: draw three tiles and have them ready, openly visible, when you bring in a piece take it from the deployment area and fill it up from the bag. Possibly add the rule that the deployment area can’t be having holes, so if the bag is empty, the last pieces in deployment are not available (prevents to keep some joker back in deployment until the last moment – you have to use it or lose it). Since tiles are open, opponents see what you have available and can plan accordingly. Makes placement of tiles much more strategic but keeps replayability high by providing different setups and reaction options.

Play the duke with a variant of the hoplomachus deployment: draw three tiles and have them ready, openly visible, when you bring in a piece take it from the deployment area and fill it up from the bag. Possibly add the rule that the deployment area can’t be having holes, so if the bag is empty, the last pieces in deployment are not available (prevents to keep some joker back in deployment until the last moment – you have to use it or lose it). Since tiles are open, opponents see what you have available and can plan accordingly. Makes placement of tiles much more strategic but keeps replayability high by providing different setups and reaction options.

points to the requirement “standard deck of playing cards” 😉

points to the requirement “standard deck of playing cards” 😉

Kashgar: Händler der Seidenstraße is a good one for that. You build up three caravans with kinda a deck-building mechanism and when you get a really good one set up, you can run it round and round and round for the rest of the game (key is removing cards from a caravan that actually make them longer – that way you have the optimal order of cards you run through every round). Fun one, at least for me.

Kashgar: Händler der Seidenstraße is a good one for that. You build up three caravans with kinda a deck-building mechanism and when you get a really good one set up, you can run it round and round and round for the rest of the game (key is removing cards from a caravan that actually make them longer – that way you have the optimal order of cards you run through every round). Fun one, at least for me.