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Lets Talk: Cyclades / Kemet

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11 Jul 2014 16:33 #182056 by OldHippy

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

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11 Jul 2014 18:04 #182062 by Bull Nakano
If you've got 5 just play el grande

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11 Jul 2014 19:11 #182063 by Scott_F
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.

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11 Jul 2014 19:58 #182069 by DukeofChutney
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.

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11 Jul 2014 21:48 #182076 by Jackwraith
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.

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12 Jul 2014 00:42 #182078 by VonTush
These last few posts I think really touches on the biggest deterrent for me with getting either Cyclades or Kemet on the table...Both games are likely better designs but my gaming situation sees a lot of rotation. That's the downside of playing in a game shop, everyone always has something new to try.

And a game like Nexus Ops is very transparent and intuitive rules-wise. Meaning I'll usually be able to bust out satisfying games right off the bat before the attention deficit gamers move onto the next game.
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12 Jul 2014 21:45 #182125 by Delobius
Kemet is a shitty euro masquerading as a seemingly-fun DoAM/conquest game.

It seems all super aggressive and shit (the logo is ON FIRE for chrissakes), but in reality there's no randomness at all and you could basically script your moves before the game starts. Also, going last is a serious advantage and basically guarantees a win during late game.

I had a few really bad games of it and the scales really fell from my eyes, I guess.

Cyclades is OK.
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13 Jul 2014 10:19 #182135 by SuperflyPete
superflycircus.com/2010/10/cyclades-crea...n-two-hours-or-less/

Yeah, I have my own "actual" site now, not just Blogger, because FUCK BLOGGER.

Cyclades is a nearly perfect DOAM. Different paths to victory, enough random to make it not feel Euro, and a ton of variety when it comes to each individual session. I've heard people say it's samey each time and I just don't see that. I suspect if you're playing with the same people all the time they always use their go-to strategy but I rarely play "my strategy" as much as "what will work based on the first 4 turns, which kind of set the pace." To me, it's all attacking all the time, if you're doing it right. I beat down everyone while trying to do what Jeb said - sneaky-bastard win, either through Athena/Philosopher, or via military feints and "agreements" that I may or may not keep.

If you're playing a DOAM and not making potentially lying treaties and/or agreements, you're playing them wrong. EVERY SINGLE GAME, I keep pencils and post-its (we don't allow phones at the table) so that every person can pass notes, make secret pacts, etc. Part of the fun is reading them aloud at the end. This is what makes DOAM's fun - every game has negotiation in it.

The last time I played Ikusa, there were like 30 notes passed, and I'm the one who usually passes notes that say "hey, what are you doing Friday" instead of "Let's join forces and attack Blue for the next 3 turns, at which time we'll re-evaluate our alliance". It keeps the other players who SEE me passing notes guessing.

We have a "NO SNOWDEN" agreement too - no telling other people what the alliance is unless both parties agree. If a person does SNOWDEN an agreement, they are generally immediately deemed untrustworthy and are ganged up on with the sole goal of eliminating/marginalizing them.

Our shit be CUT-THROAT!
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18 Jul 2014 20:30 #182542 by Malygris

SuperflyTNT wrote: If you're playing a DOAM and not making potentially lying treaties and/or agreements, you're playing them wrong. EVERY SINGLE GAME, I keep pencils and post-its (we don't allow phones at the table) so that every person can pass notes, make secret pacts, etc. Part of the fun is reading them aloud at the end. This is what makes DOAM's fun - every game has negotiation in it.


That is a really good idea. I'm going to do that from now on. For every game!

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18 Jul 2014 22:04 #182545 by SuperflyPete
The best part is when you intentionally fuck people over by note-passing. My favorite:

"Hey, you see that castle/pawn/marker over there? I think it looks like a buttplug/beetle/caterpillar! Take a look!" and then they look at it intensely and unintentionally blurt out "What the fuck are you talking about?" or some such thing. Then everyone's sitting there wondering what you were talking about, planning, plotting...it's awesome to mind-fuck people.
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