Yeah, I can't see why Forbidden Stars would be particularly hard to teach. It even has the lovely learn to play / rules reference double manual setup
I don't think it's hard to teach, but is IS hard to learn what works. It's probably not going to click at all until a playthrough or two or three.
Good rules of thumb:
-DON'T set yourself up to get hemmed in the corner by warp storms from the start
-Beg everyone to evenly distribute the victory objectives tokens for everyone. Someone can be handed the game with easy to reach objectives right from setup.
-Better combat cards are more effective than better units. It's usually not worth it to field more advanced units until you have cards that apply to them.
Good to hear that that walkthrough works! I'm just very used to making my own flows for explanations at this point, my ideal game to teach is basically Roll for the Galaxy, where you explain how to win, and can work backwards very very smoothly through everything else in an order that makes a lot of sense. As a much bigger game with way more interacting systems it's harder. I think the hardest games I've taught thus far are Concordia and Evolution I guess? which are both way less fiddly. I'm often enmeshed in my nice, medium weight corner. But the people I'm playing with have played a lot of games, and are good friends, so luckily I've got a good audience to start with.
I guess mentally I see a lot of games like Roll and Concordia as games with very defined systems that have fairly defined interaction points, whereas forbidden stars isn't HARD necessarily, but everything touches everything everywhere, which makes the order of teaching way less direct as you circle back to ideas again and again. For example, the seemingly simple strategize action, let's you get two types of upgrade cards, that (if I'm remember right) DON'T interact with your discount tokens like the other build actions do, and those cards effect both your future orders, and combat, AND let's you get a special card of a THIRD type that will affect the board layout (warp storms) as well as either do a major thing or sit and wait for you to use it to do a major thing! But not yet! So one of the four basic moves touches on all the others, has an exception to how you'd expect something to work, and has you dealing with 3 separate resource systems. And it's very cool to have meshed systems! Just generally hard for people to learn them till they have played a bit.
Got to play Tiny Epic Galaxies for the first time tonight. Definitely fun. Friend has been in a Tiny Epic kick and picked it, Defenders, and Kingdom up recently.
Also played Tiny Epic Quest with that same friend and he bounced off pretty hard. Which stinks, because he was the last person I had to play it with as every other friend/family didn't care for it either. I tried playing solitaire but it's not as fun as playing a video game or something. Probably going to math trade it, I guess. Not the first time I math trade a game I enjoy but no one else did.
We played Wizard's Academy for the first time since getting it in 2016.
It's a fun cooperative puzzle game where you all try to save the academy from impending doom by casting spells.
At the start you don't know what spell you will cast because they are all hidden on a grid. After casting you know where it is but you have to bind it in a special room. Because all the unbound spells can get reshuffled because of disasters. There is a disaster deck that acts like a clock, so there is some pressure!
We had a lot of fun and won the tutorial with only 1 card remaining in the disaster deck. We will definitely play again.
We also played Rattus, Citadels and Dominion.
Citadels and Dominion are old favourites.
Rattus was also a first time play. I don't know if Rattus will see more plays. It was just a little to light.
I'm so hyped for Gugong (The Forbidden City). The deluxe edition could arrive at my doorstep any day now.
Also, Spirit Islandfinally clicked upon a third play through. Some of it was struggling with rules. Any character is capable of generating fear by blowing up buildings, as Fear is the only way to lighten up the win condition. One player was River, one player was Lightning, and I was Earth. I defended the land really well while the other players wrecked shit.
We generally agree that keeping track of our fast-slow resolutions was brain frying.
I don't know if it'll help you, but the best success I had with teaching Spirit Island was to explain the fast/slow dichotomy as the following:
Use your fast actions preferably to stop Builds where you can, and if not, to prevent blight this turn.
Use your slow actions to just do whatever it is your spirit wants to do. If that's use your innate, then you use your hand to just generate as much of your innate powers as you can. If your spirit is more about big powers (like Vital Strength of the Earth), then use the big powers.
Slow powers are less about being *pre* planned, and are more about just having general options for dealing with what's left after Fast + Invader actions.
Diagnosed with AML on 6/1/12. Read about it: www.effleukemia.com
Nothing very great in the ffg holiday sale this year
Like every year, it's just a "We have to get rid of this stuff" clearance sale.
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CaptainPeacockBoard Game HoarderTop o' the LakeRegistered Userregular
Got my notice that Dice Hospital is on it's way
Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
I just bought another fancy box to hold another board game.
This time, it was the new Star Realms universal storage box. I bought it because it had promos inside. I'm such a sucker. This is the THIRD box for Star Realms I've bought, just to get promos.
Having a physical copy of Brass Birmingham and watching a video tutorial made me realize why I'm doing so poorly playing the app. I'm building tall on some misguided notions when I should be building wide.
Basically, I've been unaware that flipping industries nets you income, but no points unless it sits there for the entire era. That, combined with the fact that Lvl 1 industries and canals getting wiped at the end of the era, gave me a misguided pressure to treat my flipped lvl 1s as a waste of space, immidately Developing and Overbuilding on top of them. Now I know why I end the game wealthy but in last place.
On that same note, now that I have a physical representation of how many tiles of each level industry I get, I can see that Develop is more to get the hell out of lvl 1 as soon as possible, not for jumping to Lvl 4.
3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
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38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
I got my copy and my wife and I have played the canal era and went to bed. I've just now realized that you are supposed to collect income every 2 cards played and not every 8. I was surprised how tight money was. Oops
Having a physical copy of Brass Birmingham and watching a video tutorial made me realize why I'm doing so poorly playing the app. I'm building tall on some misguided notions when I should be building wide.
Basically, I've been unaware that flipping industries nets you income, but no points unless it sits there for the entire era. That, combined with the fact that Lvl 1 industries and canals getting wiped at the end of the era, gave me a misguided pressure to treat my flipped lvl 1s as a waste of space, immidately Developing and Overbuilding on top of them. Now I know why I end the game wealthy but in last place.
On that same note, now that I have a physical representation of how many tiles of each level industry I get, I can see that Develop is more to get the hell out of lvl 1 as soon as possible, not for jumping to Lvl 4.
Birmingham has an app? Or did you mean Lancashire? (the one without the beer or pottery)
When you build over a flipper industry, you immediately lose the VP it gave you.
Don't forget that level 2-4 industries score again at the end of the canal era, essentially giving you double VP for them.
Both teams are always playing and listening to both sets of clues, you get to guess on every clue and trying for a steal is the whole game. It's more complicated and takes more data tracking but it's a better experience, I think
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Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
Lovely!
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
edited October 2018
Decrypto is great. I adore it. But it asks a lot of all players at the table where Codenames asks a lot less. Like ... it's hard to have a bad game of Codenames - someone will ultimately volunteer to play the spymaster, and if anyone fucks up you kinda just laugh about it because there's a good logic trail to unravel. With Decrypto many people will fuck up and give hints that are far too obvious their first game or two, and you can't really dodge it to say "see how it works?" because of the requirement that all players take turns giving hints. Maybe everyone will laugh it off, but it can also result in "I don't get it. It seems too easy to guess. It's boring." and at a certain point it's hard to assure everyone, "No, really, it gets better."
Yeah I enjoy Decrypto and have already given it as at least one present but Codenames edges it out from an accessibility standpoint. They are different enough that they make a good one-two punch, though.
we tried Viticulture last night and I really really enjoyed that
the whole "plant your vines - harvest your grapes - make your wine - complete your orders" loop is extremely intriguing and satisfying, we also played with the Tuscany expansion and having those two extra seasons and the influence map seems to make a big difference, it was a really really close game
Just played a Keforge demo and I had a revelation when I started my turn knowing there was nothing I could do stop my opponent from winning on his turn. Keyforge is a Euro cardgame.
While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
Just played a Keforge demo and I had a revelation when I started my turn knowing there was nothing I could do stop my opponent from winning on his turn. Keyforge is a Euro cardgame.
WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
We played Samurai Spirit twice. Two villages burned to the ground.
I also got my ass kicked in 7 Wonders, which is unusual, since it's kind of my game, but my main mistake is trying to go for my usual early military shock tactics against a Rhodos neighbor and a neighbor who will always retaliate even if it isn't in his best interests. Needless to say, arms race never ever go well. I'm not even sure if a midgame switch to more peace stuff would've worked.
I also forgot to bring out my new fancy Notre Dame game, which was a shame! I was itching to play it.
Next week we're doing a Halloween Arkham run - Elder Sign to Arkham Horror 2nd ed.
Having a physical copy of Brass Birmingham and watching a video tutorial made me realize why I'm doing so poorly playing the app. I'm building tall on some misguided notions when I should be building wide.
Basically, I've been unaware that flipping industries nets you income, but no points unless it sits there for the entire era. That, combined with the fact that Lvl 1 industries and canals getting wiped at the end of the era, gave me a misguided pressure to treat my flipped lvl 1s as a waste of space, immidately Developing and Overbuilding on top of them. Now I know why I end the game wealthy but in last place.
On that same note, now that I have a physical representation of how many tiles of each level industry I get, I can see that Develop is more to get the hell out of lvl 1 as soon as possible, not for jumping to Lvl 4.
Birmingham has an app? Or did you mean Lancashire? (the one without the beer or pottery)
When you build over a flipper industry, you immediately lose the VP it gave you.
Don't forget that level 2-4 industries score again at the end of the canal era, essentially giving you double VP for them.
The old Brass game has an app, so its the less pretty Lacanshire. I wish they would update that thing with the new Lacanshire look.
So in Birmingham, Beer has replaced Ports? That seems more fun mechanically and thematically.
Oi! We're not selling any more goods without some ale!
I actually do think Decrypto is a remarkably strong game in the team v team clues for words genre (see also Crosstalk for another gamer's game), but it can be very fragile if you have someone in your team give a single bad set of clues. With experienced players it really shines, but that also puts it on an extremely different level to Codenames. Codename's strength is that I can get anyone to play it and be reasonably sure they'll have a good time, and at no point in this equation would I be sacrificing my enjoyment, because Codenames is always good.
Decrypto ... just explaining the extremely quirky ruleset to new players give me shivers.
Decrypto is a stronger game with a more difficult rule set. The biggest strength, I think, is that it actually reduces some performance anxiety by having the teams work simultaneously and by having the timer. In my experience, rather than adding stress it lowers the bar for acceptable clues. With Codenames one spymaster can take forever coming up with the perfect clue, and everyone else is waiting... and can't really talk about the game in the meantime without spoiling things. Decrypto allows simultaneous activity, and also provides good incentives for not overcommunicating since you don't want the other team to know any more than you have to tell them.
For casual gamers I will choose Codenames. For people more used to the hobby, Decrypto.
Having a physical copy of Brass Birmingham and watching a video tutorial made me realize why I'm doing so poorly playing the app. I'm building tall on some misguided notions when I should be building wide.
Basically, I've been unaware that flipping industries nets you income, but no points unless it sits there for the entire era. That, combined with the fact that Lvl 1 industries and canals getting wiped at the end of the era, gave me a misguided pressure to treat my flipped lvl 1s as a waste of space, immidately Developing and Overbuilding on top of them. Now I know why I end the game wealthy but in last place.
On that same note, now that I have a physical representation of how many tiles of each level industry I get, I can see that Develop is more to get the hell out of lvl 1 as soon as possible, not for jumping to Lvl 4.
I mean they kind of ARE a waste of space, it's just that wasting space is generally a GOOD thing. The more space you take up with your shitty lvl 1 industries, the fewer options your opponents have that are connected to resources. You definitely want a couple lvl 2s spread throughout the board when the wipe happens, though, just to give you more locations to build out from. Coal mines are super good for this since you'll need coal access for your factories and railways anyway.
Having a physical copy of Brass Birmingham and watching a video tutorial made me realize why I'm doing so poorly playing the app. I'm building tall on some misguided notions when I should be building wide.
Basically, I've been unaware that flipping industries nets you income, but no points unless it sits there for the entire era. That, combined with the fact that Lvl 1 industries and canals getting wiped at the end of the era, gave me a misguided pressure to treat my flipped lvl 1s as a waste of space, immidately Developing and Overbuilding on top of them. Now I know why I end the game wealthy but in last place.
On that same note, now that I have a physical representation of how many tiles of each level industry I get, I can see that Develop is more to get the hell out of lvl 1 as soon as possible, not for jumping to Lvl 4.
I mean they kind of ARE a waste of space, it's just that wasting space is generally a GOOD thing. The more space you take up with your shitty lvl 1 industries, the fewer options your opponents have that are connected to resources. You definitely want a couple lvl 2s spread throughout the board when the wipe happens, though, just to give you more locations to build out from. Coal mines are super good for this since you'll need coal access for your factories and railways anyway.
With my recent enlightenment, I whipped out my Brass app. I still came in last place but I'm going to crack this game, I swear it.
Having a physical copy of Brass Birmingham and watching a video tutorial made me realize why I'm doing so poorly playing the app. I'm building tall on some misguided notions when I should be building wide.
Basically, I've been unaware that flipping industries nets you income, but no points unless it sits there for the entire era. That, combined with the fact that Lvl 1 industries and canals getting wiped at the end of the era, gave me a misguided pressure to treat my flipped lvl 1s as a waste of space, immidately Developing and Overbuilding on top of them. Now I know why I end the game wealthy but in last place.
On that same note, now that I have a physical representation of how many tiles of each level industry I get, I can see that Develop is more to get the hell out of lvl 1 as soon as possible, not for jumping to Lvl 4.
I mean they kind of ARE a waste of space, it's just that wasting space is generally a GOOD thing. The more space you take up with your shitty lvl 1 industries, the fewer options your opponents have that are connected to resources. You definitely want a couple lvl 2s spread throughout the board when the wipe happens, though, just to give you more locations to build out from. Coal mines are super good for this since you'll need coal access for your factories and railways anyway.
Cotton has the tradeoff where it's worth more VP, but less income as they level up. Same with iron, although VP is really the entire point of iron. Same with coal, but income is really the entire point of coal (in addition to map reach and railroads).
Ports are straight up better as you go up in level. The trick is their very limited number of spots, and time spent developing them is time your opponents have to grab the spots.
The only building I'd consider a waste is level 1 coal. Level 2 is much better and it's only 1 point to get it there.
I think a huge part of the game is grabbing iron spots in the canal era, especially with level 2+ ones. Trying to out maneuver other players to taking advantage of a coal path to plop one down.
The huge part of the railroad era is rails and shipyards. Rails still give the most VP for the money. I've had success focusing on nothing but iron and coal income in the canal era, then railroads and using any development chances to get level 2 shipyards.
Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
edited October 2018
Man. Separating out my Star Realms collection with the box's contents makes me realize I'm missing a lot more of Star Realms than I thought! And it also makes me wonder if my collection is "right" or not, or how to properly combine larger collections.
I personally have 2x of the base Star Realms, 1x of Colony Wars, all the Crisis packs, all four United packs, the gambit cards (before they were sold as a single item), and a bunch of promos. It seems I'm missing the command decks, and Frontiers which just came out.
... Of course, it looks like some of it was kickstarter exclusive, which... *sigh* I hate that.
I've played both and I prefer Gaia Project by far, but I know people who prefer Feast so I'm not sure if that helps much. They're pretty different, probably try to play them first and see what you prefer.
I've played both and I prefer Gaia Project by far, but I know people who prefer Feast so I'm not sure if that helps much. They're pretty different, probably try to play them first and see what you prefer.
Well knowing how my willpower is on these forums, let's just say which would you buy first haha. I was leaning toward Gaia (been in a space mood lately).
I've played both and I prefer Gaia Project by far, but I know people who prefer Feast so I'm not sure if that helps much. They're pretty different, probably try to play them first and see what you prefer.
Well knowing how my willpower is on these forums, let's just say which would you buy first haha. I was leaning toward Gaia (been in a space mood lately).
I love Feast but like Terra Mystica as well. I'd say they're comparably heavy, so it really comes down to whether you're more excited about worker placement and tableau building in a Scandinavian setting or about network and territory building in a space setting.
I've played both and I prefer Gaia Project by far, but I know people who prefer Feast so I'm not sure if that helps much. They're pretty different, probably try to play them first and see what you prefer.
Well knowing how my willpower is on these forums, let's just say which would you buy first haha. I was leaning toward Gaia (been in a space mood lately).
I love Feast but like Terra Mystica as well. I'd say they're comparably heavy, so it really comes down to whether you're more excited about worker placement and tableau building in a Scandinavian setting or about network and territory building in a space setting.
BUT I LOVE THEM BOTH! (I actually do. I loved TM as well)
Another party down a bunch of new game experiences.
Started with champions of midgard game with a co-worker who was leaving for school but had been hyped up on the idea of champions without playing it before. It came back to me pretty quickly but I ended up losing a rd1 troll fight then a mid game journey battle and that just crushed me for the rest of the game. Still enjoy it, but it's not my top pick in the "Viking Based Worker Placement Game" genre.
Then I got to play the card game version of space team and ok, that was a ton of fun. Medium with 3 was too easy. But hard with 4 was a loud and hilarious and very hectic narrow victory experience.
Then we got an 8 person game of the thing where I ended up letting the quiet guy who had been helpful all game on to the hellicopter like a humanity ending sucker. He had just never drawn a sabotage card all game so leaned into helpfulness. The game was a lot of fun and thematicly pretty perfect up to the fight over the final decision as our trust in each other being human all fell apart and we blood tested the suspicious people who were just scared humans all along.
The last game I need to mull over and haven't really reached a conclusion yet was ex libris. I barely lost due to 4 more negative points than the winner, but I spent most of the game not feeling like I made meaningful choices. And I'm not really sure why. I think I need to play it again because it's obviously very different if we don't start a game with 3 late game focused rooms and of course it would be draw dependent. I don't know. Of the worker placement games I've played it's been my least favorite. The girl who won could have triggered the end of game round one round early if I didn't fight over a space that I did, and I felt like in the last round I should have just let her end the game sooner so then I could be done playing it.
Ex libris is largely about top decking good cards and racing to place those cards faster than everyone else. It feels like they had a card game and then bolted the kinda alright worker placement stuff onto it to try to jazz it up or something. I like the game but yeah it's not a great worker placement game.
My first game of Brass: Birmingham was the shizzle.
One player had AP the whole time and ended up in last place. I was so sure this game was going to fry me mentally, but no, I was gleefully flipping cotton and iron in the beginning, but due to loans, my income was low. Seeing the end of Era scoring taught me the value of canals, and while they truly are a poor investment, seeing scoring in real life taught me that building them in the right spots can at least net you some point-splosions.
In the second half of the game I pushed to endgame leveled Cotton, Beer and Coal. Trying to pounce on the top player's need for beer, I built a single Lvl4 Brewery, but she used her husband's beer instead. I lost by approximately 10 points but with a score of 150, higher than anything I've ever achieved in the app, I was delighted.
This game is up there with Great Western Trail, which is exactly what I was looking for. High player interactivity while getting rich without being fried mentally. I wished it didn't take 3 hours due to AP though.
EDIT - Now to figure out getting a score that high in the app. I think 110 is my record....
Posts
I don't think it's hard to teach, but is IS hard to learn what works. It's probably not going to click at all until a playthrough or two or three.
Good rules of thumb:
-DON'T set yourself up to get hemmed in the corner by warp storms from the start
-Beg everyone to evenly distribute the victory objectives tokens for everyone. Someone can be handed the game with easy to reach objectives right from setup.
-Better combat cards are more effective than better units. It's usually not worth it to field more advanced units until you have cards that apply to them.
I guess mentally I see a lot of games like Roll and Concordia as games with very defined systems that have fairly defined interaction points, whereas forbidden stars isn't HARD necessarily, but everything touches everything everywhere, which makes the order of teaching way less direct as you circle back to ideas again and again. For example, the seemingly simple strategize action, let's you get two types of upgrade cards, that (if I'm remember right) DON'T interact with your discount tokens like the other build actions do, and those cards effect both your future orders, and combat, AND let's you get a special card of a THIRD type that will affect the board layout (warp storms) as well as either do a major thing or sit and wait for you to use it to do a major thing! But not yet! So one of the four basic moves touches on all the others, has an exception to how you'd expect something to work, and has you dealing with 3 separate resource systems. And it's very cool to have meshed systems! Just generally hard for people to learn them till they have played a bit.
Now where's my monocle.
Also played Tiny Epic Quest with that same friend and he bounced off pretty hard. Which stinks, because he was the last person I had to play it with as every other friend/family didn't care for it either. I tried playing solitaire but it's not as fun as playing a video game or something. Probably going to math trade it, I guess. Not the first time I math trade a game I enjoy but no one else did.
It's a fun cooperative puzzle game where you all try to save the academy from impending doom by casting spells.
At the start you don't know what spell you will cast because they are all hidden on a grid. After casting you know where it is but you have to bind it in a special room. Because all the unbound spells can get reshuffled because of disasters. There is a disaster deck that acts like a clock, so there is some pressure!
We had a lot of fun and won the tutorial with only 1 card remaining in the disaster deck. We will definitely play again.
We also played Rattus, Citadels and Dominion.
Citadels and Dominion are old favourites.
Rattus was also a first time play. I don't know if Rattus will see more plays. It was just a little to light.
I don't know if it'll help you, but the best success I had with teaching Spirit Island was to explain the fast/slow dichotomy as the following:
Use your fast actions preferably to stop Builds where you can, and if not, to prevent blight this turn.
Use your slow actions to just do whatever it is your spirit wants to do. If that's use your innate, then you use your hand to just generate as much of your innate powers as you can. If your spirit is more about big powers (like Vital Strength of the Earth), then use the big powers.
Slow powers are less about being *pre* planned, and are more about just having general options for dealing with what's left after Fast + Invader actions.
Like every year, it's just a "We have to get rid of this stuff" clearance sale.
This time, it was the new Star Realms universal storage box. I bought it because it had promos inside. I'm such a sucker. This is the THIRD box for Star Realms I've bought, just to get promos.
Basically, I've been unaware that flipping industries nets you income, but no points unless it sits there for the entire era. That, combined with the fact that Lvl 1 industries and canals getting wiped at the end of the era, gave me a misguided pressure to treat my flipped lvl 1s as a waste of space, immidately Developing and Overbuilding on top of them. Now I know why I end the game wealthy but in last place.
On that same note, now that I have a physical representation of how many tiles of each level industry I get, I can see that Develop is more to get the hell out of lvl 1 as soon as possible, not for jumping to Lvl 4.
Birmingham has an app? Or did you mean Lancashire? (the one without the beer or pottery)
When you build over a flipper industry, you immediately lose the VP it gave you.
Don't forget that level 2-4 industries score again at the end of the canal era, essentially giving you double VP for them.
I think this is a better version of Codenames.
I-impossible!
Both teams are always playing and listening to both sets of clues, you get to guess on every clue and trying for a steal is the whole game. It's more complicated and takes more data tracking but it's a better experience, I think
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
the whole "plant your vines - harvest your grapes - make your wine - complete your orders" loop is extremely intriguing and satisfying, we also played with the Tuscany expansion and having those two extra seasons and the influence map seems to make a big difference, it was a really really close game
Ah so it's like Magic.
I also got my ass kicked in 7 Wonders, which is unusual, since it's kind of my game, but my main mistake is trying to go for my usual early military shock tactics against a Rhodos neighbor and a neighbor who will always retaliate even if it isn't in his best interests. Needless to say, arms race never ever go well. I'm not even sure if a midgame switch to more peace stuff would've worked.
I also forgot to bring out my new fancy Notre Dame game, which was a shame! I was itching to play it.
Next week we're doing a Halloween Arkham run - Elder Sign to Arkham Horror 2nd ed.
The old Brass game has an app, so its the less pretty Lacanshire. I wish they would update that thing with the new Lacanshire look.
So in Birmingham, Beer has replaced Ports? That seems more fun mechanically and thematically.
Oi! We're not selling any more goods without some ale!
Decrypto ... just explaining the extremely quirky ruleset to new players give me shivers.
For casual gamers I will choose Codenames. For people more used to the hobby, Decrypto.
I mean they kind of ARE a waste of space, it's just that wasting space is generally a GOOD thing. The more space you take up with your shitty lvl 1 industries, the fewer options your opponents have that are connected to resources. You definitely want a couple lvl 2s spread throughout the board when the wipe happens, though, just to give you more locations to build out from. Coal mines are super good for this since you'll need coal access for your factories and railways anyway.
With my recent enlightenment, I whipped out my Brass app. I still came in last place but I'm going to crack this game, I swear it.
Cotton has the tradeoff where it's worth more VP, but less income as they level up. Same with iron, although VP is really the entire point of iron. Same with coal, but income is really the entire point of coal (in addition to map reach and railroads).
Ports are straight up better as you go up in level. The trick is their very limited number of spots, and time spent developing them is time your opponents have to grab the spots.
The only building I'd consider a waste is level 1 coal. Level 2 is much better and it's only 1 point to get it there.
I think a huge part of the game is grabbing iron spots in the canal era, especially with level 2+ ones. Trying to out maneuver other players to taking advantage of a coal path to plop one down.
The huge part of the railroad era is rails and shipyards. Rails still give the most VP for the money. I've had success focusing on nothing but iron and coal income in the canal era, then railroads and using any development chances to get level 2 shipyards.
(has anyone ever built level 1 shipyards???)
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2083654/photos-all-age-and-i-leaders-and-wonders-expansion
Fwah.
I personally have 2x of the base Star Realms, 1x of Colony Wars, all the Crisis packs, all four United packs, the gambit cards (before they were sold as a single item), and a bunch of promos. It seems I'm missing the command decks, and Frontiers which just came out.
... Of course, it looks like some of it was kickstarter exclusive, which... *sigh* I hate that.
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
Well knowing how my willpower is on these forums, let's just say which would you buy first haha. I was leaning toward Gaia (been in a space mood lately).
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
I love Feast but like Terra Mystica as well. I'd say they're comparably heavy, so it really comes down to whether you're more excited about worker placement and tableau building in a Scandinavian setting or about network and territory building in a space setting.
BUT I LOVE THEM BOTH! (I actually do. I loved TM as well)
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
Started with champions of midgard game with a co-worker who was leaving for school but had been hyped up on the idea of champions without playing it before. It came back to me pretty quickly but I ended up losing a rd1 troll fight then a mid game journey battle and that just crushed me for the rest of the game. Still enjoy it, but it's not my top pick in the "Viking Based Worker Placement Game" genre.
Then I got to play the card game version of space team and ok, that was a ton of fun. Medium with 3 was too easy. But hard with 4 was a loud and hilarious and very hectic narrow victory experience.
Then we got an 8 person game of the thing where I ended up letting the quiet guy who had been helpful all game on to the hellicopter like a humanity ending sucker. He had just never drawn a sabotage card all game so leaned into helpfulness. The game was a lot of fun and thematicly pretty perfect up to the fight over the final decision as our trust in each other being human all fell apart and we blood tested the suspicious people who were just scared humans all along.
The last game I need to mull over and haven't really reached a conclusion yet was ex libris. I barely lost due to 4 more negative points than the winner, but I spent most of the game not feeling like I made meaningful choices. And I'm not really sure why. I think I need to play it again because it's obviously very different if we don't start a game with 3 late game focused rooms and of course it would be draw dependent. I don't know. Of the worker placement games I've played it's been my least favorite. The girl who won could have triggered the end of game round one round early if I didn't fight over a space that I did, and I felt like in the last round I should have just let her end the game sooner so then I could be done playing it.
One player had AP the whole time and ended up in last place. I was so sure this game was going to fry me mentally, but no, I was gleefully flipping cotton and iron in the beginning, but due to loans, my income was low. Seeing the end of Era scoring taught me the value of canals, and while they truly are a poor investment, seeing scoring in real life taught me that building them in the right spots can at least net you some point-splosions.
In the second half of the game I pushed to endgame leveled Cotton, Beer and Coal. Trying to pounce on the top player's need for beer, I built a single Lvl4 Brewery, but she used her husband's beer instead. I lost by approximately 10 points but with a score of 150, higher than anything I've ever achieved in the app, I was delighted.
This game is up there with Great Western Trail, which is exactly what I was looking for. High player interactivity while getting rich without being fried mentally. I wished it didn't take 3 hours due to AP though.
EDIT - Now to figure out getting a score that high in the app. I think 110 is my record....