What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

My two favorite “moves” in El Grande is to move the king where I’m doing well and to aim to score second or third in many provinces instead of first in fewer.

Another 2p game day yesterday:

SEKIGAHARA: THE UNIFICATION OF JAPAN. Great game, I managed to win by surrounding Ishida and killing him. First time for me. I'd be all about this if I had a more reasonable chance of getting 2p games to the table.

TRICK SHOT. Revisiting this one. The abilities for the arenas are turning out to be a real mixed bag. The player abilities give you fun and cool things to do, which opens up your options, but the arena abilities generally limit you, closing your options off. This is less fun. We ended up ditching the arena ability and just playing with play ones. I won 3-1.

The last weekend in April I attended GMT East; it was moved to Schenectady NY after two decades in Westchester county due to that areas utterly insane hotel prices. The new venue worked very well and it looks like 2025 will be held there as well.


Games played in no particular order:


WEIMAR THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY. We had pre arranged a game, NH ( me and James Terry ) vs Bob and Chad  repping NJ but the morning of the con, James texted us letting us know he had woken up feeling sick and couldn't make it. So we convinced Chuck Davis to join in, gave him a quick primer and we were off and running. The core mechanics are not hard IMO; Chuck caught on quickly . The difficulty is figuring out what to do with each of the four very different factions. Bob was SPD with Chuck as his Zentrum lapdog; on Turn 2 Chuck had more seats and set about trying to fix the Unrest and Poverty running rampant. My Commie KPD was not having much  luck setting up Councils but Chad was quietly spreading his DNVP Regimes and on Turn 3, placed his 4th one for a sudden death win. 


PAX PAMIR - after dinner, Chad Bob and Chuck and I played this - Bob hoarded money most of the game and most of the game was on the outside looking in as his British were way behind the Russians. However late in the game he switched and triggered the game end for double points and beat out the rest of us. 


DUNE IMPERIUM UPRISING x3  - basically this is a reboot of DUNE IMPERIUM. If you know DI, you can learn this in less than 5 minutes. I think it's a big improvement over the DI base game; probably on par with DI plus IX. It also has an interesting 6 player mode that I've played once and want to try again. About my only complaint is there are only 9 leaders in UPRISING; you can def use some of the leaders from the original series that don't have abilities unique to IX or IMMORTALITY although I don't know how balanced some would be. 


ANGOLA . Me ( Yellow ) and Grant ( Red ) vs Jeff Burdett ( Green ) and Greg ( Blue _) . Greg was new to the game but we taught him and he picked up the basics pretty fast. He drew probably the best opening I've ever seen - he had the entire road from the south board edge to Novo Lisboa ( including NL ) in his initial draw. However I was able to distract him by infiltrating a few units behind his lines and chew up his activations. Jeff cleaned out Cabinda and hacked his way onto the board on only his second attempt. However several times the starting player sequence was in our favor; we also stonewalled them along the southern coast for several turns. Finally in the late game, a sort of dance of death was created north of Lucala - Grant and Jeff each had kill stacks next to one another; both had compromised retreats and the first to retreat would be hosed - Jeff came up on the short tend and his death star stack evaporated; they threw in the towel on turn 9 for a rare late game Commie victory as we sent the capitalist back dogs packing. 


SWORD OF ROME. Five player game; I randomly drew Carthage. I spent the early game quietly building up, snagging a coastal Etruscan VP space at the end of turn 2 for a quick VP. Meamwhile Bill Coopers Greeks were also building up. Mid game he came at me, and I thought I was well prepared with the Sacred Band ( roll 4 dice instead of 3 ) and he had Elephants ( +2 ) . He rolled 6, 6, 5 and I rolled - much lower, even on four dice. When the dust settled, he had taken over Sicily, reducing his need to pay off his generals while I was down to 5 cards, pretty much knocking me out of contention. I did try to return and liberate the island, only to be turned back by a Greek response card.  He proceeded to bank 2VP for several turns, which in turn drew some unwanted attention from the Samnites and Romans, who descended on southern Italy - Thurii changed hands like 3 times. When the game ended, he narrowly lost to the Romans, I had ZERO VP. Ouch. 


I stumbled into a game of IMPERIUM CLASSICS, a deep ancient civ building deck builder with each deck having  very asymmetric civs. I took Greece and proceeded to weed my deck of Unrest but spent too much time playing heads down and not paying attention to my opponents; they were buying Fame cards and triggered the game end about 2 turns before I ideally would have done so and probably won. I was pretty rusty. 


SPACECORP VENTURES Another game I stumbled into; we taught a new guy ( who had HIGH FRONTIER experience so the rules here were a breeze ) . I had ALLIED TRANSIT, which allows you to build Spaceports on any planet, as well as letting you relocate to planets in the same system after building a base. Between that and getting an early edge in Progress cards, I started to build a good lead that grew to about 20 points by game end. 


CHAOS IN THE OLD WORLD with the HORNED RAT expansion. After a brief rules review we were off. I was Nurgle, scoring dial tokens for placing 2 Corruption in Populous regions. I got the double click on the first turn, and able to prevent anyone from getting 2 clicks most other turns; I was able to auto win with 2 more clicks on about the 5th turn. I really like the expansion; not only does it add the Rats, but the four base powers get new Chaos decks which feel more balanced than the original which had some OP cards IMO. 


ROMI RANI - Chad taught us this set collection card game. I think Foley won which is a clear indication of the game's inherent flaws. 

So after getting home from GMT East, four days later I was back on the road for STACK ACADEMIE, the excellent con Marc Guenette holds in Montreal. We had the traditional big meal at AU PIED COCHON on Thursday, earlier than usual due to lack of available reservations. Friday the con started.



Games played at Stack Academie in no particular order:



DUNE IMPERIUM UPRISING x 3. Yes I really like this game LOL. Plus we usually had 4 players looking for something to play. Again missed out on a six player game; WBC for sure will see some 6P action.



WAR OF THE RING CARD GAME. We taught this to Andrew Kiefte and randomly drew sides. I was Elves/Dunedain; Michael was Mordor; Andrew was Hobbits/Wizard, Jeromey was Saruman/Monstrous. The early game was close; however Andrews hobbits were like eating seventh and eighth breakfasts and were nowhere to be fucking found while I was desperately looking to unload the various hobbit only items clogging my hand. We did use Strider and Gandalf the Grey to fast forward thru the middle paths. However by the time the hobbits finally trickled out, there were tons of Shadow units waiting to greet them; it looked like it would be a blowout but we only lost by 21-15 somehow. This game continues to impress esp in terms of how much theme comes out of a pure card game. Can't wait for the 5/6 player expansion, hopefully out by WBC .



INNOVATION x2 . Jeromey and I taught Michael how to play. Jeromey won both games; the second game I had only 3 colors most of the time, all of which had Leaf generated Dogmas that actually held up pretty well to Jeromey and Michael's much more advanced tableaus; I was able to steal cards out of their score piles and got 3 out of the 5 Achievements needed to win. But then Jeromey got a powerful engine going based on Industry and pulled away.



WEIMAR FIGHT FOR DEMOCACY x 2 First game I was SPD vs Jeromey Zentrum, Michael KPD and Andrew DNVP. Jeromey and I cleaned up Unrest but had a harder time grappling with Inflation; that said we racked up a fair number of VP and soon were ahead of the other two on VP. Like turn 4/5 I played card that gave me 5 VP for having 10 cities with no Poverty and that lead proved too much to overcome as the game went the full 6 turns.



Second game I was KPD, Jereomy SPD, Michael DNVP and Andrew Zentrum. The government cleaned up inflation early by passing the Rentenmark ( sp ? ) issue but was a little less successful in stamping out the communist trouble makers; I got up to 3 Councils and at one point. However Berlin was cleared early and a large police presence deterred either KPD or DNVP trying to place Council/Regime markers. Both of us were falling further behind in terms of VP and had a lot of units in the dead pile. This forced us to turn to ....some unsavory tactics to try to get a sudden death win. You know, using Nazis to supercharge some card plays. Some were optional, some were not. Michael played 2, Andrew played 1 but placed a DNVP meeple, I played the fourth and fifth one, then Michael had to play a mandatory one that auto lost the game for everyone, much to Jeromey's VP leading SPD faction. So we blamed Michael/DNVP for the Nazis coming to power.

Wow. So jealous. Weimar and Pax Pamir, two of my current favorite games, combined with Sword of Rome and Chaos, two of my long-time favorite games. Guess I need to find more time for conventions.

Rented an AirBnb with my local group (including occasional user Kuhrusty). Games included:

- LEAVING EARTH, 3p. My favorite of the weekend. Highly problematic downtime, AP, and randomness, but it is an amazing game. Reverse calculating everything: okay, I need a mass 1 probe to get to Venus, so I need a mass 1 rocket (plus the probe) in Venus orbit, which means I need a mass 4 rocket (plus the other rocket, plus the probe) in far earth orbit, which means.... I guess the closest equivalent is HIGH FRONTIER, but I bounced off that when I first tried to read the rules years ago, now it has the Eklund miasma. The downtime and AP comes from the calculations. The randomness is because every time you develop a technology, it is unreliable. It might work, it might break down, or it might explode catastrophically. To debug it you can launch test flights -- ignite a rocket on the pad; send a ladder into low earth orbit and immediately back down -- but that takes money and time, and maybe someone else is YOLOing their rockets into space without all that annoying safety testing. If they are lucky and their rockets work, then they win. Or if you try YOLOing it and you are unlucky, then your spacecraft explodes ten million miles from earth, and you are now out of contention while the game takes another hour or two. Also turn order is a mess. The person in last place goes first, then clockwise around the table. I launched a high-powered rocket to Ceres, getting there at the exact same time as someone taking a slower route, but then going before them and snagging the "Survey Ceres" mission for the win.

By modern standards, that is terrible, but I found the game compelling enough to want to pick up a copy. Unfortunately it's now out of print and the company is either defunct, or so scammy it should be defunct. So I am saved from picking up a problematic game. -1 for downtime, -1 for randomness, overall 8/10. Probably best at 2p. Might pick up a secondhand copy, or wait for the designer's next game.

- BRIAN BORU, 5p. New game from the designer of THE KING IS DEAD, which is one of my favorite games and, like GO, a game that feels discovered more than designed. BRIAN BORU was fun but not as good. It did engender the most discussion of the weekend though, mostly around its claim to be a trick-taker and whether that is accurate or absurd. Each card play starts with the active player selecting a city (in Ireland, 1000 AD) to try and control. The color of the city determines the suit that will win (by playing high card). If you don't win then your card will give you consolation prizes: get money, or advance your marriage prospects, or get in good with the church. However, you don't have to follow suit (as long as you're fine with not winning). The game also feels a little point-salady. Even if you don't win, you get stuff which is worth points and you'll probably be fine? Or maybe not, but things are kind of opaque and it's hard to tell. Maybe that will change with familiarity. Overall 6/10.

- SPACE TEAM. Real-time co-op that uses ridiculous technobabble for humorous effect. You each have a pile of problems to work through, which all take a variety of tools to solve, but the tools are distributed across the players. You can only pass cards to your immediate left or right. So you yell out "I NEED A LUBED FROBULATOR!" and hope you are heard over the fray, and that someone passes it your direction. Very silly, not a game of strategy, probably doesn't have legs, but worth it for a fun party diversion. Overall 8/10 for fun factor alone.

- STAR WARS CARCASSONNE. Pretty much what you'd expect. Only fun twist is that you can fight: if you get in on someone else's project, you can roll dice: highest number wins and removes the other meeple. You get +1 die if the project has a tile from your faction (Rebel etc.), another +1 die if you used your big meeple. You can slide your meeple onto a planet (i.e. monastery) if you have it on an adjacent tile, so there's more fights and competition than one would expect from the game. No need to get it, 4/10.

Not new-to-me but favorites nonetheless: Sekigahara (lost, but drank thematically-appropriate sake the whole time), Wizard (won), Trio (lost multiple times). Probably some others. Lots of drink and food.

I don't know if the company behind LEAVING EARTH is scammy or not now; when I got my copy when it came out, I do remember that their fulfilment was.....slow and that's putting it kindly. IIRC the designer workef at a printing company and they'd run off copies of the game when they had some spare downtime, then ship it...whenever they felt like it. The game seemed ripe for a dedicated game company to take it on and polish it up a bit ( like using a normal box versus one you had to literally rip open the taped on box cover sheet.

Msample wrote: I don't know if the company behind LEAVING EARTH is scammy or not now; when I got my copy when it came out, I do remember that their fulfilment was.....slow and that's putting it kindly. IIRC the designer workef at a printing company and they'd run off copies of the game when they had some spare downtime, then ship it...whenever they felt like it. The game seemed ripe for a dedicated game company to take it on and polish it up a bit ( like using a normal box versus one you had to literally rip open the taped on box cover sheet.

People have apparently not received their orders for over a year, calls and emails go unreturned, and the designer is now recommending that people do not order from them. So that's good enough for me; whether it's a little scam or just terminal incompetence is kind of moot from my POV -- I won't be ordering from them.

Forgot one:

- WAVELENGTH. A vastly overproduced party game. There's a giant hunk of plastic that is a wheel with a color spectrum of about 25 degrees on it. The bottom half of the wheel of obscured, so you can only see 180 degrees of the wheel. The spectrum is divided evenly into five segments: the center of the spectrum is labeled +4, on each side is a +2, and on each side of that is +1. There's a window to close to cover the top half of the wheel, which hides the spectrum, and a dial to turn to point somewhere in the top half. You play in teams. When it's your turn, you close the window, spin the wheel to randomize where the spectrum is, then open it and secretly look at it. Then you draw a clue card. The clues are all dichotomies: good movie vs bad movie, introvert vs extrovert, smart vs wise, etc. You close the window and turn it around. You give your teammates a clue, then they discuss and turn the dial to point where they think your clue lies on the dichotomy. Open the window and see if they are right; if they set the pointer somewhere that points in the color spectrum, they get points.

The whole gimmick could have easily been replaced with a board with the numbers 1-100 on it, and a deck of cards with the same numbers, shuffle and draw to see the number you're trying to get them to guess.. Teammates put a cardboard pointer at the number they think you're trying to give them. Everything would have fit into a box about 1/4 the size. Of course, a gimmick might be fun if the game is good; sadly this is just another party game. There's nothing to do for the other team while yours is hemming and hawing and discussing. 2/10, pass.

People have apparently not received their orders for over a year, calls and emails go unreturned, and the designer is now recommending that people do not order from them. So that's good enough for me; whether it's a little scam or just terminal incompetence is kind of moot from my POV -- I won't be ordering from them.

I will mention that the designer is the son of the publishers. So it's a pretty doggone interesting soap opera.

Leaving Earth doesn't pretend to be "fair". You all start at the same place with the same knowledge and the same stuff and just hope for the best when you take actions. Most of the time winning the game isn't really on your mind. All of your focus is getting that stupid sample from the Moon back to Earth regardless of how many points it scores. What happens after that isn't really a big concern at least not yet.

All that said, it is a brilliant design and I don't think there is anything else out there particularly like it. You can mitigate your luck to a large extent by cutting deals with other players. If you're not doing that, if you choose to cowboy it instead, good luck to you. You will certainly be entertaining to watch on your turn!

Oh, and by the way -- therewillbe.games/articles-boardgame-rev...ving-earth-in-review