Opinionated Gamers Spiel Want Lists Part 3

Posted on October 18, 2020 by lornadune

Larry’s Top Essen Wants

1. Anno 1800 – Wallace’s economic designs are often great and the previews of this sound extremely good. I’m really looking forward to this one.

2. Alma Mater – The same designers and publisher that brought us Coimbra. Possibly overwrought, but the player-driven economic system could make this very good.

3. Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 – A no-brainer after I enjoyed the first two seasons so much. I’m a little wary of the Cold War theme, but I have faith that Leacock and Daviau will give us another great ride.

4. Golem – When will this come out? There’s still so little info on this, but given the designers and that it’s based on the concepts of the great Grand Austria Hotel, I gotta rank it highly.

5. Bonfire – A meaty Feld is always worth checking out. The theme is nonsense and there may be too much going on, but I like the central mechanic and early ratings are very good.

6. Viscounts of the West Kingdom – Paladins of the West Kingdom was excellent and this looks to be of a similar weight. I liked what I saw in the online rules.

7. The Castles of Tuscany – Simpler than Castles of Burgundy, but I like that you can tailor your strategy to some extent. Looks like a good game to play with my daughter.

8. Beyond the Sun – Some very interesting looking elements, although much will depend on how varied the technologies are. Could be quite meaty. Rio Grande is back, baby!

9. Faiyum – Friese’s ideas are always fascinating, but the games often lack replayability. This has a good chance of being an exception.

10. Hallertau – Played the prototype as a solo game and there’s a lot to like. But will the necessary look-ahead be too much in a multiplayer environment?

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Subatomic: An Atom Building Game: A Review

Posted on October 17, 2020 by RJ Garrison

Designer:  John J. Coveyou

Publisher:  Genius Games

Players:  2-4

Playing Time:  40-60 minutes

Ages:  14+

MSRP: $39.99

http://www.geniusgames.org

Review copy provided by Genius Games

When deck builders (Dominion, Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game and the like) were becoming popular I tried a number of them, but never felt like I was doing anything meaningful in the game.  Pick up some cards, put down some cards.  I kind of thought to myself, This is apparently not a mechanic I enjoy. Don’t get me wrong.  It’s a solid mechanic and is extremely popular within the gaming community.  It just didn’t click with me and so I didn’t embrace the concept.  I never did poorly when playing deck building games, but I just didn’t feel like I was really making any meaningful decisions (I want to buy as many of those 2 types of cards and then VP cards to win the game.) Draw 5, play 5, draw 5, play 5.  Then I was introduced to Fantastiqua by Alf Seegert.  Boom!  I found a deck builder I enjoy!  He added a little puzzle to the game that takes place in a clever fantasy world and I was in.

Introduce Subatomic: An Atom Building Game by Genius Games.  A deck building game where you get to do some particle physics and make atoms and elements without having to wear all the sweaty hazmat gear that make your glasses fog up!  Add some up quarks with some down quarks or gamma rays together and create protons, neutrons and electrons!  Add those together and create some elements.  Is it magic?  No!  It’s Science!

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Dale Yu: First Impressions of The Apocalypse of Darkness Warfare

Posted on October 17, 2020 by Dale Yu

 The Apocalypse of Darkness Warfare

  • Designer: Chih-Fan Chen
  • Publisher: Antler Studio
  • Players: 3-4
  • Age: 12+
  • Time: 30 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by Taiwan Boardgame Design (who distributes the game)

Chih-Fan Chen is one of my favorite Taiwanese designers – while possibly unknown to many Western gamers… I have enjoyed Butts away! Heroes, Dairyman, Design Town, Flip 9, Flip City, Fortune City, Harvest Island, PaiMiahh, and UBike Tour: Taiwan in the past.  That’s a pretty lengthy list!  Each year, around SPIEL, I’m almost assured of getting one game from this prolific designer.

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Opinionated Gamers Spiel Want Lists part 2

Posted on October 17, 2020 by lornadune

Lorna’s Top Essen Wants in no particular order

Renature – I’ve demoed this game at Camp Capstone, fun tile placement game. It’s rather abstract but interesting in a puzzly good way.

Bonfire – I’ve demoed the game on Tabletopia and yes it’s one of Feld’s complex monstrosities but I like it. Lots of choices with each turn.

Cloud Age – Maricaibo fell flat for me but I’m still interested in Pfister games

Lost Ruins of Arnak – Had a rules explanation at Castle Tricon but technical difficulties kept me from playing. Sounds a bit like Quest for El Dorado which is a favorite but this one adds some other mechanisms. Looks good.

Praga Caput Regni – Looks like a nice game on the higher complexity scale.

Hallertau – sure what’s one more Uwe?

Beez – Liked Azul but not Reef. Hope this one makes the cut

Faiyum – sounds like an interesting deckbuilder

Beyond the Sun – Sounds like an interesting game from Rio Grande with tech and worker placement also always fond of space themes

Any Exit games

(Under Falling Skies – this would have been on my list but I wasn’t really interested in the campaign and I wanted a smaller box so I made my own PnP which I am very happy with, really tense little dice game)

(Fogsite – which I already have – it’s a one vs many game. One player is the guardian who makes the maze and the other 3 players try to deduce their way out. I’d order it if I didn’t already own it)

Kickstarters and Essen

Macaroon – like the theme, looks like a cute card game. Looks like it will be a KS for later but being demoed this year

Paris – had kickstarted was/is supposed to release at this year’s Essen, K&K always worth checking out, initially I thought of Porta Nigra because of the round board but this one is tile placement which I like


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Opinionated Gamers Spiel Want Lists

Posted on October 16, 2020 by lornadune

October normally brings the excitement of new games from Spiel and Dale’s food lists but this year we will miss some of that. So let’s talk about SPIEL.digital and what might be found there. The Opinionated Gamers will present their lists of games they’d be chasing down in Essen at spiel in virtual mode over the next few days.

First up is Mark’s Top 10


GAMES

#10 Meeple Land – It doesn’t matter how many times I’m disappointed… I’m an easy mark for amusement park themed games.

#9 CloudAge – Some Pfister designs are too clunky… but I’ve loved both Expedition to Newdale and Blackout Hong Kong, so I’m looking forward to this one.

#8 The Few and the Cursed – Post-apocalyptic faux RPG board gaming? With cool minis and a new world to explore? Count me in.

#7 Faiyum – Friedemann’s bad ideas are interesting… his good ideas are fascinating games. Faiyum’s take on deck-building interests me.

#6 Monster Expedition – Another Pfister design that’s received some good buzz… and thematically it’s right in my wheelhouse.

#5 Cloud City – I like the spatial element of the game… and Phil Walker-Harding has been a hit with a number of different games in my family.

#4 Super Skill Pinball: 4-Cade – Not exactly fair, as I already have a copy… but this roll’n’write perfectly captures the feel of pinball.

#3 Warp’s Edge – Another game I have in hand (thanks to Kickstarter) – a really enjoyable solo bag-builder that harkens back to Space Invaders and other old-skool alien attack video games. (My review here on the OG was just published!)

#2 Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 – I have to know how it started… and I get to be a spy? The first two installments were amazing, so this is an instant buy for me.

#1 Lost Ruins of Arnak  – I love almost all of CGE designs… and this deck-builder/exploration game is the thing I’m most excited to play!

EXPANSIONS

  • 7 Wonders Duel: Agora
  • The Quacks of Quedlinburg: The Alchemists
  • Monolith Arena: The Golems
  • Tobago: Volcano
  • Clank!: Adventuring Party

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Warp’s Edge: A Solo Gamer Review

Posted on October 16, 2020 by Mark Jackson

In one of those weird twists of fate, I love board and card games with a science-fiction theme… but I don’t read a lot of science fiction books any more. (Back in high school, I devoured the first three Dune novels and huge swaths of Asimov and Heinlein… but that was approximately 40 years ago… or 21+ years on Mars.)

But, like I said, I love me some sci-fi board gaming… as my top 50 games (posted earlier this year on my personal blog) make abundantly clear:

One fifth of my list is sci-fi games… and that doesn’t even count Baseball Highlights 2045 (robots playing baseball) or Heroscape (since it’s a mish-mash of genres/tropes).

Between my sons and I, our house is filled with games about terraforming planets, fighting off alien hordes, asteroid mining, building space stations… and, probably the category with the most cash invested, fighting battles in the inky void of outer space. *

Enter Warp’s Edge from Renegade Games and the tiny epic mind of designer Scott Almes. Warp’s Edge is a solo bag-building game that harkens back to the “lone spaceship against a horde of invaders” video games of my youth. 

And it does it with style.

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