Category: Syndicated

I mostly only sleeve MTG and LOTR:LCG cards in decks, and I use Dragonshield for that, because they were the most sturdy in my tests and the most comfortable to shuffle. I used KMC Hypermatte for a while, but they start to feel a bit icky after longer …

by TheGargoyle
Well, I think it is a bit outside the scope of what Spieleschmiede really can handle – this thing is all text on all the cards. I think a real german distributor doing a full german version would be more realistic. But well, I am in t…

I am a fan of it, because of the thick coating of theme and the really tight integration of the mechanics with that theme. It just is gorgeous and I don’t mind the luck at all, because you can get around it by focusing. You are stranded on an island, s…

Forbidden Desert is my favorite coop to ease new players into a group, because it is such a great and simple experience. I played Pandemic and Pandemic: The Cure, but still think that Forbidden Desert ist Matt Leacocks new-player-friendliest title so far.

**Waggle Dance** is one I pledged for and where I am super happy. Quick delivery and the game is just great. It is our favorite worker placement gsme and my go to game if I want to show people what modern board games can offer, because it has a really …

by TheGargoyle
For some reason, this game totally flew under my radar and now I am really happy that I stumbled over it, because the COIN series really interests me, from the mechanics part, but the conflicts simulated so far weren’t really my thing…

With my wife the (nowadays) usual mix of **Jaipur** and **Paperback**. And we got **Kashgar** back on the table – still really like that one. The weekly game meet got a round if **Pandemic: The Cure** which I enjoy quite a bit, but for some reason does…

by TheGargoyle
Paperback is probably the most favorite game of my wife and me (well, not probably, more definitely 😉 ) – it just plays fantastic. I played it with anything from 2 to 5 players and had a blast in all counts. We always play with the “…

I came to it because I am a recovering MTG addict and needed something to build decks for, with a viable card pool that allows to actually build different archetypes and have a way to get it played without the need for actual people. Not that I am tota…

by TheGargoyle

In Brettspielregeln sind die Teile die man schubst nun mal nach ihrer Funktion bezeichnet, damit klar ist was sie sind und man das Thema nicht einfach verlässt. Deshalb redet man von Spielfigureren, Ressourcenmarker oder – ganz thematisch – Soldaten und Munition. Das in einem Spiel Plastikmodelle als Spielfiguren benutzt werden, ist für die Beschreibung wumpe – Spielregeln reden genausowenig von Spielermodellen statt Spielfiguren wie sie von “Roten Würfeln” anstelle von Armeen reden. Manchmal liest man “Armeen (dargestellt als Würfel deiner Spielfarbe)”, aber das ist für kompakte Texte unpraktisch. Das wird dann aber eben nicht als “schiebe deine Würfel deiner Farbe” geschrieben, sondern als “bewege deine Armeen”.

Genauso Kacheln – ja, ist die korrekte Übersetzung von Tiles. Na und? Die Dinger heißen in nahezu allen anderen Spielen mit diesem Mechanismus Spielfeldtafeln oder Spielfeldstücke. Tafeln finde ich persönlich ja besser, weil man es gut in der Kurzform benutzen kann, ohne zu verwirren.

Oh, und noch was: “Marines” mit Marinemodellen oder den “Marine Player” als Marinespieler zu übersetzen ist zwar witzig, aber schlicht irritierend. Bei den US Truppen ist der Begriff Marine eben mit einem bestimmten Flair belegt und wird deshalb benutzt – das es ein Truppenteil der Marine ist, ist dabei wumpe. Niemand würde die US Marines mit sowas wie unserer Trachtentruppe zur See verwechseln. Nenn die einfach “Soldatenfiguren” (oder kurz “Soldaten”) und “Soldatenspieler” und es klingt schon halb so albern.

Ich stimme Lines zu, die Übersetzung liest sich holperig, unrund und amateurhaft. Da bei der Menge an neuen Spielen der erste Eindruck zählt, kann man natürlich sarkastisch auf Kritik reagieren, oder einfach akzeptieren, dass da deutliches Verbesserungspotential besteht. Denn sonst kaufen sich die potentiellen Kunden einfach ein anderes Spiel, dessen Texte sich flüssiger und stimmiger lesen.

http://www.manaleak.com/mtguk/2011/09/deckmaster-a-mtg-variant-format-by-jim-bowie/

Deckmasters – a deck building variant of MTG you play with actual magic cards. Easier to get people into playing. And has the benefit that I already own and know the cards 😉

Almost every scifi or fantasy game that doesn’t have a solid solo mode, because I don’t get them to the table nearly as often than I would like. Biggest one of those probably **Athlas: Duel of Divinity**, because that one is a strategic skirmish game w…

Mit enough mechs, trains and other strange contraptions.

Dieselpunk. There is just not enough boardgames with it. Steampunk is ok’ish, but a giant mech shoukd be a diesel powered stinking behemoth. Scythe comes close, thematically, which is why I am enthusiastic about it.

yeah, I looked into printing my german paperback PnP set on plastic cards and it is double the price at printerstudio than the normal cards. But I still think I will do it if I do a new print, because plastic cards are really much nicer to handle over …

Magic the Gathering is my other 10, because for me this game is about perfect despite the collectible nature. Too bad that you need opponents with the same enthusiasm for it, because that means I rarely get to play it. Which in a way makes LOTR:LCG a 1…

It is actually quite a pain to setup a game of Pathfinder ACG. I have the Rise of the Runelords base set and one reason why it almost never hits the table is that selecting all the needed cards from the box for the locations, setting up the location stacks and all the preparation takes longer than the actual game play. And more important: the game play isn’t deep enough to justify all the work you spend on setup and teardown (sorting stuff back into it’s areas of the box). The thing that keeps it going is the “acquisition addiction” when you equip your characters with new stuff and level them up to get new abilities. But the problem is, those abilities again reference the main mechanics, which is dice selection/modification and card usage. Everything references back to that. Which makes this quickly turn from “oh, I have to fight this monster and use my awesome spell of doom on it and shoot over from the harbour with my crossbow” into “ok, this needs a roll of 14+ on a 3D4+2D6+3”, where each component is just what your card gives you (oh, one more D12, that’s nice – and not oh, this is a magic spell and I can blast a fireball). This is what happens in solo at least for me – the story quickly dies. It can be totally different multiplayer if people actually bring the roleplay to the table, because then Pathfinder ACG turns into more of a RPG system with dice and cards and a rudimentary story, where you provide the rest. A GM-less pathfinder adventure path. That can be awesome. But solo I noticed I just can’t keep it up. Which turns the actual game into a slog to get through so I can then finally get to the fun part where I update my characters. Which kinda is meh after a while.

Dang. A Star Wars coop LCG would have been awesome. 🙁 Deck builders are great, but they don’t scratch the same itch as LOTR:LCG for me, because I really love the deck construction part of LOTR:LCG – I actually spend quite a big chunk of time on deck construction and theory-crafting. Deck builders just don’t give me the same “construct your own game” vibe. Shadowrun: Crossfire is great in that at least I get to choose my own karma upgrades, and the game mechanics are IMO great, but it just isn’t the same. I wish there was an expansion where we can do at least a minimal preselection of cards from a pool of basic cards to build our starting hands with (where those cards are obviously a little bit more interesting than the current basic cards 😉 ) to construct hybrid roles that come out of the door with a bit more personality.

I love **Gears of War** for solo plays when I want that “beat up monsters” thing. It is quite quick to set up if you prepared well and it looks nice and the play system is simple enough that you still remember most of it if you haven’t played it in months. And the monster AI is really nicely done. And I think it is most in vibe with the OPs thoughts – but well, it’s out of print and prices go up beyond the reasonable. **Pandemic: The Cure** was a real surprise for me when playing solo, because I didn’t expect it to be so much fun. It might get a bit repetetive in playing when you overdo it, but for a solo dice chucker I play every now and then, I really enjoy it. But it is quite unlike the OPs thoughts, in that it doesn’t really tell a lot of a story. Other nice solo games I could add: **Space Hulk: Death Angels** because it is fast to setup and simple to play, but really hard to win. Doesn’t give a ton of story, but the theme really survives the reductionism of that game quite well. Unlike for example **Elder Sign**, where the theme can too easily get lost in the dice rolling. Still, Elder Sign (at least with expansion) is quite fun to play every now and then. When on travels, I often grab my copy of **Friday** because it doesn’t take up much space and gives me some deck building fix while on the road and is surprisingly thematic. And the art is just hilarious (to me, anyways 😉 )

Yeah, I think the DVG solo/coop stuff is what came closest for me. I have **Warfighter** with a bunch of expansions and it gets close in feel, although by far not close in depth. It is fun, but IMO much lighter with some more random thrown in. But you …

make sure your country looks only at the sales price, not at sales price plus shipping like in Germany. Easily kills if you have to pay 19% import tax on that ridiculous 35$ shipping costs for games from the US … (which makes importing cthulhu wars i…

No worries, exporting board games is no problem. Can’t say about _importing_ into your destination country, could be you have to pay taxes there, but getting stuff out of germany is easy, it’s what our economy is build on 😉 (and board games last I loo…

RPG elements? no way. This game is fun, I really love to play it (mostly solo with 2 or 3 runners), but the RPG elements are just plain not there. It’s mostly in the graphics design and some short 5-word flavor texts. Other than that it is just a const…

Well, probably that is why I love it so much – I really enjoy Shadowrun: Crossfire, Legends of Andor and Robinson Crusoe, too, and all of them were accused of being more like puzzles than anything else 😉 But really, with LOTR you can play thematic and…

by TheGargoyle
Well, the shipping on this game makes me not even consider to pledge, plain and simple. And I am sure many european potential backers will feel the same. I don’t really buy the “can’t be done cheaper”, either. There are far too many k…

He probably is using the Gandalf from the first Hobbit set he owns, that one can be kept in play in exchange for threat raising at end of turn.

by TheGargoyle
To me, Xenoshyft Onslaught is the solo and coop variant Thunderstone Advanced should have gotten, but never got (the root of corruption coop variant feels overly clumsy to me, don’t really enjoy it). If only they would do a “level up”…

Well, can’t say much about multiplayer, as I only play solo. In solo you want each and every card to have direct impact. So something that will be good if you happen to have another card in hand or run a tutor to find it – well, that’s not really good for solo play, because that hill troll over there will have ripped off your head before your tutor actually tutors anything up. Yes, I could use it to put elven stuff on Gandalf in my Elrond+Gandalf deck. But then, I could put the same stuff on Elrond and Glorfindel anyway, so why bother with turning Gandalf into a honorary elve? That doesn’t give me anything right that moment. Especially with High-Impact-Heroes I usually have a package of cards I want to run with them, because that makes them so much better. Which is why Silver Harp excites me much more than Elve Friend: Silver Harp will go right into the “must have” pack for Galadriel, because it directly interacts with something I already run whenever I have her in a deck: Galadriels Mirror. To me, Elve Friend sits in the same awkward spot as the Song of Whatever cards: yes, if you have them out, they make stuff easier due to the better ressource distribution. And yes, with Ghaladrim Minstrel, I can tutor them up and have them available. But it’s a full card to play and a full ressource to spend to maybe later have benefits, whereas something like A Good Harvest will give me ressource smoothing right there and then for 0 ressources and allows me to play that card I otherwise couldn’t play due to ressource problems. Probably my play style is heavily tainted by me playing almost exclusively solo one-handed, need that iinstant impact to just get a chance to survive that encounter. Quite often there just is no time for buildup and preparation.

My absolute favorite top game that I actually play (in contrast to MTG, which is my absolute favorite game of all time, but sadly never gets played due to missing play partners). You get full pre-game deck construction with tons of viable archetypes to…