Argent: The Neutrally Balanced Arrangement of Business

re: F:AT VASSAL game 2, you know it's a strange game when we have run out neutral mages.

Yeah, that's not going to improve my bad start to this game.

Stupid sneetch machine.

Heh, bad start! I'm sitting here shaking my damn head trying to figure out how I'm going to fight you both on most of the votes I have a shot at. I forgot about the neutral school's merit badge- that was a strong opener!

Played a game with my wife this evening, she beat me again---6-6 she wins with influence tiebreak. She tends toward fast play combos and we don't play using wounding and sorcerers so that's very tough to handle. It's impossible to overstate how important influence is in this game, even if it didn't give you merit badges it's so vital for the endgame...

Did a little DIY on my Argent flags. Should probably have used yellow instead of grey or kept the cardboard bare, but the color ones really pop.

JEM wrote: Heh, bad start! I'm sitting here shaking my damn head trying to figure out how I'm going to fight you both on most of the votes I have a shot at. I forgot about the neutral school's merit badge- that was a strong opener!

Maybe it's just something about this game where you always curse what you missed. Having that phat loot has sure helped in round 2.

My biggest mistake (aside from that flat-out rules mistake while tired) was not picking a Red in the draft. That's why I'm so far behind on marks. The vault worked out pretty well for me this turn, though.

The dearth of mana is going to hurt a lot in this game for sure. I almost shanked blue out of the tower just to take the Wis+2 space so I could net 1 mana on the move.

^^My wife is now determined to make some nifty magnetic mage ownership attachments, she likes the game enough and the low visibility cardboard chits drive her crazy.

Are the figure bases large enough to use those colored rubber key caps that help differentiate keys on a key ring? Just wondering.

I'm thinking I'm going to pick this one up with some tax return money. It feels like one I want around.

This game is a real no brainer. If you know you like worker placement and you have friends who have read (and preferably like) Harry Potter you're pretty much ready to go. Helps if they like more aggressive games... but there are COPIOUS ways to defend against players using aggressive spells, mages, and vault cards.

bendgar wrote: Are the figure bases large enough to use those colored rubber key caps that help differentiate keys on a key ring? Just wondering.

I think they're a little small, but you might be able to do it.

I can't even* remember if I posted this in this topic, but I printed coloured bands on a sheet of letter sticker paper and cut out strips to put around all the bases. It works well, and I never use the tombstones at all now. I think you need to have the Mancers expansion to have enough bases for six schools** and neutral uses whatever colour hasn't been chosen. I spent $20+ on magnets and whatnot before finding out that whole option was too much of a nightmare to make it work.

*heh
** Mancers is worth it for the extra belltower card variety and the extra rooms. The game suffers if you put seven schools in the game though.

Another day, another game of Argent. I can't complain, I love the game and it has all kinds of legs. It works 2 player and is much more strategic than tactical since you can easily keep track of your opponent's capabilities.

My wife is coming around to including wounding spells in the game, which is nice. She's seeing that our games are severely favoring fast action strategies because the game is missing the ability to punish fast movers placing 3 mages on the board in a turn with late placing spells and sorcerers. It will be interesting to see if we try them out and how that goes, if we get into a board flip situation. The fact that you get a decent payoff for getting hurt makes me cautiously optimistic.

Gary Sax wrote: Another day, another game of Argent. I can't complain, I love the game and it has all kinds of legs. It works 2 player and is much more strategic than tactical since you can easily keep track of your opponent's capabilities.

My wife is coming around to including wounding spells in the game, which is nice. She's seeing that our games are severely favoring fast action strategies because the game is missing the ability to punish fast movers placing 3 mages on the board in a turn with late placing spells and sorcerers. It will be interesting to see if we try them out and how that goes, if we get into a board flip situation. The fact that you get a decent payoff for getting hurt makes me cautiously optimistic.

I've been hoping to hear a "no-board-flip-report" so I can optimistically purchase this game and play it with my wife. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you.

^game still really works if you agree not to use wounding spells/mages, fwiw. My wife loves it; I posted in the boardgames thread with a picture of her painted bases and magnets setup.