Kosmos 2-Player Series

metalface13 wrote:

So what does the FFG version of LOTR: Confrontation add?

It's called "delux".
Doubles the number of characters in the game for each side. This gives you tons of more ways to play however, as you can play using original characters, 'new' (variant) characters or a combination of the 2. I like to randomly select which characters are in and out.
Also comes with 4 more power cards.

Who are the new characters?

Mr Skeletor wrote:

I don't mind odins ravens.

LOTR the conrontation is 7 kinds of awesome, and 10 kinds of awseome if you are playing the FFG version.

Blue Moon kicks the shit out of the rest of the line (apart from confrontation), as long as your wife isn't offended by cartoon titties.

Jambo is also really good too.

Didn't care for Jambo but can't really say why--just didn't really do it for me. Battle Line was, for us, an exercise in pure Knizia-algebra with a dash of memory/card counting thrown in on top; my wife took one look at the rules and pitched it into my trade pile without a second thought--"this one is designed for card counters and math freaks; get it outta here, it reminds me of work."

I/we think Blue Moon, LOTR: Confrontation, and Babel are the best of the lot [and we're also getting into Hellas, but I'm not sure how well it will survive more than a dozen plays--I like abstracts but the wife is lukewarm on them], but the FFG edition of Confrontation is certainly the way to go [unless space is part of your concern as the FFG box is 3x the size of those little Kosmos jobs].

As to Uba's comment, we like Buffy but find it pretty dull with just 2; we'll have to give L&I a try, but I suspect it's the same story [though hardly the same game]....

What about Starship catan? anyone played it? seems like a light sci-fi adventure kind of game... how thematic is it really?

Also, The Perry Rhodan game released last year (however that's written...) is part of the kosmos 2 player line. It's supposed to be based on Merchant of Venus but I'm not sure how it actually plays... I'm in no hurry to get it because if I want to play a game like MoV I think I'd rather just play MoV...

I like HELLAS. Quick easy lunch game.

You would benefit by going to Target for a $4 RAGE deck and then using it to play SHOTTENTOTTEN, BATTLELINE, EN GARDE, and so on. It's 6 suits of 16 cards with a bunch of extras. I've never actually played RAGE, I just use the cards to play other stuff.

PANDEMIC is short and fun.

I've heard good thing about STARSHIP CATAN, BABEL, and JAMBO. I've played SETTLERS OF CATAN: THE CARD GAME and it's really good. I want to try ROLL THROUGH THE AGES and RISK EXPRESS too.

maka wrote:

What about Starship catan? anyone played it? seems like a light sci-fi adventure kind of game... how thematic is it really?

Also, The Perry Rhodan game released last year (however that's written...) is part of the kosmos 2 player line. It's supposed to be based on Merchant of Venus but I'm not sure how it actually plays... I'm in no hurry to get it because if I want to play a game like MoV I think I'd rather just play MoV...

I've heard good things from my brother on starship catan.

Well I can definitely not recommend one of them:

Never, ever play DruidenWalzer... Pure ass.

Vague overly complex rules and dry gameplay... ugh.

jeb wrote:

I like HELLAS. Quick easy lunch game.

You would benefit by going to Target for a $4 RAGE deck and then using it to play SHOTTENTOTTEN, BATTLELINE, EN GARDE, and so on. It's 6 suits of 16 cards with a bunch of extras. I've never actually played RAGE, I just use the cards to play other stuff.

PANDEMIC is short and fun.

I've heard good thing about STARSHIP CATAN, BABEL, and JAMBO. I've played SETTLERS OF CATAN: THE CARD GAME and it's really good. I want to try ROLL THROUGH THE AGES and RISK EXPRESS too.

No kidding on the other uses for a Rage deck? I find 'em in thrift stores all the time but pass because the game looked kind of meh...I'll start snatching them up for this kind of stuff...

I can recommend Starship Catan as both fun and semi-to-non-gamer-wife-friendly. We have had fun with it.

Pandemic is a *huge* hit with my wife; I like it, but I see it very much as a card counting game, which I'm pretty good at. My wife isn't, so she loves figuring out the puzzle of what the best moves are or could be.

We keep trying to get Babel [which I got from Barnes in a trade a while back] to the table but the game is cursed. Every time we sit down, something goes awry with work or somesuch and it gets aborted.

Jeb: Is Catan Card Game 2-player friendly? I never paid much attention to it...

Dogmatix wrote:

No kidding on the other uses for a Rage deck? I find 'em in thrift stores all the time but pass because the game looked kind of meh...I'll start snatching them up for this kind of stuff...

There's a whole Geeklist on games that can be played with a RAGE deck . Just print the rules from the Files section and you're off. I printed a little EN GARDE "travel board" someone made, tossed some Heroscape Samurais on there and played with the wife. Good times.

Dogmatix wrote:

Jeb: Is Catan Card Game 2-player friendly? I never paid much attention to it...

It's 2-player -only-.

Reading about the Rage deck reminded me: Anyone have played with the Decktet? It's a cool p'n'p card game system with 6 suits where each number card belongs to two suits (so it has 36 cards). There are some cool games using its special traits in different manners...

jeb wrote:
Dogmatix wrote:

Jeb: Is Catan Card Game 2-player friendly? I never paid much attention to it...

It's 2-player -only-.[/quote]

well, yea, Ok, that's probably 2-player friendly then. [he says as he looks around for an escape route before looking like a complete fucking dope....GAH! Too late. Maybe if I slip this tanktop on someone will mistake me for Steve Avery...]

For a long moment I thought we were talking about the werewolf Rage card game being used to play En Garde. Lots of head scratching ensued. That will teach me to read F:AT before coffee.

maka wrote:

What about Starship catan? anyone played it? seems like a light sci-fi adventure kind of game... how thematic is it really?

It's not bad at all. It has a bit of the same thing going as in the Catan card game with the resource dials, except instead of building a principality you upgrade your ship with weapons, engines, storage, stuff like that. Then you go and explore star systems, you might end up having to fight off pirates or you might find a really cool planet.

That's what I remember from my 1 play over a year ago, but I want to play it again (one of my buddies has it).

I think that Perry Rhodan game is only German so far. Even if it's the coolest 2-player game ever, until it gets a proper English or French language version, I'll happily pass, as I've got plenty of other games to play.

Starship Catan I found to be kind of boring overall, but I did like the concept.

LotR: Confrontation is definitely the best in this series.

Jambo I like as its got the most depth of any of the card-based ones.

Hellas would be fine if the cards had better descriptions of when and how they are played.

Lost Cities is okay, it definitely shows more strategy the more times you play it.

Battle Line I only played a couple times and the Tactics cards are better left out, imo.

Caesar & Cleopatra flat out sucks and is about as fun as playing War.

Balloon Cup has obvious choices from turn 1 until it ends a few turns after the winner is determined.

Odin's Ravens I liked when I first played it, but completely lost interest on further plays.

Ingenious I've not played the two-player Kosmos version, but I do like the full game with 2.

Kahuna I only played once and thought it was okay.