I'm mostly at the screw games, I'm almost done with them for a bit. So I've spent more time socializing.
Follow Up from last post:
A: Power is this: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/41394
Looking more closely, it has some Game of Life kind of stuff. The rules are a complete train wreck, and there are a couple hundred unique cards, and lots of duplicates. The cover art might give Cannes a run for its money as the worst cover ever.
B: Played the Ninja Battleground game. It is a Toys R Us exclusive to be found in the Action figure aisle. It is...Naruto themed. So it comes with 6 Naruto aciton figures, and some EXTREMELY cheap cardboard. The game is a decent move and throw cards at each other kind of game with three figures on a side. It is fast, and surprisingly complex and ornate for a game that is mostly an excuse to sell action figures. Brian Yu did the design, and he's done some rather nice stuff (my fave is the Lemony Snicket game.)
The box design is really awful. Surprisingly bad considering that it is from Mattel.
C: Zanziar. This is a Finnish AT-style game for 3-6 players and 3-4 hours. It is interesting. You collect unit cards which you collect as bands and send them out over the land to conquer places, go on adventures, and battle each other.
The game has items, a card deck for random events during movement, and a dozen or so tables for various things. Oddly, you are allowed to negotiate or even con certain enemies to avoid combat.
Throw in a large item deck, tons of unit types, an adventure deck, and perhaps 3 or 4 special characteristics for each unit card....and....
It is really messy. There are just so many rules that we bailed after an hour. Especially after we realized that one player was somewhat hosed because another character was not in the game, and Zev was quickly stranded on an island with absolutely no hope of getting off of it.
It feels like one of those interesting looking but badly developed games that made us go looking at German titles in the first place.
But it does have enough interesting material there that I might make an offer on it just to peruse in detail. I'm just not sure I'll ever be able to play it.
---------------------------------
New Stuff:
Snow Tails. This is a very German dog racing game. Except it is designed by a couple of Scotsmen.
You have a hand of 5 cards (simple number 1-5). Each turn, you can play matching numbered cards onto your left dog, your right dog, and your brake.
Then you move a number of spaces equal to both dogs minus your brake, and shift lanes equal to the difference in the two dogs.
Collisions reduce your hand size, as does going too fast over speed bars in the track.
It all works REALLY well. It is a racing game, so interaction is minimal. But it is SO simple, but still feels like dog sled racing. Of particular note is how turns require you to go in slow and accelerate out. I can't think of another racing game that handles this aspect as well.
----------------------------
Small World: Haven't played, but watched part of a game. The general buzz has been good. Comments are that it is simpler and more fun than Vinci.
I do suspect that your opinion will follow your opinion of Vinci.
I'm a huge fan of Vinci, so I'm certain I'll like this one. May try to get it to the table tomorrow.
------------------------------
Tasso. Tiny abstract dexterity strategy game. On your turn, you play a stick onto a round wooden board. The damndest thing is that it is a rather good game.
-------------------------------
Robin de Bois. The bad Vlaada Chvatil game. It is mostly blind auctions, lasts entirely too long. Supposedly Tilsit screwed it up. Tilsit is rumored to also be soundly hated by....everyone. Lots of rumors about stuff not being paid for, announcing games that they hadn't signed contracts for.
Mars. More Tilsit. I'm torn on this one. I really like a lot of the things in it, but my fourth game has passed without a really good game. It feel like they should have developed it a bit further---or I'm missing some crucial rule. I may need to dive into the French and look for translation errors.
It is a Settlers meets Puerto Rico meets Outpost, run through a wacky French filter.
---------------------------------------
Old Games to me. New to you:
Die Hexer von Salem: A great co-op game that is mostly Arkham Horror Lite. This has been getting a lot of play, and practically obsessing Octavian. The elements of AH are here, with every bit being made just a bit more Euro, and a LOT shorter.
The same kind of "you do this, we need to deal with this" stuff from AH is there, the events are a MUCH smaller pool. Monsters are handled in a way that keeps you from easily moving around, but maintains the threat.
It is as if a talented author looked at AH and considered how each element could be reduced to turn it into an hour game. It mostly works. The event pool is much smaller, and it doesn't have the long term variability of Arkham.
It is also a LOT prettier than AH. The board is stunning, and the card art is gorgeous.
If you get a chance, make sure to play it. There is definitely a Euro heritage there, but it is one of those cases where they got a Euro right. You actually have proper goals and subgoals instead of "yay, I got 3 points."
Dorn: It is Descent lite. Take out the dice. Keep practically everything else. The big downside is that there is only one scenario, with a handful of variants. It wants badly for the promised expansion.
There could be a LOT done with this game. Our play tonight felt a lot like a good, solid Descent game. Except that this one finishes in about 2 hours.
The basic game does have the basic Space Hulk idea of grouping monsters around a corner, and having a group rush a character. Anyone caught alone is probably toast with a good DM.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/hide comments
KingPut
said:
 |
... Frank thanks for the update. BGG has it down as Der Hexer von Salem http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/38506. It looks pretty nice. |
dclose
said:
 |
... One of the guys in my game group has Snow Tails, so I've played it a couple times. I found it quite math-y and very dependent on card draw. Drawing all the fives at the beginning of the race, and the ones at the end of the race can put you firmly behind everyone even with hand management. It really does feel like a dog-based race though, and handles curves and obstacles really well. |
ubarose
said:
 |
...One of the guys in my game group has Snow Tails, so I've played it a couple times. I found it quite math-y and very dependent on card draw. We have Snow Tails and really like it. The Man is into race games. Snow Tails is a race game with a sense of humor. I don't find it to be math-y, and I'm usually the first person to complain about that. I just see the movement possibilities, and I usually win. However, I have been forbidden to help the Spawn with her math homework because my perception of numbers has been officially declared "insane." It is really messy... It feels like one of those interesting looking but badly developed games that made us go looking at German titles in the first place. Great comment. I often feel that gamers got so burned by messy AT games, that it not only drove them to Euros, but also makes them unwilling to look at the well designed AT games. I sometimes try to get new gamers to play a bad old game, so that they can understand that when when many long time gamers complain about AT chaos, randomness, long play time, clunky mechanics, and overly complex rules, they are often speaking about their memory of these messy games. |
ubarose
said:
|
... I'm going to have to check out the Ninja game. Brian Yu is a designer to watch for mainstream family and children's games. |
Bulwyf
said:
 |
... Thanks for the report Frank. I'm still kicking myself for not buying DOrn at Essen last year. (ran out of room in the suitcase) There's an expansion in the pipeline? -Will |
moofrank
said:
 |
... They've claimed that there would be an expansion, and the english release would be alongside the Czech one. Of the new race games, I also really like Powerboats. It feels a little less interactive than Snow Tails, but harder. Picking a path on the advanced board is hard, and the game has a really nice mix of planning and trying to work out your risk. Sometimes you can make a pair of turns or a weave with perfect knowledge--sometimes you gotta roll the dice. Failure can be a crash or an overshoot of the perfect turn. |
Michael Barnes
said:
 |
... I like DORN better than DESCENT. It does the same thing, but with WAY less overhead. It's another example of how theme is more tied to concept and gameplay than production and thousands of cards with flavor text. But it really needs variety and expansions to realize its potential, out of the box it's a little limited. ZANIZAR sounds an awful lot like DRAGONEPIC. A terrible game, but it had a couple of neat ideas including that collect unit cards/quest around thing. MARS is almost great. It feels really incomplete to me though. It really, really wants to be an ALPHA CENTAURI board game but there's too much cut out of it to be that. It really is kind of like somebody said "let's make a PUERTO RICO style game that's actually fun". The interaction helps a lot, but I think they overdid the "longest road" mechanic. It's good, not worth owning though. |
generalpf
said:
 |
... Brian Yu is the man to watch? Last time I checked all he's ever turned out is a bunch of mass-market crap and two lukewarm Euros. |
metalface13
said:
 |
...It is also a LOT prettier than AH. The board is stunning, and the card art is gorgeous. At first I was like "Really? Cus AH looks pretty damn good." And then I checked out it's BGG page, and yeah, it does look pretty good. |
ubarose
said:
|
...generalpf: ... Yes he is, if you have a child that plays games with school friends their own age. Brian Yu designs mainstream children's games that aren't dull, stupid and broken. The Spawn has her games organized into two categories. Games she likes, but can only play with the children of our gamer friends. Games she likes, and can play with her friends. The ones in the second group are dominated by Brain Yu and Craig Van Ness. |
ubarose
said:
|
... Was Brian involved in Heroscape? No that was Craig Van Ness. Brian did the American Girl game, which is huge with the little girls. The Lemony Snicket game which I like enough to play with the kids. A couple of Harry Potter games that don't suck like all the rest of the Harry Potter trash that is out there. He did some Euro-style games for older kids and families, but I haven't tried any of those. |
moofrank
said:
|
... Desert Bazaar (Brian Yu) is a decent Euro. Roll some dice to produce random resources, then try to use the combinations to score points. It is fairly simple, random , and a little bit mean. It is also completely and utterly without theme. Also of note is that Brian Yu and Dale Yu are brothers. Dale tends to like Euro stuff, while Brian is much more into AT games. Uba is also very correct. Drift outside of Craig Van Ness, Brian Yu and Rob Daviau when purchasing a mainstream game and you are mostly screwed. A surprising number of those games are actually mostly unplayable. |
ubarose
said:
|
...So the message here is, buy a mainstream game from Brian Yu, it'll suck less? No. The message is, if you are buying games for an 8-10 year old, you don't have to spend $30 dollars on a box of wooden eggs and a stick from Germany. You can find some good kid's games for $10-$15 at the local big box store. These games are accessible enough that other kids own them, and know them and will play them with your kid. And if the kids want you to play with them, these games aren't bad. Personally, I would rather play a mass market game by Craig Van Ness, Brian Yu or Rob Daviau, than the latest Euro Penguin/Mouse/Hedgehog kid's game. BTW, I still don't understand why these Euro children's games show up regularly at game group. Even though they have wooden bits and are imported, they are still children's games. You play them with children because you have to because you are a kind and loving parent who spends quality time with your kid. You don't play them when you get a child free night with adults. |
generalpf
said:
|
...BTW, I still don't understand why these Euro children's games show up regularly at game group. Even though they have wooden bits and are imported, they are still children's games. You play them with children because you have to because you are a kind and loving parent who spends quality time with your kid. You don't play them when you get a child free night with adults. Well said. |
hancock.tom
said:
 |
... You don't play them when you get a child free night with adults unless you are so drunk you can't play anything else. Fixed that for you. Capitan Wackelpudding (it is a german kid's game, not a euphemism for what you are thinking of) is a great drinking game. I bet Branham has played it. All I remember is being drunk and knocking wooden bits off a wooden boat... which was awesome. |
generalpf
said:
|
... Anything is a great drinking game. Heck, drinking is fun without a game. Having fun doing some activity while drinking does not imply any kind of worth to that activity. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|