The Opinionated Gamers

Dale Yu: Review of Big Viking Mats (Accessory)

So, let me start by explaining my “Regular” game group.  This group meets once a week in my basement, and we usually get four to five hours of gaming in.  Over the years, this group has evolved into a small intimate group – there are only five people on the usual email list.  The reason for this is pretty simple – by keeping the group small, we never have more than one table’s worth of gamers at this group.  We all get together, pick a game, sit around the one table in my basement and have fun.

I have really grown to like this situation.  Everyone in our group likes each other. No one takes overly long to make a move.  Everyone is willing to try any game at least once – which is awesome, because there are always new games to be played around here! Continue reading →

Now I’m Done With Seafall …

… I guess I can let loose on what I think about the game. Our party of 4 has finished the campaign, taking (the roughly expected) 14 games to do so. For fear of accidentally coming across spoilers or reading something that might have given me an advantage over the other players, I haven’t been reading reviews or visiting any Seafall fora other than FAQ (and now we’re done, I have no need) so I have little idea what the reception for the game has been in general. But this is our take.

Warning: This article will reference unlocks that are obvious from looking at the initial board and rules, but not those that aren’t obvious, and I will talk about how the strategic approaches evolved throughout the campaign. If you want to play (or continue to play) an uninfluenced campaign, read no further. If you want more information before committing, this will give you a sense of where the campaign will take you and the potentially winning strategies, but without revealing any big surprises. Continue reading →

In my last column, I talked about the newly published games I played at the recently completed Gathering of Friends. This time, I’ll comment on the new-to-me games released in the past couple of years. Not all of these games have gotten wide exposure, so this may help some of you decide if you want to pursue them. Once again, I’ll list the games in order of most to least preference and the number in parentheses following the title is how many times I played it during the week.

Madeira (1) – This is an older title (2013), but I wanted to mention it to thank someone. I had played Madeira soon after its release, but we struggled with the rules and the whole thing seemed hopelessly complicated. Consequently, I had given up on it. However, one day I bumped into an attendee named Wolfgang Dostmann, who asked if I wanted to play it. His rules explanation was much clearer and I wound up enjoying it a lot. So that chance meeting led to the resurrection of a good game. Thanks, Wolfgang!

Habitats (2) – Corné van Moorsel has been publishing games through his company Cwali for almost 20 years and I’ve been a fan of his for much of that time. They’re usually clever and almost always have a different feel. Habitats is no different. The players are constructing wildlife parks in their personal displays. Each animal in the park needs to be surrounded by specific types of terrain in order for them to be happy (and to score you points). The tiles you acquire show an animal, along with a kind of terrain, which can be used to satisfy the requirements of other animals. Tiles are drafted by moving through a common display and your opponents frequently get in the way. It’s a nice puzzle, with a reasonable amount of player interaction, which doesn’t overstay its welcome. Another solid effort from Corné. Continue reading →