And don't forget Grow...assuming you've finally received your kickstarted copy.
Speaking of KS, I got an email saying that Millennium Blades is getting a Burgle Bros mini-expansion set of cards. I've never played MB, but if it's your jam, find the KS and get that BB sweetness!
To clarify, Millennium Blades is getting Millennium Blades cards with Burgle Bros characters on them. Not, as I had hoped, expansion cards to be used when playing BB. Still cool though.
I can't be getting into two more LCGs at this point. Plus isn't that already/going to be an app game? I'd probably do that to have some on the go options.
To pick up on this point: the digital implementation of LotR is a very different rule set to the physical game. I love the physical game and cannot stand the digital one - they gutted everything that makes it interesting to me, frankly.
In terms of the (age old?) Arkham Horror vs LotR LCG debate, I think I'm in the minority but I much prefer LotR and don't really enjoy Arkham. However, Arkham is probably the "better" game in many ways, in that you'd never doubt which of the two games had been designed after learning lessons from the development of the other. It plays more smoothly, a little more intuitively, and doesn't feel clunky in the same way that LotR does.
But... it's not a very interesting card game, imo. I've played through multiple campaigns, solo and multiplayer, with decks from all classes now, and exploring different archetypes, and not one of those player decks was one third as interesting as any of my handful of my favourite LotR decks (and I haven't even explored much of the design space in LotR because I came to it late and am playing catch up).
I don't really like Lovecraft or Tolkien, thematically, and I'm not really fussed about narrative elements, so with only the card play left LotR is a much more satisfying game for me.
Cockroach Poker is not great. Fun with kids, but it's a flat game. Skull is far better, as you not only have the tension of flipping cards, but also choosing between players to flip.
Jaipur is indeed amazing. Constant weighing up of choices and whether to gamble on your opponent or on the deck.
0
Options
Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
On the other hand cockroach poker is an amazing light bit of filler that frequently consumes a good hour as people demand further rounds
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
Cockroach Poker is not great. Fun with kids, but it's a flat game. Skull is far better, as you not only have the tension of flipping cards, but also choosing between players to flip.
Jaipur is indeed amazing. Constant weighing up of choices and whether to gamble on your opponent or on the deck.
It's okay, everyone is blatantly wrong about something at some point in their life.
Skull is great in its own right, but takes a lot more time to set up the tension each round, and doesn't have the same layer of card-counting and probabilities that Cockroach Poker brings to the table. Liar's Dice / Lie fit nicely in between the two, and all 3/4 are absolutely fantastic games.
It was...a lot of things. It was very long, even for the 'short' campaign. Supposedly 2-3 hours, we clocked nearly 6. The theme is neat, kind of a weird science with Greys, the Man in Black, and you're escaping an Area 51 type place as various characters that were taken as test subjects. It's quite fiddly, though pretty detailed. Each time you open a new room, you draw a card, which tells you how many enemies and what kind (guards, greys, mutant dogs, robots, and lizard men). Each enemy type has 7 variants with slightly different initiatives and attacks. So each time you open a room you're drawing 4-6 cards, locating the corresponding standee and initiative token, and clipping health and armor trackers to each one. Very time consuming. Each enemy has directives for each attack like "highest health", "lowest speed" etc.
It was tense and fun to start, enemy attacks can hurt real bad. But by midgame, we had good enough weapons and enough speed to usually go first, one-shot the fastest enemies, and then mop up on our way down the initiative order. I stopped with the initiative tracker tokens after a while because we'd almost always kill them first anyways. Same with the health trackers. By the end of the game our Amelia Earhart player had enough speed to almost always go first, and enough accuracy to never miss. So if he rolled good enough to go first, he'd 1 shot most enemies, except robots which are a bit tougher. But they're slow so the rest of us could do cleanup. Even bosses, which have more health and armor, didn't really challenge us. The only challenge came from a certain encounter card that managed to destroy most of our weapons.
The characters and art are good though. I played a two-headed secret agent cow that could only hold weapons with a harness item, and could be milked once per level to heal another player.
jergarmarhollow man crewgoes pew pew pewRegistered Userregular
I get that the first play of a new game will run long, but do you see a way for that game length to come down? It seems a bit strange that it ran long AND you weren't really challenged by the end of it. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine that a game starts off exciting and kind of trails off at the end.
When I was a child, I had a fever... My BoardGameGeek profile
Battle.net: TheGerm#1430 (Hearthstone, Destiny 2)
I get that the first play of a new game will run long, but do you see a way for that game length to come down? It seems a bit strange that it ran long AND you weren't really challenged by the end of it. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine that a game starts off exciting and kind of trails off at the end.
One thing we were misplaying was the item cards. For lower player counts (we had 5) it's draw 2, keep 1. We were apparently supposed to do draw 1 only. I think that inflated our power a bit. Although without it we would have been truly screwed on the weapon loss encounter. There's no way to attack without any weapon.
So that, 5 players, new players. I feel like we could knock some time off. But I was also running the initiative board really loose by the end and I know that saved some time. And the enemies were barely getting turns by the end, which would have added time if they did. Perhaps a great system for organizing the initiative tokens and standees. But it's already a really space-hungry game:
Tiny Epic Tactics went live today. It uses nesting boxes and a map scroll (which stores inside one of the boxes) to make 3D terrain and looks amazing. Not sure about actual gameplay yet but the visuals are hitting a deep itch.
Tiny Epic Tactics went live today. It uses nesting boxes and a map scroll (which stores inside one of the boxes) to make 3D terrain and looks amazing. Not sure about actual gameplay yet but the visuals are hitting a deep itch.
Yeah it's a cool gimmick but that line of games has a pretty poor track record for actually being any good
Mojo_Jojo on
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
Tiny Epic Tactics went live today. It uses nesting boxes and a map scroll (which stores inside one of the boxes) to make 3D terrain and looks amazing. Not sure about actual gameplay yet but the visuals are hitting a deep itch.
Yeah it's a cool gimmick but that line of games has a pretty poor track record for actually being any good
Galaxies is very good and the rest of them have been uninteresting to me. I did back mechs though.
I've played a couple of games that use the box as a set piece or have a bunch of smaller boxes that you put together and I find them very annoying to play with. The slightest nudge and the whole thing goes awry.
And I can't fit the punched-out map tiles back into the box. That makes me want to die.
You're better off not purchasing GLOOMHAVEN, then.
getting gloomhaven back in the box without organizers is not that bad really. maybe it doesnt close 100% but its hardly a huge issue. even with the organizer and even if you fit the map pieces in exactly like the etching says you still get a bit of a bump but again, not an issue.
With my Gloomhaven I put all the tokens in like 3 baggies, and the standees in a tuperware, and everything else just goes back where it started in the box. The box sits about 2 inches higher than it did before punching everything out but it's such a deep box that it doesn't matter much.
My brain hurts thinking about components not fitting back into the box once you punch them out.
It takes an engineering degree to get Dinosaur Island Xtreme Edition back into its box. I swear those components start breeding as soon as you take the box out of shrink wrap.
My brain hurts thinking about components not fitting back into the box once you punch them out.
It takes an engineering degree to get Dinosaur Island Xtreme Edition back into its box. I swear those components start breeding as soon as you take the box out of shrink wrap.
My brain hurts thinking about components not fitting back into the box once you punch them out.
It takes an engineering degree to get Dinosaur Island Xtreme Edition back into its box. I swear those components start breeding as soon as you take the box out of shrink wrap.
Would you say that they, uh ... find a way?
little pink plastic eggshells in the bottom of my box
dinomeeples being found in strange parts of the house
the most recent electirician to visit just up and disappeared
i tell you guys backing that kickstarter is my greatest regret
What would be the best way to find local area game testers? Use a FLGS? Facebook? Other sites? Any specific thoughts from local Seattle east side area @admanb or any other locals?
I’m still a ways off from testing so there’s no rush.
MNC Dover on
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051 Steam ID Twitch Page
0
Options
Custom SpecialI know I am, I'm sure I am,I'm Sounders 'til I die!Registered Userregular
What would be the best way to find local area game testers? Use a FLGS? Facebook? Other sites? Any specific thoughts from local Seattle east side area @admanb or any other locals?
I’m still a ways off from testing so there’s no rush.
I'm near! And there's an area Facebook group that I think includes people who might be interested in play testing (or would be about to link a test-specific group).
I thin Around the Table in Lynnwood also runs playtest (Play Test NW) days somewhat regularly.
Custom SpecialI know I am, I'm sure I am,I'm Sounders 'til I die!Registered Userregular
@MNC Dover sent you a Facebook request so I can invite you to the boardgame group.
And I found the last Playtest NW post, it runs the 3rd Saturday each month at ATT.
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Has anyone developed a more refined set of thoughts on Villainous? I quite like the theme and wonder if it's something my partner would enjoy, but the early discussions I remember seeing around here were indeed varied. Was it at least a thing where people generally felt it was decent at 3, but the rules for 4/5 made it rather painful?
What would be the best way to find local area game testers? Use a FLGS? Facebook? Other sites? Any specific thoughts from local Seattle east side area @admanb or any other locals?
I’m still a ways off from testing so there’s no rush.
The guys from Road to Infamy games do a ton of play testing at a gaming meetup at a bar. It's a big meetup - usually at least 100 people every Tuesday (it's just a regular board game meetup, not something the R2I guys put together; they show up just as much to game as they do to test). Check to see if there's something like that in your area that would be cool with you play testing.
@MNC Dover sent you a Facebook request so I can invite you to the boardgame group.
And I found the last Playtest NW post, it runs the 3rd Saturday each month at ATT.
What would be the best way to find local area game testers? Use a FLGS? Facebook? Other sites? Any specific thoughts from local Seattle east side area @admanb or any other locals?
I’m still a ways off from testing so there’s no rush.
The guys from Road to Infamy games do a ton of play testing at a gaming meetup at a bar. It's a big meetup - usually at least 100 people every Tuesday (it's just a regular board game meetup, not something the R2I guys put together; they show up just as much to game as they do to test). Check to see if there's something like that in your area that would be cool with you play testing.
Awesome. I’ll look into that as well. I probably should have mentioned that I’d have to meet up with people in the afternoons or on weekends which will probably severely limit my chances of meeting folks.
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051 Steam ID Twitch Page
Has anyone developed a more refined set of thoughts on Villainous? I quite like the theme and wonder if it's something my partner would enjoy, but the early discussions I remember seeing around here were indeed varied. Was it at least a thing where people generally felt it was decent at 3, but the rules for 4/5 made it rather painful?
The big problem with Villainous is that every player you add to the game is a straight addition to the length of the game as well. Essentially nothing is a shared moment or an overlapping experience that happens to everyone at once, and there aren't any mechanics really that quicken the pace of the game for more players. A 2 player game kind of feels like it's missing a little bit of the point, where a 4 player game can start to feel like it drags a little. A 3 player game feels good.
Other than that, if you like the theme, the game executes it wonderfully. I love a game that can illustrate its theme through mechanically forcing you into a role, and Villainous is great at that. Playing Jafar is this desperate dig through your deck, constantly sacrificing shit that could be doing more for you, just because you need that fucking lamp where is the god damned lamp. Ursula is a bit of the same hunting game, but you also have this tricky, grasping thing going on where you're spreading out trying to lock down different places at once, and playing from two different sides of the board (Ursula can change shape to allow her access to the surface world, but locking her out of her underwater lair, and you need to accomplish things in both locations). As the Queen of Hearts, you literally just want to play croquet, requiring a pretty specific board state, and everything is fucking with your deal, and you just need everyone to die for a minute so you can line your cards up properly.
Anyway there's a lot of that. The game has a lot of "take that" stuff, in fact there are whole decks of cards in the game which are almost entirely "take that" cards that other people play on you, and that's the chief mode of player interaction. I know that sort of mechanic can be a problem for people. The game can also have a bit of a kingmaker problem, and the aforementioned pacing issues with different numbers of players. Those all could be deal breakers. My group has had a lot of fun with it, anyway.
BloodySloth on
+7
Options
CaptainPeacockBoard Game HoarderTop o' the LakeRegistered Userregular
I prefer playing as Prince John and just shouting about TAXES! BEAUTIFUL LOVELY TAXES! AHA!
Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
I prefer playing as Prince John and just shouting about TAXES! BEAUTIFUL LOVELY TAXES! AHA!
There's definitely something addictive about clinking your various towers of coins as Prince John while you watch your opponents try to run their evil empires on pocket lint and prayers.
I will also add that there are some characters that are more layered than others. Like for example Ursula vs Jafar. Playing Ursula is like trying to manipulate a puzzle box, and it feels like there may be different ways to go about it, and you have different angles to take depending on your hand. Jafar is pretty much a desperate race to the bottom of his deck. I don't actually think that's a bad thing! It makes analyzing where you are compared to your opponents an interesting variable depending on who is playing what. But the fact that some characters are, by design, more strategically simple or predictable than others could sway someone one way or the other if they're on the fence about the game.
My brain hurts thinking about components not fitting back into the box once you punch them out.
It takes an engineering degree to get Dinosaur Island Xtreme Edition back into its box. I swear those components start breeding as soon as you take the box out of shrink wrap.
Would you say that they, uh ... find a way?
little pink plastic eggshells in the bottom of my box
dinomeeples being found in strange parts of the house
the most recent electirician to visit just up and disappeared
i tell you guys backing that kickstarter is my greatest regret
I’ve only played Villainous a few times but I had a good time even at 4/5 players. The only issue I had was that the afore mentioned deck digging characters have no rules on deck set up so can have a ridiculously easy or hard task depending on how deep the card they are after ends up in their deck after the initial shuffle.
Our group played Root + expansion tonight. I was the Otters, while the other players were the Lizards, the Birds, and two Vagabonds.
The Otters were fun, as everyone wanted to be on my good side, not that I had a way to stop them from buying from me if they wanted to seek me out. No one hired my soldiers as mercs, as they didn't show up in numbers that would turn the tide anywhere. The Birds overreached a lot and eventually flamed out, as they do, but had massive armies on some necessary spaces. The Lizards couldn't be stopped from spreading for some reason, but we didn't attack them much so the player didn't have acolytes to use for his schemes.
Eventually the Lizards started reaching too far and I had to stomp on some of their gardens. Meanwhile, the Vagabonds bound together to start blazing through the quests, and the rest of us realized we'd have to start hoarding the necessary item crafting cards to keep them from falling into the hands of these errant wanderers (not me, of course, as everything I had was available for sale). Luckily, the Vagabonds stalled out when neither of them were able to finish the available quests for a long time; neither of them had the two swords needed for two of the quests, and the last one needed something that wasn't available at the moment.
The Birds were trailing, but in a desperate bid showed a Fox Dominance card while laying out overwhelming armies on three of the Fox clearings (the fourth Fox clearing had been a double-Garden paradise for the Lizards, but one of the Vagabonds had burned the place to the ground as a special power, leaving it a charred wasteland). In that same turn, the Bird government collapsed, but he still had all but one of his warriors on the board, the last one being in my Otter bank.
The Lizards had a high score, but were simultaneously out of cards and out of Acolytes. There wasn't much he could do.
The Otters had the potential to win that turn, but I graciously reminded the rest that if any of my shops were destroyed I'd lose half my Funds, which would cost me the victory. At 26 points, I couldn't place the last of my shops, as it was for a Bird-owned territory Fox and I only had one Bird to spend. There weren't even enough Gardens I could have crushed for a victory, and not enough Eyries were out to stomp on.
The dark Vagabond was able to attack the Birds enough using some lucky rolls to negate their dominance in one of the important Fox regions, and then had the ability that let him fish a necessary card out of the discard pile after the Bird collapse and craft the one thing he needed to finish that elusive third quest. He was then able to complete the quest that came up to replace it, just bumping him to 30 points.
The final score ended up being 30 (dark Vagabond) / 26 (Otters) / 25 (Lizards) / 18 (light Vagabond) / 10Near Dominance (Birds).
GNU Terry Pratchett
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
@MNC Dover Tabletop design groups are everywhere. You need to join one. A cursory search reveals that Emma Larkins hosts one in your area, and you're fortunate there because she's going to be Geoff Engelstein's replacement on Ludology soon and knows her stuff.
I've mentioned before that I create puzzles and puzzle hunts for small conventions. The latest one just concluded, and some here might enjoy giving it a shot. If you have questions or want to verify answers, send me PMs so we don't spoil anyone on the answers prematurely.
Does anyone re-box games? If so what do you use? I have the Big Box v5 of Carcasonne and want to downsize it because its so much wasted space. Same for kingdom builder, but at least that has a TON of big map tiles with it.
Edit - I should specify, what do you use that fits in with other game boxes? I don't want to just shove into a random hardware store plastic container because it wont play nice with my normal game storage.
Careful cutting and taping with a sharp knife, and resize the original box cardboard. I've only done it once, but it came out ok. Didn't really care for it, so I haven't tried again.
0
Options
ChaosHatHop, hop, hop, HA!Trick of the lightRegistered Userregular
Does anyone re-box games? If so what do you use? I have the Big Box v5 of Carcasonne and want to downsize it because its so much wasted space. Same for kingdom builder, but at least that has a TON of big map tiles with it.
Edit - I should specify, what do you use that fits in with other game boxes? I don't want to just shove into a random hardware store plastic container because it wont play nice with my normal game storage.
I got this for Carcassonne and then my wife painted the score tracker onto the sliding box lid to save space. It's really nice (but kind of spendy). I really like how it separates the expansions.
Posts
To clarify, Millennium Blades is getting Millennium Blades cards with Burgle Bros characters on them. Not, as I had hoped, expansion cards to be used when playing BB. Still cool though.
To pick up on this point: the digital implementation of LotR is a very different rule set to the physical game. I love the physical game and cannot stand the digital one - they gutted everything that makes it interesting to me, frankly.
In terms of the (age old?) Arkham Horror vs LotR LCG debate, I think I'm in the minority but I much prefer LotR and don't really enjoy Arkham. However, Arkham is probably the "better" game in many ways, in that you'd never doubt which of the two games had been designed after learning lessons from the development of the other. It plays more smoothly, a little more intuitively, and doesn't feel clunky in the same way that LotR does.
But... it's not a very interesting card game, imo. I've played through multiple campaigns, solo and multiplayer, with decks from all classes now, and exploring different archetypes, and not one of those player decks was one third as interesting as any of my handful of my favourite LotR decks (and I haven't even explored much of the design space in LotR because I came to it late and am playing catch up).
I don't really like Lovecraft or Tolkien, thematically, and I'm not really fussed about narrative elements, so with only the card play left LotR is a much more satisfying game for me.
Jaipur is indeed amazing. Constant weighing up of choices and whether to gamble on your opponent or on the deck.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
This might be the first kickstarter I back, assuming they ship internationally.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
Skull is great in its own right, but takes a lot more time to set up the tension each round, and doesn't have the same layer of card-counting and probabilities that Cockroach Poker brings to the table. Liar's Dice / Lie fit nicely in between the two, and all 3/4 are absolutely fantastic games.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
It was...a lot of things. It was very long, even for the 'short' campaign. Supposedly 2-3 hours, we clocked nearly 6. The theme is neat, kind of a weird science with Greys, the Man in Black, and you're escaping an Area 51 type place as various characters that were taken as test subjects. It's quite fiddly, though pretty detailed. Each time you open a new room, you draw a card, which tells you how many enemies and what kind (guards, greys, mutant dogs, robots, and lizard men). Each enemy type has 7 variants with slightly different initiatives and attacks. So each time you open a room you're drawing 4-6 cards, locating the corresponding standee and initiative token, and clipping health and armor trackers to each one. Very time consuming. Each enemy has directives for each attack like "highest health", "lowest speed" etc.
It was tense and fun to start, enemy attacks can hurt real bad. But by midgame, we had good enough weapons and enough speed to usually go first, one-shot the fastest enemies, and then mop up on our way down the initiative order. I stopped with the initiative tracker tokens after a while because we'd almost always kill them first anyways. Same with the health trackers. By the end of the game our Amelia Earhart player had enough speed to almost always go first, and enough accuracy to never miss. So if he rolled good enough to go first, he'd 1 shot most enemies, except robots which are a bit tougher. But they're slow so the rest of us could do cleanup. Even bosses, which have more health and armor, didn't really challenge us. The only challenge came from a certain encounter card that managed to destroy most of our weapons.
The characters and art are good though. I played a two-headed secret agent cow that could only hold weapons with a harness item, and could be milked once per level to heal another player.
My BoardGameGeek profile
Battle.net: TheGerm#1430 (Hearthstone, Destiny 2)
One thing we were misplaying was the item cards. For lower player counts (we had 5) it's draw 2, keep 1. We were apparently supposed to do draw 1 only. I think that inflated our power a bit. Although without it we would have been truly screwed on the weapon loss encounter. There's no way to attack without any weapon.
So that, 5 players, new players. I feel like we could knock some time off. But I was also running the initiative board really loose by the end and I know that saved some time. And the enemies were barely getting turns by the end, which would have added time if they did. Perhaps a great system for organizing the initiative tokens and standees. But it's already a really space-hungry game:
It's got a great look though.
Bloody hell, the box is so damned huge. And I can't fit the punched-out map tiles back into the box. That makes me want to die.
You're better off not purchasing GLOOMHAVEN, then.
Yeah it's a cool gimmick but that line of games has a pretty poor track record for actually being any good
Galaxies is very good and the rest of them have been uninteresting to me. I did back mechs though.
getting gloomhaven back in the box without organizers is not that bad really. maybe it doesnt close 100% but its hardly a huge issue. even with the organizer and even if you fit the map pieces in exactly like the etching says you still get a bit of a bump but again, not an issue.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
It takes an engineering degree to get Dinosaur Island Xtreme Edition back into its box. I swear those components start breeding as soon as you take the box out of shrink wrap.
Would you say that they, uh ... find a way?
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
little pink plastic eggshells in the bottom of my box
dinomeeples being found in strange parts of the house
the most recent electirician to visit just up and disappeared
i tell you guys backing that kickstarter is my greatest regret
I’m still a ways off from testing so there’s no rush.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
I'm near! And there's an area Facebook group that I think includes people who might be interested in play testing (or would be about to link a test-specific group).
I thin Around the Table in Lynnwood also runs playtest (Play Test NW) days somewhat regularly.
And I found the last Playtest NW post, it runs the 3rd Saturday each month at ATT.
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
The guys from Road to Infamy games do a ton of play testing at a gaming meetup at a bar. It's a big meetup - usually at least 100 people every Tuesday (it's just a regular board game meetup, not something the R2I guys put together; they show up just as much to game as they do to test). Check to see if there's something like that in your area that would be cool with you play testing.
Thanks! Accepted your request.
Awesome. I’ll look into that as well. I probably should have mentioned that I’d have to meet up with people in the afternoons or on weekends which will probably severely limit my chances of meeting folks.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
The big problem with Villainous is that every player you add to the game is a straight addition to the length of the game as well. Essentially nothing is a shared moment or an overlapping experience that happens to everyone at once, and there aren't any mechanics really that quicken the pace of the game for more players. A 2 player game kind of feels like it's missing a little bit of the point, where a 4 player game can start to feel like it drags a little. A 3 player game feels good.
Other than that, if you like the theme, the game executes it wonderfully. I love a game that can illustrate its theme through mechanically forcing you into a role, and Villainous is great at that. Playing Jafar is this desperate dig through your deck, constantly sacrificing shit that could be doing more for you, just because you need that fucking lamp where is the god damned lamp. Ursula is a bit of the same hunting game, but you also have this tricky, grasping thing going on where you're spreading out trying to lock down different places at once, and playing from two different sides of the board (Ursula can change shape to allow her access to the surface world, but locking her out of her underwater lair, and you need to accomplish things in both locations). As the Queen of Hearts, you literally just want to play croquet, requiring a pretty specific board state, and everything is fucking with your deal, and you just need everyone to die for a minute so you can line your cards up properly.
Anyway there's a lot of that. The game has a lot of "take that" stuff, in fact there are whole decks of cards in the game which are almost entirely "take that" cards that other people play on you, and that's the chief mode of player interaction. I know that sort of mechanic can be a problem for people. The game can also have a bit of a kingmaker problem, and the aforementioned pacing issues with different numbers of players. Those all could be deal breakers. My group has had a lot of fun with it, anyway.
There's definitely something addictive about clinking your various towers of coins as Prince John while you watch your opponents try to run their evil empires on pocket lint and prayers.
I will also add that there are some characters that are more layered than others. Like for example Ursula vs Jafar. Playing Ursula is like trying to manipulate a puzzle box, and it feels like there may be different ways to go about it, and you have different angles to take depending on your hand. Jafar is pretty much a desperate race to the bottom of his deck. I don't actually think that's a bad thing! It makes analyzing where you are compared to your opponents an interesting variable depending on who is playing what. But the fact that some characters are, by design, more strategically simple or predictable than others could sway someone one way or the other if they're on the fence about the game.
Obligatory
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
The Otters were fun, as everyone wanted to be on my good side, not that I had a way to stop them from buying from me if they wanted to seek me out. No one hired my soldiers as mercs, as they didn't show up in numbers that would turn the tide anywhere. The Birds overreached a lot and eventually flamed out, as they do, but had massive armies on some necessary spaces. The Lizards couldn't be stopped from spreading for some reason, but we didn't attack them much so the player didn't have acolytes to use for his schemes.
Eventually the Lizards started reaching too far and I had to stomp on some of their gardens. Meanwhile, the Vagabonds bound together to start blazing through the quests, and the rest of us realized we'd have to start hoarding the necessary item crafting cards to keep them from falling into the hands of these errant wanderers (not me, of course, as everything I had was available for sale). Luckily, the Vagabonds stalled out when neither of them were able to finish the available quests for a long time; neither of them had the two swords needed for two of the quests, and the last one needed something that wasn't available at the moment.
The Birds were trailing, but in a desperate bid showed a Fox Dominance card while laying out overwhelming armies on three of the Fox clearings (the fourth Fox clearing had been a double-Garden paradise for the Lizards, but one of the Vagabonds had burned the place to the ground as a special power, leaving it a charred wasteland). In that same turn, the Bird government collapsed, but he still had all but one of his warriors on the board, the last one being in my Otter bank.
The Lizards had a high score, but were simultaneously out of cards and out of Acolytes. There wasn't much he could do.
The Otters had the potential to win that turn, but I graciously reminded the rest that if any of my shops were destroyed I'd lose half my Funds, which would cost me the victory. At 26 points, I couldn't place the last of my shops, as it was for a Bird-owned territory Fox and I only had one Bird to spend. There weren't even enough Gardens I could have crushed for a victory, and not enough Eyries were out to stomp on.
The dark Vagabond was able to attack the Birds enough using some lucky rolls to negate their dominance in one of the important Fox regions, and then had the ability that let him fish a necessary card out of the discard pile after the Bird collapse and craft the one thing he needed to finish that elusive third quest. He was then able to complete the quest that came up to replace it, just bumping him to 30 points.
The final score ended up being 30 (dark Vagabond) / 26 (Otters) / 25 (Lizards) / 18 (light Vagabond) / 10Near Dominance (Birds).
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
https://www.emmalarkins.com/seattle-tabletop-game-designers
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pqne8y4vg8w6czo/mittencon2019.pdf?dl=1
Edit - I should specify, what do you use that fits in with other game boxes? I don't want to just shove into a random hardware store plastic container because it wont play nice with my normal game storage.
I got this for Carcassonne and then my wife painted the score tracker onto the sliding box lid to save space. It's really nice (but kind of spendy). I really like how it separates the expansions.