Category: Syndicated

by TheGargoyle
Gandalf leaves at the end of your round, not phase.

by TheGargoyle
Saucerboy wrote:I really don’t understand the marketing behind this gameWhat marketing?

**VivaJava: the coffee game: the dice game**. Essentially topple the box over and start playing 😉 (ok, a bit more to it, but really fast setup and great when not on mental tops, because you can just play it as a fun dice chucker – but still can go int…

by TheGargoyle
we just play it semi-coop: if the thunderstone bearer gets out, we all lose. so to win, you have to take him out. this is a good limiting factor as well for a runaway leader: he will have to take care of the thunderstone bearer, becau…

When playing at the pub, we usually play to 10 VP, too. Enough time to get the game really going, but over in short enough time to not overstay its welcome.

Since you like Dominion and Ascension, how about **Paperback**? Deck building with letters to make words to score points. It is my wife’s favourite and plays great with just two, but plays up to 5 without problems, either. For worker placement our go t…

My favorite for solo play is **Lord of the Rings, the card game** – does the combat a d campaign (with the saga expansions) quite well, I think. But you might want to look into war games, too. Especially Dan Verssen Gamrs does some great solo games, fo…

I recently played **Progress: Evolution of technology** with my wife and we really liked it. She is in the same “no fantasy, no scifi” camp, so I always am on the lookout for good games with realistic themes. Progress worked great theme-wise and I thought it has quite a bit of strategy in it. Game went about 2.5 hours, but that was a lot due to first-play – I am sure a more realistic number after a few plays will be 1.5 hours. It has a great tableau building mechanic going, and comes with a few small expansions in the box (only played the fourth era, didn’t try the other stuff). The tech tree you are building has great pllayer aids, so even someone not too deep into the game has all relevant information available. And we thought it played great with just 2, even though ut is not designed for just 2 (actually can play up to 5).

German countryside. Close to the dutch border, but the region East-Frisia (where the town of Arle is located) is Germany.

well, I don’t build decks specially for each mission – I build good decks that function well with many missions, maybe not every mission, because my decks often are thematic. The really great thing about LOTR is that you get so varying scenarios – so y…

yep. It will go away when Elrond goes away, though, so I don’t think it is efficient use of your cards. Not only do you need both Elrond and Viliya in your hand, you need to have the ressources to play them, too. And there needs to be a card on your de…

why do you think LOTR:LCG isn’t it? I think it ticks all your checkboxes.

Lore Faramir will have to move aside for Lore Damrod in my ranger traps deck – will be tons of fun. Traps will get really interesting.

by TheGargoyle
wow, I love every single one of those cards. My ranger trap deck (mono lore) will be very happy, as will my Treebeard-Hobbit deck!

Sadly I have it for over a year but never got it to the table – with it being english, there is no way for me to play it with my wife and it is a bit too heavy weighted to be played at the pub. I love the theme and the idea of the skirmishing and actua…

I am one of the weirdos who actually really likes **Shadowrun: Crossfire**, it is my highest rated deck builder. I love the very quick setup and teardown and the really streamlined play. And the brutalness of the crossfire deck. Next is **Paperback**, …

Yeah, I play sometimes on Magic Online, but my card collection there is much smaller and I am reluctant to put the same effort in a digital card collection as I put into physical cards. I do have the 2013 and 2014 Duels, but both are not great if you w…

Quite a nice week for me (and I even skimped on a few plays that I had planned): **Warfighter** came on the table again and still keeps me highly entertained. Still would like this to be more fantasy or scifi themed, but due to the great entertaining f…

**Warfighter: the tactical special forces game** – I rated it a 9, BGG a 6.1. And my biggest negative is **Assault on Doomrock** which I rate a 2 but BGG rates a 6.0.

well, the thing is: the first edition of Shadowrift is a bit long during the middle game. You have a nice ramp up at the start, so that part is fun and risky, but then you get to a plateau where you actually overpower the monsters and mostly wait for t…

by TheGargoyle
Count me in as another one usually playing thematic mode. Encounters in later cycles got damn hard, so starting with Heirs of Numenor, I’m allmost always play on easy. That gives me the chance to build decks that I like, thematically,…

you can play a deck builder variant: place a selection of basic actions and heroes in the center “village” with dice on them (4-6) and all players can buy from that central pool. Kinda turn it into Dice Dominion. The rest of the game plays the same. Benefit: no deck building before the game and everybody sees everything that is available this game. Downside: Spiderman fighting Spiderman can get awkward 😉

Elder Sign isn’t really “meaty” – many people call it cthulhu-yatzee and it is not totally off to call it that, because most of what you do is “go there, roll dice, see results”. Don’t get me wrong, it is quite a bit of fun, at least for me and my wife, but it is really not that meaty, even with expansions. And all elements in it are really references to Arkham Horror and Eldritch Horror games (same investigators, lots of general ideas the same). I mean, when it came out, people called it Arkham Horror, the Dice Game, too. You probably are better off with something like Cthulhu Wars (I am myself tempted for backing it in onslaught 2 because of those crazy miniatures) or maybe switching to a different monster-cosmos and getting Chaos in the Old World. Oh, and there is a cthulhu expansion for Hornet Leader, if you are into atom bombing GOOs 😉

by TheGargoyle
defensiveian wrote:and FFG haven’t tended to repeat Ally/Hero characters in spheres so far.Legolas, Elrond, Beorn, Gloin, Haldir, Bifur, Bombur, Dwalin and Gandalf beg to differ 😉

I usually control three, as that feels the right compromise of fiddly vs. getting overpowered. But people pkay it with two runners, too – most notably rahdo, for example. Only one runner won’t work.

Shadowrun: Crossfire might appeal to you. It feels quite legacy-like due to the fact that when you gain karma (in-game currency for buying upgrades), you put stickers on your character sheet. And the game itself has the nice benefit of being fast to setup and tear down. But be warned that the game play itself is “just” a deck builder. So some people feel it is too repetetive and there is no specific story-driven part in the game. There are different scenarios (some fan-created and some official add-on scenarios as downloads, too) that give the game a slightly different feel, but in the end the way you fight is allways the same and the obstacle and event decks are allways the same. If you want to have a more campaign-feel with regards to obstacles and events, probably Pathfinder ACG is the better choice.

Heh, it is awesome, yes. Journey down the Anduin is one of my favorite quests up to this day, I think it has a nice variety and nice pace. And is far less fiddly than some of the stuff in the ringmaker cycle (I really don’t like the “time” mechanic there). Anduin and some of the Khazad Dhum cycle stuff are what I come back to every time.

Hmm, could be fun. Waiting for more details, though, they did have kinda a dud with Tiny Epic Defenders.

by TheGargoyle
Just recently got into wargames, because there are quite a bunch that can be played solo. This month I got this one, because it is about a time in history that really fascinates me.

In addition to your points (except that family thing – no kids here and my wife slowly gets into gaming herself), for me it is my eyes and my back and arms. I work at the computer long hours and playing board games is just much more relaxing for me. Su…