Lets Talk: Cyclades / Kemet

Mmmmmmm....baked finish.

I haven't played Cyclades but once. Kemet I have lots of experience with though.

Kemet is super aggressive and the only people left behind in the race for points are those who don't realize this. It's a mistake you don't make twice. The game is mostly just everyone attacking anyone for whatever points they can get. You can, with clever power tile selection, play a more defensive game if you want.

I think the power tiles are the best part of the game and any analysis that doesn't include them is pretty much worthless. After all every army is identical from the get go, it's only the power tiles that differentiate them from one another.

Yes, it does almost always feel very close, but in my experience the best player usually still wins. I say usually because despite what some people think there is a small dose of luck in Kemet. A lot of it is timing though. It makes sense to me, thematically, that people are all pretty close by games end. In this way I don't see it as a fault. The only fault with it for me, and the main reason it isn't as good as Nexus Ops, is that the game gives me very little to do. With no secret objectives or different units all I can really do is attack or buy power tiles, all other activities are pretty much just things you need to do to get one of those two things done.

I hate to say this, I really do, but Kemet needs an expansion to realize it's full potential and that expansion will help me decide if it's a keeper for me or not. I think it's good for about 30 or so plays before it will become too dull. It's a great game, but it's not a genre defining game like Nexus Ops.

Both Kemet and Cyclades look like great games, but JJ, you bring up a good point. Do either dethrone Nexus Ops? Cyclades I've played but I think it is too mechanic focused. Kemet looks vastly more appealing, but it seems like there's more fuss than might be worth it.

If I already have Nexus Ops, what are the reasons to also own Cyclades and/or Kemet?

Yeah, they both seem good but too short. I'd rather play Nexus Ops.

VonTush wrote: If I already have Nexus Ops, what are the reasons to also own Cyclades and/or Kemet?

Five players? That's the reason I'm keeping it for now.

I'm going to get Kemet because it's 5 players. Otherwise Nexus Ops will hit the table. I also see a Kemet expansion was announced.

I definitely don't class CYCLADES and NEXUS OPS together. (I haven't played KEMET). They do not play similarly at all to me. NEXUS OPS is very much a grindy game. I saw on the other thread JonJacobdragonstout noting that CYCLADES has a "second-attack-wins" problem, but I disagree. It usually has a why-didnt-I-think-of-that-first-attack win.

I've had wins by winning Ares and rolling well. Boring. I've had wins by winning Athena, buying a second philosopher, stealing a third philosopher (for my fourth) and using the Kraken to blow up ships that would have let Ares attack that newly dropped metropolis. I've had wins by winning Zeus and digging for Chimera so I could copy Pegasus to conquer a distant, poorly defended metropolis. All kinds of things can happen besides the obvious. The importance of the order of the gods is overlooked by a lot of players--having first shot at the Monsters is a big deal.

Compared to NEXUS OPS, it's practically cerebral.

jeb wrote: I saw on the other thread JonJacob noting that CYCLADES has a "second-attack-wins" problem, but I disagree. It usually has a why-didnt-I-think-of-that-first-attack win.

I did no such thing. Must be someone else. All I really said is that I don't have enough experience with the game to comment. Which is true.

Oops, sorry JonJacob! Mixed your comment up with dragonstout's. Apologies.

jeb wrote: Oops, sorry JonJacob! Mixed your comment up with dragonstout's. Apologies.

And I was saying that I'm generally SKEPTICAL of claims of a "second attack wins" problem. In Cosmic, I hear this claimed a lot, but it's a problem with players having bad strategy / lack of foresight, not a problem with the game.

Legomancer was the one saying Cyclades has a "second attack wins" problem; I was defending against this claim.

hotseatgames wrote: I'm going to get Kemet because it's 5 players. Otherwise Nexus Ops will hit the table. I also see a Kemet expansion was announced.

Shit, you're right. I'll be keeping an eye out for that.

boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/161842/kemet-ta-seti

If you've got 5 just play el grande

Since I just got Cyclades I can't comment on the game yet.

I've probably played the same number of games of Nexus Ops as Kemet in the last three months or so, somewhere between 5 and 10, so by no means am I experienced at either game.

My last Nexus Ops game pissed me off really good. Despite superior forces I couldn't roll greater than a 3 for most of the game in any battle. It was basically the worst dice rolling I've done in a long time and I'm a little turned off from dice driven battles. At the end of the two player game I had 1 VP it was so bad.

Kemet eliminates that in the battle system, but is really a completely different game. I don't think I would ever try and compare the two or state that one will replace the other. Kemet doesn't have front lines to defend or any hidden information that can swoop in and finish the game suddenly - instead its all open information (except for the DI cards) and very calculating. I wouldn't want to pick one game over the other, they both are alot of fun for me for different reasons.

I flogged off Cyclades. I did find in the games that i played a couple of players didn't interact much and just turtled / built their way to victory. I appreciate this can be countered but due to table politics / auction success this never happened. My bigger issue with it is that i just didn't find it that satisfying. I found getting in position to launch a big attack too much effort. It often took too many turns and if some player realized what i was planning they'd bid me up a lot.

I really like Kemet because of how attack-oriented it is. Problem is, the learning curve is steep because of the need to either know the tiles or spend a lot of time reviewing them, so the very fast game can lead to AP pretty quickly. Still, it's staying in the collection. I've only played Cyclades once and liked it. I think either of them are superior to Nexus Ops, of which I've never been a huge fan.