What KICKSTARTER(S) are you BACKING and WHY?

If you don't mind a Euro without mechs, it sounds like your family could get behind Keyflower. The bidding mechanism is pretty brilliant, where you get a random set of worker colors (hidden from other players) and use them to bid for tile ownership, but also to "set the color" for any subsequent bids on these tiles. This color-setting applies to tile usage as well, and players can use tiles either on the bidding market itself or in players individual villages. And in true Euro fashion, you can screw other people over by shutting them out of bids (there's a cap on the total bids), or even their own village tile (at the sacrifice of the workers you used to do this... the village owner, your opponent, gets them). Having the workers behind a screen as it's normally played takes some strategy out of it, but removing this screen increases the cutthroat aspect of the game quite a bit, something your son would enjoy puzzling out. The rest of it is Euro-ass Euro but very well designed: shove goods around your village, get points for various upgrades and numbers of goods, and so on and so forth. The art is fantastic. I've heard it described as "winsome" which is accurate. Much like Scythe, though, it can get occluded behind very utilitarian iconography and fonts.

You might also consider looking into The Manhattan Project, a worker placement game which my son (who sounds very similar in his gaming proclivities to yours) enjoys for the more aggressive aspects of it: bombing other people's work, or stealing/hogging it with spy workers. Barnes wrote an accurate review of it awhile ago and I do agree that it can start to feel repetitive around the end, but my family enjoys it regardless.

Your son would probably also get a kick out of Cyclades but your dad would probably not like the DOAMish look and flow of it. That's an example that comes to my mind when I try to think of a Euro-ish game with some fangs to it, especially if the Titans expansion is added.

None of these quite has the aesthetic appeal and world-setting evoked by the art and lore of Scythe, though. Cyclades comes close, but it's basically Greek mythology, which isn't as compellingly askew as the 19th-century mech stuff in Scythe.

D_S wrote: Anyway, I'm hoping that, with one mech foot in each world and its brilliant artwork, it'll work for us as a heavier game than what we're used to, and a reach a little outside our comfort zone. If you have an alternative to suggest, I'm all ears. If you're curious to see what else we already have (or have had), you can check out my collection at BGG, where I'm ds3272. I'd link it but no access to BGG from this computer, for reasons.

So. Alternative to Scythe, then? I hope this isn't too much thread drift. If so, apologies.

I would think that Abaddon would be a good light-tac miniatures game that fits the bill. Cthulhu Cash...er...Wars is actually an awesome one that would work for the "heavier but not too much" requirement. Incursion would be a perfect fit for you, from what I know of you personally. Cheap, too.

I could think of bunch..just check out here and work from 5.0 backward, skimming the summaries at the bottom until you're interested enough to want to read more.
superflycircus.com/index-of-articles-and-attractions/

Thanks, guys. I'll look at those games for the future. Keyflower sounds like it might be a good one to stretch my dad beyond set collection euros, though bless his heart he's never said "no" to anything, once.

Pete, our tastes are pretty similar, which isn't a surprise. I'll check 'em out. Though I'm probably still on the hook for Scythe, because what I'm hearing is "these other games might be good, too," which is helpful to me, but I'm not hearing "this is a superior choice." I'll comb through your list. I have to tell you guys, presentation is important to me. In board games as in food, it should look right. Maybe that's part of why I dislike Dominion so much?

Anyway. Thanks, guys.

You dislike Dominion because of a few reasons:

1. You're sane.
2. You have taste.
3. It sucks.

I'd also look into Imperial and Tigris & Euphrates, D_S.

Holy heck, the gang's all here. Thanks, Q!

I recently backed Scythe, Crimson Creek, and Pandemonium. Scythe has been discussed a good bit already. I'm not big on Euros, but something about the game looks fascinating. On the other hand, I'm concerned about some of the gamey rules. Crimson Creek: there can't be enough non-Cthulhu, non-zombie horror games. Speaking of which, one of Pandemonium's mottos is 100% zombie free. Nice. Hopefully it will remain 100% Cthulhu free as well.

D_S wrote: Though I'm probably still on the hook for Scythe, because what I'm hearing is "these other games might be good, too," which is helpful to me, but I'm not hearing "this is a superior choice." I'll comb through your list. I have to tell you guys, presentation is important to me. In board games as in food, it should look right.

In my opinion, Cyclades is a superior choice to Scythe. Keyflower is far superior to either of them, but is different enough that there's room for both. Unless you're going for the full pimped-out copy of Scythe, Cyclades looks just as good or better on the table. The cool artwork with Scythe is on the box and on the encounter cards, of which you draw 3 or 4 per game and immediately discard. The board isn't anything special.

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I'm currently sitting on a Sword & Sorcery early bird, but nothing about it has grabbed me yet, especially since I have Dungeon Saga coming shortly.

Quite honestly, Cyclades pretty much fired all "dudes on a map, conquest" games for me, forever. I can see myself playing it 5 times a year for the rest of my life, and never really being upset about that.

My favorite "dudes on a map, conquest" game is Nexus Ops.

SuperflyTNT wrote: Quite honestly, Cyclades pretty much fired all "dudes on a map, conquest" games for me, forever. I can see myself playing it 5 times a year for the rest of my life, and never really being upset about that.

The only part of Cyclades I didn't like was the end game, which seemed too abrupt. For pure DoaM, I prefer Nexus Ops. That said, the rest of the gameplay in Cyclades was a lot of fun. I haven't played with the expansion, though.

quozl wrote: My favorite "dudes on a map, conquest" game is Nexus Ops.

To me, Nexus Ops is the Krav Maga of DOAM games. Fast, brutal, violent, and goal oriented.

Cyclades is Shaolin Kung Fu. Fluid, beautiful, and loaded with feints, blocks, countermoves, and a mystifying beauty.

That's the only way I can put it.

With all the recent hype, I am contemplating backing Cthulhu Wars Onslaught Two, mainly just for the original game:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/1816687860/...-wars-onslaught-two/

The problem with this game is that there are so many expansions on offer that they try to make you buy, that it is not obvious which ones are actually worth getting. Does anyone have any ideas about which expansions might be worth considering (my instinct is extra factions and/or maps give the most value)?

I have backed a Kickstarter. I put a $1 pledge on Cthulhu Wars. I want the upgraded player mats.

But if I have some kind of dramatic windfall, I would totally get a faction expansion and a map.

To that end, MuMu, I would think that the best route would be to get Yog Sothoth or Ithaqua and then one of the maps. They seem like kind of the "core" add-on factions. As for the maps...I'd say read the descriptions and see what looks good. They all sound like they add some neat stuff, they are more than just new geographies. The Primeval Earth one adds glaciers, Dreamlands is split between aboveground and underground maps and has neutral monsters. Yuggoth is Pluto. I've heard that the High Priests are a good add-on and they're cheap ($15). Azathoth is a "neutral" faction, and some of the other GOO packs and so forth are also neutrals.

It's all just so expensive...granted, it is definitely a premium game but $50 for a new faction is really high. I want everything, but $700...yeesh.

It's just the Ritual/Doom tracks for $1 Barnes, $10 more for the player mats.

I got my copy yesterday and the Doom track was already bent up on one end.