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Lets Discuss A Study In Emerald

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28 Apr 2016 08:59 - 28 Apr 2016 08:59 #226642 by charlest
I played this for the first time last night (2nd edition) and was thoroughly disappointed. Hidden teams, assassinations, Elder Gods, Sherlock Holmes, Area Control, Deck Building, Nebulous Scores, the Few Acres of Snow two action sequence. Sounds so great. Everyone who shares similar taste with me loves this game.

But it just didn't work for me.

Barnes did remark that it got better for him with more plays so maybe that will happen with me. I'm certainly willing to play it again.

What I didn't like was that the deck building was so very slow. This was exacerbated by having five players (3 being new to the game although not prone to AP) and it feeling very slow. The area control was fine but I didn't like how damn long it takes to get influence out on the board.

You're stuck in the sluggish cycle of buy a card, return influence to limbo. Play an action to get influence back. Play an action to place influence. Hope you have the most and play an action to get a card. Repeat.

Deck building with area control elements sounds great but it felt like a weak deck builder and it felt like a weak area control game. It certainly didn't come together to be greater than the sum of its parts.

Additionally, it all felt very bland. Not a lot of spice or interesting little twists. Everything very straightforward and direct. The only thing really cool was the hidden teams but I felt like that didn't have as much of an impact on the game as I'd like either. I didn't feel like I could really prop up a teammate who wasn't doing well, I could really just avoid assassinating them.

I think it's possible I'd like first edition more but I will never get that opportunity so that kind of sucks.

We played Spartacus right after this and it was like night and day. Theokoles taking down the Thing From The Pit, people shouting and betting, chanting in unison for decapitation. A Study In Emerald - I was glad it only lasted about an hour and a half.
Last edit: 28 Apr 2016 08:59 by charlest.
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28 Apr 2016 09:05 #226644 by Chaz
I've only played the first edition, so maybe some of this stuff is different in the second edition. Were you guys playing multiple cards on an action? Doing that, it usually felt like I could build up a pretty good stock of influence cubes relatively quickly, and then could get them out where I needed them quickly too. There are also enough cards that let you get/place/move influence cubes as free actions that after a few turns, things were moving around at a good clip.

The first edition also has you moving around the map, and later in the game, that becomes a bigger deal.

I mean, Emerald is never going to have the same feel as Spartacus, but it's far from bland. Hell, I had one game that turned into a zombie control game halfway through. If you want to try the first edition, I know there's a Tabletop Sim version of it.
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28 Apr 2016 09:23 #226646 by charlest
Sure, mentioning Spartacus was probably a mistake as I don't have similar expectations.

At times moving influence and acquiring cards was fast (we were playing correctly with using multiple cards), but if someone contests you and wins majority your cubes are just kind of sunk there. You can't move them (you can move agents) and the cubes will go away when someone buys a card. You can get mired pretty quickly.

It felt kind of like buying a Gold card in Dominion but if it was a one time use, if that makes sense. I'm acquiring cubes (equivalent of Gold/Silver card) from limbo, putting them down, and then next turn I'm buying a card but the cubes go away (trashing the Gold/Silver).

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28 Apr 2016 09:37 #226648 by Columbob

charlest wrote: Theokoles taking down the Thing From The Pit, .


What's this from? I've never seen it in game.

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28 Apr 2016 09:39 #226651 by charlest

Columbob wrote:

charlest wrote: Theokoles taking down the Thing From The Pit, .


What's this from? I've never seen it in game.


Theokoles is in the base game I believe but we use the buffed version (3 speed and a Primus ability) from the latest expansion.

Not sure if the Thing From The Pit is from the base game or one of the two expansions (we use both expansions). From the show, it's the masked guy Spartacus fights when he gets cast off into the pit to die. The Thing From The Pit auto-decapitates if it wins an arena fight.

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28 Apr 2016 09:43 #226653 by Columbob
Yeah, I didn't remember they put him in the game, we've never seen him (three plays with the second exp. so far). Theokoles is a MONSTER, last week he had Pila Vinculum as well as Malleus training and destroyed all opposition. His ludus won the game too.

Sorry, didn't want to derail your Emerald thread too much.
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28 Apr 2016 10:01 #226656 by charlest
No worries. Always up for a Spartacus pow-wow.

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28 Apr 2016 14:25 #226681 by JEM
Replied by JEM on topic Lets Discuss A Study In Emerald
You can retrieve your cubes, usually from limbo but also from places on the board. If the opponent actually takes the card, you get them back for free. I do think that influence (cube) management seemed easier and more fluid in 1st edition.

2nd edition is not as interesting as 1st. 1st has the "you just lose" mechanic if you let someone on your side come last. The five point penalty is still pretty strong (I won in 2nd ed due to it) but the all or nothing nature of the original really reinforces the required play expected of score leaders, which is to divert energy to scoring points for the faction/assisting the last place players.

One of the things that not everyone liked in 1st was the struggle over territory acquisition and retention. Having to invest influence not only to claim, Berlin, say, but also to fend off opponents trying to take it- and those delicious six points- from you. Blocking discs etc, all can either bog the game down, or transform it into a truly tense ebb and flow of position and scoring. 2nd edition severed that squamous limb entirely.

Basically, I'm saying it's the quinoa burger version of the original quarter-pounder.
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28 Apr 2016 14:52 #226684 by southernman
I understand your feelings on the game, my first play with a group of five was over in 45mins with the guy who knew the game shooting up in points very quickly and triggering his team winning - there was daylight between him and the other four of us. So we played it again and this time most of us played it much better, the previous winner not being in the top two at the end and two of us fighting to trigger the end (I forgot a rule that would have had me trigger it a turn earlier). But I agree with the slow deck-building (I don't like deck building at the best of times), the tight cube resources making it feel like you're walking through cold treacle at times and, apart from trying to read the cards, the mythos and victorian theme is pretty spartan.
It could have been better but in it's defence people who played the 1st edition say it has been made a lot simpler, so maybe the Wallace-ness complexity of the 1st edition gave more theme.
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28 Apr 2016 22:21 #226697 by Scott_F
Study in Emerald first edition is one of my favorite games and has been for about 6 months or so, ever since I played the game for a second time. On the first play a couple of years ago I thought it was bizarre with zombies and team scoring and honestly didn't really understand it. I played it again a year later and actually understood the directions and got into it alot more then.

I enjoy it because it offers you so many options. The variety of cards guarantees that most of the games will be pretty fresh. Some games will have Bismarck locking down a city, or zombies running amok, or Cthulhu annihilating a city and everything in it. Other games I may take a shitload of agents and just try and control the high point value cities and fly my agents around the board for free with blimps. The team aspect is pretty great and unique. You have to find out who is on your team and make sure they are not doing truly awful in order to win; so even as a more experienced player, if my partner is a noob I need to find ways to bump his score. And the game gives you mechanics to do that through the war track and attacking the VPs of other players through the cities. The deck building isn't a huge deal to me when I play for the most part; I try and buy cards with either free actions or efficient actions and it works out most game I play. Its not an easy game to wrap your head around on the first play, but it really works well after that initial start. Over the past year I've played it probably about a dozen times now and while the rules are fiddly at times for some of the regulars I play with, everyone understands the game and seems excited to play when it is offered.

I played the second edition once. I didn't like it that much, but I didn't think it was a bad game. Second edition got rid of the flavor and uniqueness in the original and streamlined some of the mechanics. The agents aren't unique, the cities can't change hands, etc. Instead of a 2 hour game its now a 1 hour game and is more of a race rather than a tension filled anti co-op game where you don't want your partner to lose that bad, but kinda bad. I'm not surprised to hear the second edition doesn't thrill many people; its ok but didn't leave a strong impression with me.
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28 Apr 2016 23:29 #226698 by Grudunza
If I hadn't played 1st edition (about 15 times), I probably would like 2nd okaaaay. But my one play of 2nd felt really "lite" by comparison. It was over in about 40 minutes and barely had any of the kind of intrigue and interaction of 1st. I've yakked enough about 1st edition elsewhere, but really, don't write off the game from 2nd edition only. It is one of the most interactive and interesting games I've ever played.
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28 Apr 2016 23:32 #226699 by Gary Sax
Good posts in this thread.

It is definitely a game you need to plan to play several times with the same people, at least for the 1st edition which I have.

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