by Thomas King
This was posted a few days ago on my blog, I just haven't had time to get it posted here.Top 100
For those who haven’t seen, I updated my Top 100 games (read here). It was a lot of work, especially since I wasn’t happy with the initial results and re-did the Pub Meeple ranking (which takes quite a bit of time!). But I’m happy with how it ultimately came out. Some surprising moves, for sure. And I’m sure there will be lots of moving around next year, too. Already played some games that would definitely have made it on there, like Journeys in Middle-earth.
Games Played
>>For the full post with photos, head here!<<
Dorfromantik: Sakura
Marvel Champions: The Card Game
Star Wars: Unlimited
The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth
Ker Nethalas: Into the Midnight Throne
Middle-earth
A Game of Thrones: The Card Game (Second Edition)
Kinfire Delve: Vainglory's Grotto
Altered
The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game
Wingspan + Wingspan: Oceania Expansion
Ra
Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game – Revised Core Set
Ostia
Pokémon Trading Card Game
Unmatched: The Witcher – Steel and Silver
Reavers of Midgard
Fleet
SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Brass: Lancashire
Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles – Episodes 1 & 2
Glen More II: Chronicles
Gudnak
Millennium Blades
Hubworld: Aidalon
Monumental Duel: Exploration
Galactic Cruise
Summit: The Board Game
Furnace
Ticket to Ride Map Collection 7: Japan & Italy
Dinosaur World
Unmatched: Jurassic Park – Dr. Sattler vs. T. Rex and Unmatched: Cobble & Fog
Dorfromantik: Sakura (solo)
I wasn’t sure about this one but decided to grab a copy. I figured, given the style of co-op it is, this would end up being primarily a solo game. It’s one where the rules are basically the same no matter how many players you have; you just discuss each decision. That’s not really the sort of co-op my group is looking for, but these work just fine as a solo game.
It’s a pretty light puzzle, but Sakura has a little more going on than the original Dorfromantik (which was why I went with this one, other than the setting being much more up my alley). I ended playing several times and unlocking the first few boxes. I really like the unlock system of the game, since it doesn’t really matter if you do well or poorly, you’ll eventually unlock stuff. But you do get a bit better at the game.
Dorfromantik: Sakura: 7/10 (first impressions) A neat, chill puzzle I can put down and come back to whenever I want
Marvel Champions
We’ve not played many times, and each play has been quite some time after the previous. But I’m still trying to get MC to finally click. The rules are a bit clunky, the game is a touch fiddly, and we’ve not played enough to get comfortable with it.
That said, I’m not feeling the Colossus pre-made deck. Some of the cards are very situational, and some don’t really seem to work well with the deck. Meanwhile, other than blocking damage, the deck just doesn’t seem to do anything particularly well. And the sequencing for some of Colossus’ defensive tricks are annoying to get to work, with turn order sometimes just preventing something from working cleanly.
Marvel Champions: 7/10 I keep trying, but I’m just not there with the game yet. It likely wouldn’t be on my top 100 at this point.
Star Wars: Unlimited (Shadows of the Galaxy)
By this point, the next set had come out, but I still had a lot of SotG boosters, and we hadn’t played our decks much, so I kind of skipped it.
We continued our decks we previously made. I was still enjoying my Rei deck, comboing off Survivors’ Gauntlet. But my friend was struggling to figure out his deck and asked me to make him a deck with his existing pool for next time.
Star Wars: Unlimited: 9/10 Still loving it.
Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth (solo)
This was a surprise Christmas gift! I had often come close to buying it, but was just so unsure about the app, given that while I enjoy Destinies, the app wasn’t something I wanted to deal with very often.
After playing some of JiME solo, I actually really enjoyed the app. It felt less intrusive given that it cane just sit there while playing. I don’t have to keep picking it up to scan things, and the skill deck is a great system that keeps me engaged with the game in front of me more than with the app.
Given FFG’s history of letting games go out of print and how long it had been since they had concluded physical products for JiME, I decided to pick up everything that was out (there were some great deals, too). The biggest thing that convinced me, though, was how much I enjoyed the base game campaign, and it’s regarded as the weakest one.
LotR: Journeys in Middle-earth: 9/10 Quickly became a new favorite; I finished the first campaign in little time.
Ker Nethalas
On the rare occasion that I was ordering things from Amazon, I needed a bit more to hit free shipping, and while this was more than I needed, I was excited to try it out after watching The Dungeon Dive’s video on it. It’s sort of like a solitaire Dark Souls gamebook.
While the rules are a bit of a mess (with some notable clarity issues in the tutorial hidden in the very back of the book), and combat can be a bit repetitive without the right abilities, it was fun to dip my toes in. I haven’t had time to really dive in yet (partially because of the time spent figuring out the rules), so for now, it’s on hold. But I definitely want to get back to it.
Ker Nethalas: 7/10 (first impressions) A bit messy but fun
Middle-earth CCG (solo)
I was back at it with my dwarf deck. Sadly, this run went horribly wrong very quickly, and I called it after my 4th dwarf was killed.
I had also found a decent (not amazing) deal on a booster box of The White Hand. I was really interested in trying a fallen wizard deck, but the set, unfortunately, didn’t have any starter decks. So, in order to try it out, I needed to buy a lot, so it made sense to wait until there was a good deal on a booster box. Got some good pulls and made an Alatar deck.
Middle-earth CCG: 10/10 A game that feels like it was made for me
A Game of Thrones LCG 2nd Edition
My friend LOVES Game of Throne (the show; he doesn’t read), and after I had gotten him into card games, he ended up buying the core box for us to try. After that, he bought a full collection (including a lot of upgrades and playmats) and I made us a couple of decks. I have only a little previous experience with the game, and had only played 2nd edition that one other time with him, so there was no guaranteeing the decks would be good. But I’ve played a lot of a card games, including other FFG LCGs, so I had some idea of how to go about it (and intentionally avoided some of the more powerful cards that likely ruled the meta; we’re just here to have fun).
For myself, I made a Greyjoy ships/raiders deck. For my friend, I made a Jon Snow wildling deck. There was a lot of good back and forth (definitely more than when we played with the starter decks), but Greyjoy won in the end.
Game of Thrones LCG 2nd Edition: 8/10 One of FFG’s best LCGs
Kinfire Delve (Vainglory’s Grotto)
I had not looked into this at all, but my friend picked it up (which was very surprising; this is not his kind of theme, but he was looking for co-op card games).
I went in with no expectations, though I really dislike the flat and bland graphic design. The art’s… fine (too modern D&D for my tastes). The gameplay is pretty fun and allows for a lot of coordinating with the other player. Some co-ops are more like a shared puzzle, but this definitely had a lot of direct cooperation. And there’s no shortage of cool combos to pull off when you get things set up just right.
That said, there’s no theme. It’s dry as a bone.
Kinfire Delve: 7/10 Not bad, but probably not one I’ll be asking for at the table
Star Wars: Unlimited (Shadows of the Galaxy)
We played a couple of games of this back to back. First was my Rei deck against my friend’s new Han Solo deck (that I made for him). He’s still getting the hang of this style of game where board control and favorable trades are important aspects (not usually featured in FFG’s LCGs in the same way).
After the first game, I swapped to the Cad Bane deck I wanted to try (which shares about 6 or so cards with the Rei deck). The Cad Bane deck was super fun to play. Lots of neat tricks in this set. My friend was getting better (I recall that in the first game, he somehow had drawn all of the expensive units and few of the cheap ones, despite me loading the deck with cheap and mid-range units so it can play aggressively).
We also opened the other half of the booster box to make new decks. But we haven’t gotten to those decks yet (we’ve been distracted with Altered).
Star Wars: Unlimited: 9/10 A great game for sealed play; one box goes a long way
Altered TCG
I think this was our last game with just the starter decks before we opened some packs to make custom decks. After we split the packs, I ended up with all the ones with uniques in them! For the time, I only customized the Muna and Bravos decks.
We had also counted up the cards for the other factions (ones we didn’t have a starter for) and it wasn’t enough. Price-wise, since we were splitting the cost of a booster box, it was basically the same cost to buy a 2nd box as buying a second set of starter decks (and then splitting the factions the reverse of last time). We opted to just do a 2nd booster box.
Altered TCG: 9/10 It’s grown on me a lot; we’ll see if it has legs
Lord of the Rings: Trading Card Game (solo)
While I had previously migrated my LotR TCG collection to a bulk box, it wasn’t organized very well. It was a mess and wouldn’t be easy to bring out for some 2-player games. So, I spent some time rebuilding the starter decks so we would have something to play with. Just to fiddle with the game, I set it up and started a solo game, not intending to finish. But I couldn’t stop myself once I started, and finished it. Granted, the first starter decks were pretty weak, but it was still fun.
There was a lot of organizing left to do, however.
Lord of the Rings TCG: 9/10 A classic
Wingspan (+Oceania)
My friend had finally decided he liked Wingspan after playing it some more on BGA. So, he chose the Oceania expansion for gameday. This was the expansion with improved player boards that tried to reduce the need to just spam eggs in the final round (a very common issue in the base game).
To try out the expansion, we only played with the Oceania cards, and some lucky early draws made nectar ridiculously abundant in our game. The new effects were neat, and the new goals were interesting too. But by far, the best part were the re-balanced player boards (there sure is a common trend with this company and balance issues; at least this wasn’t about particular setups being busted).
Wingspan: 8/10 A fun game made even better with Oceania; people really need to stop hating on it for being popular
Ra
This finally came back out for a play. We all enjoyed it the first time, and it was still fun the second time. Lots of tough decisions. The tile pulls from the bag can be a little swingy sometimes, but it’s not a long game, so it’s not a huge deal. But every once in a while someone either gets really lucky or totally screwed with the tiles.
Ra: 7/10 A fun, very smooth experience
Arydia
We played this a few times to see if this was one we wanted to commit to like the Dunwich campaign for Arkham Horror LCG.
Nope.
While my brother seems to really like the game, my friend and I were still very “meh” on it after a handful of sessions. It’s a very bloated game; lots of maps, cards, minis, stuff upon stuff, and a lot of it makes only a brief appearance before being put away for the rest of the campaign, never to be used again. Not to mention how many tokens exist just to say it has 1 armor on it. But I think my biggest issues are that after exploring most of the starting map (what I assume is only the starting map) and completing a handful of jobs/quests, not only is the setting incredibly bland, the writing and stories aren’t much better. This is just not a world I have any desire to return to.
It doesn’t help that much of our time is spent shuffling things around, swapping cards, maps, placing this or that, then reading a bunch (nothing terribly interesting), swapping more stuff around, reading more, etc. for about an hour before we finally get to engage in gameplay. But the real meat of the game (literally most of the rules) is combat. Which is a lot of rules and fiddling around to roll a d20 and maybe do 2-3 points of damage.
Graphic design also has some major blunders of not including vital pieces of information where it needs to be.
Arydia: 6/10 Not bad, just over-designed combat and bland setting/writing
Lord of the Rings: Trading Card Game (solo)
I had re-read the books and re-watched the movies last year, but I was still deep in LotR, so I re-watched the movies again earlier this year. I also spent a lot of time actually organizing my collection, rebuilding starter decks so they’re ready to play, and making some dividers. Haven’t finished with the dividers, but they work pretty well.
I also ordered some cards and decks (nothing too expensive) to plug in some holes for the movie block. I didn’t actually have anything from the Return of the King block, but was able to get a great deal on the starter decks. I also found the two Black Rider decks for very cheap and grabbed those because why not.
I also had started getting cards to make the starters legal-sized decks (they’re a bit small out of the box). I used the LotRTCG Online versions of the deck lists to find what to put in. In some cases, there were a few other changes to the decks.
I also played some more solo games. After messing with more starter decks, I decided to make a deck that was the whole Fellowship. It was a very silly deck fighting against a Shadow deck that mixed all the major threats from the movie (Nazgul, Moria orcs, and Uruk-Hai). After the first run of the deck, I made some adjustments. It’s fun but silly.
LotR TCG: 9/10 Still a classic!
Lord of the Rings LCG
While I was hesitant about getting Journeys in Middle-earth and ended up loving it, I was also considering getting the revised core box of the LCG. But after playing my friend’s copy, now I’m glad I didn’t.
We played the Mirkwood scenario but with the separate starter deck products (not the ones that come in the core box). I figured it would give the game the best chance, even though I knew the core scenarios also weren’t great. The decks were definitely more fun than the base decks, but the game still has a lack of theme.
I was going to look into the Fellowship of the Ring campaign next, since the campaigns are supposed to be really good. If those scenarios still don’t quite deliver what we’re looking for, it’s probably time to give up on this one for good.
Lord of the Rings LCG: 7/10 Fun with good decks, but I keep wanting to like it more
Altered TCG
We finally played some with customized decks, once again, Muna vs. Axiom. It was certainly closer than last time.
It was nice getting to explore some of the more specific strategies of the factions and not just a tiny sample of what the faction can do (with lots of vanilla cards). The anchor/boost dancing Muna can do is pretty fun.
Sadly, I decided that the Dragon Shield art sleeves I bought just weren’t great. They have a rough shuffle to them and I don’t like the style of matte backing they use. The Gamegenic art sleeves have a way smoother shuffle; some of the flattest sleeves I’ve ever seen.
Altered TCG: 9/10 Great fun with custom decks
Dragon Shield art sleeves: 5/10 Expensive for sleeves that don’t have a smooth shuffle
Ostia
We finally had a chance to try this out after hearing a lot of good things about it. And it’s certainly a great production.
I really enjoyed the customization of the mancala, but we felt that there wasn’t quite enough depth for frequent replays? There aren’t many strategies to pursue, so by the end of the game, players have all done most things. It’s not as bad as when we played Endless Winter where the winning player basically did everything and left no strategy to explore next time. There’s a lot of variability, for sure, but it’s mostly minor differences. We’re not sure if it’s going to create wildly different strategic approaches like in The White Castle.
It definitely offers some satisfying crunch without too much rules overhead. Maybe one of the expansions will add what we’re looking for.
Ostia: 7/10 (first impressions) A good game that hides its limited strategies behind a lot of setup variability
Pokémon TCG (Pre-con Decks)
After having played some sealed with the Build & Battle Boxes and limited constructed, my friend wanted to try some of the stand-alone pre-con decks they sell. He was in search of what Pokémon product he might want to buy. He ended up buying a few different things like League Decks and World Championship Decks.
I forget what these were, but we’ve yet to try the World Championship Decks. They’re neat, but they do kind of highlight some of the issues the game suffers from at high-end play. Namely, lots of searching your deck and reshuffling.
Pokémon TCG: 8/10 A really fun game that’s easy to pull out whenever
Pre-con Decks: 7/10 Neat but not the experience we’re looking for
Unmatched (Witcher)
Unmatched has been one of our recent go-to games when we’ve got extra time to kill. It’s such a quick game, and each time, it’s easier to hop right into.
This time we tried out the new Witcher set, Geralt vs. the Ancient Leshen. Dandelion didn’t really do anything, and it was over pretty quickly with Geralt ripping the Leshen to shreds. I really like the variety each fighter brings. I’m surprised how differently they can play.
Unmatched: 8/10 A breezy skirmish game with loads of fun variation
Reavers of Midgard
I was in the mood for a more laid-back Euro that showered you in resources, and that’s exactly what Reavers of Midgard is.
It probably could have used some streamlining, and at least a bit more tightening up, but it was pretty fun. The game is so generous with various stuff, I feel like too many resources would run out at 4-players! Quite the table hog, too.
Reavers of Midgard: 7/10 A fun game but probably not one I’d often be in the mood for
Fleet
We’ve played a couple of times on BGA but this was our first game at the table. It was a lot easier to get back into this time around. It’s a bit of a quirky game that doesn’t play the way you’d think.
It’s very much about the auctions. You need a license in order to catch fish (or even launch a boat), but the licenses also come with special bonuses. Without them, you’re heavily restricted in different aspects from card draws, money (which comes from cards in-hand), launching boats, captains. But they can also build into fun combos that get more powerful the more of the same license you own.
Fleet: 8/10 A really unique, smooth card game; can’t wait to try out an expansion or solo
SETI
Somehow, my friend, who is really into space themes and heavy Euros, had not looked into this at all. But he ended up picking it up from hearing about it and my brother talking about it. My brother ended up borrowing it to play 2-player (he had also tried it solo).
It’s got a lot going on, but it doesn’t take too long to get the hang of it. The flow feels a bit like Terraforming Mars; taking actions until you run out of things to do, then drawing cards and getting income to ready for the next round. But SETI isn’t really about building an engine, though you have several areas where you can improve actions and increase various incomes.
However, 2-player didn’t work that great. Some parts of the game just don’t get used as much, and some aliens definitely benefit from more players than just 2. But we look forward to trying it 3-player.
SETI: 7/10 (first impressions) A neat game that is likely better at 3
Brass: Lancashire
We’ve played Birmingham a handful of times, but this was our first play of Lancashire. It’s still mostly the same game, but the two versions definitely change things up.
Lancashire makes it a bit easier selling goods since you don’t have to worry about Beer, and you can also build your own links to outside markets. But money felt very tight in this one. There also weren’t as many building types, so it was more about how deep you went with your chosen path rather than doing completely different things from other players. Turn order remains possibly the most important part of the entire game, though. Going last at the change in era is brutal.
Brass: Lancashire: 8/10 Just as good as Birmingham; there’s probably room for both
Pokémon TCG (Pre-con Decks)
I don’t remember which deck types these were. It’s hard to really tell the products apart. One thing we had an issue with was that these decks search your deck for all kinds of stuff (so lots of reshuffling), but there’s not much card draw and few ways of getting energy. If you don’t draw into energy, you’re kind of stuck.
Perseverance: Episode 2
It’s been a long time since we last played this. It’s a tough one to bring back out, it’s just so huge and has so many rules and mechanics. For some reason, my brother thinks it’s no big deal.
It’s still a fun game, but I wonder if episode 3 or 4 might be better just by streamlining things more. There’s just so much stuff that interrupts the turn here, you sometimes have to do like 4 turns’ worth of stuff in one turn, and it can take a while to get through, leading to notable downtime issues.
Perseverance: (Episode 2): 7/10 Fun but it’s just a lot of work; I wish it were more streamlined
Altered TCG
We played a couple of games this time with our customized decks, this time Ordis vs. Muna. Best I could do was go to a tie-breaker ending in one game (which I had terrible draws for and lost without being able to put up a fight). Ordis tokens is incredibly strong in a game with very limited direct removal and almost no board wipes. I wonder what the competitive scenes looks like. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be doing well in the US, but is doing much better in Europe.
Altered TCG: 9/10 Great fun with custom decks, even if Ordis is overpowered!
Lord of the Rings: Trading Card Game
It was finally time to bring this out for a 2-player game. I hadn’t played it 2-player since back in the day when the game was active. We just played the starter decks since the game has a bit of a learning curve (not too much) and the decks are actually good for learning the game. My friend had never played before but was a big fan of the movies. He had even re-watched them recently and it reminded him how great they were.
We had actually played the Harry Potter TCG some time before this, but the starter decks for that were so awful and brain-dead lame, we still don’t consider to have played the HP TCG. It has completely changed my perspective of starter decks. The early LotR TCG decks still weren’t great for showing off the different strategies, but they do a solid job of introducing the game without being completely boring (like HP).
After this, we decided to play through the movie block, set by set. I’ll be making the decks since I have the cards and am familiar with the game (I can also avoid all the many busted deck archetypes or build more balanced versions of them). Since the game is very well dead, we have no rush to play it, so we’ll take our time getting through it. First decks will be an Aragorn/Sauron deck (his) vs. Elves/Nazgul (mine).
LotR TCG: 9/10 It was great playing 2-player again after so long
Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth
My brother and I started trying to get more games played at home 2-player. We try to squeeze in one or two plays a week in the evening. I decided to pick Journeys in Middle-earth since I was considering starting another solo campaign (probably of the first expansion). Since it was my brother’s first time with it, we just did the base game. So far, he’s been enjoying it. We’re playing on adventure mode since that’s definitely the mode he’d prefer; I’ll probably play on normal for my solo plays in the future.
LotR Journeys in Middle-earth: 9/10 Still great at 2-player
Glen More II: Chronicles
It’s been a while for this one too. This time, we added a couple of other small chronicles to the mix, the whiskey aging chronicle and the one that changes landmarks (I don’t remember the names or chronicle number).
The game is still a lot of fun, but I think I’m a bit lukewarm on the two chronicles. The landmark one might be too powerful; if you don’t get in on them, you’re likely going to fall behind. But I also had a lot of competition for the people tiles, and I struggled finding anything that wasn’t getting gobbled up. All I could do is try to sell resources for points.
Glen More II: 7/10 A really smooth, fun game with lots of chronicles to explore
Gudnak
My friend has been looking at more competitive card games, especially non-collectible ones, and this popped up at just the right time.
While it’s another one of those “like Chess but with cards” kind of games, it actually is very streamlined and more Chess-like than a lot of them. Every action has to be carefully considered. The art’s kind of kooky but not bad. We only played starter decks this time, but we’ll probably build our decks next time.
Gudnak: 7/10 (first impressions) A fun, tactical card game with easy deck-building
Millennium Blades
There was a recent sale for this and my friend grabbed a copy after asking me about it. While it doesn’t really play like a trading card game, it does a pretty fun job of exploring the theme, and now my friend was more versed in that world.
My brother was still unsure about the real-time aspect and decided not to play. Unfortunately, that meant we had to use the 2-player rules which changed things up, primarily removing scoring and just making it a best-of-3 game (which actually does make it a bit more like a TCG). The real-time part really isn’t that strict, and you quickly get the hang of things. By the end of each real-time phase, my friend and I actually had time to spare after finishing our decks and collections (and running out of money).
The art is… fine. It lands more in “cartoony” than “anime” despite their best efforts. And while there’s a bit of take-that in the game, it was ultimately pretty minor, and would be easy to just not use. Your deck has to be pretty small (it’s really just a hand of cards used during the tournament phase), so it’s not like you’d need to use them. The tournaments were fun where you finally get to test the little engine you built during the first half of each round. It’s also interesting that you can improve or completely change your deck for each tournament; you get to look at so many cards during the real-time phase.
Millennium Blades: 7/10 (first impressions) Fun and very different; I could see this going up with more plays
Hubworld: Aidalon
As soon as Team Covenant had covered this and the demo decks came in, I was dying to try it out. We had never actually gotten around to trying out Netrunner (though I’ve watched a number of videos on it), but we were both very interested to see what Hubworld did. We had to improvise the tokens. I had some tokens that worked for shards and heat, but we needed action markers (borrowed from Galactic Cruise) and a first-player marker (just a toy train from Japan).
It certainly shares a lot of DNA with Netruner, it streamlines a bit and also removes the asymmetry, so you don’t need to learn 2 games at once. For demo decks that aren’t finalized, they play really well and they look great. The art has really grown on both of us; the world has a lot of character and detail to it. And the decisions can be very tough and nuanced. Sometimes, just taking an extra shard (money) or drawing a card is the right call. Also how you build your grid matters, but don’t forget you can just move a card as an action!
Hubworld: Aidalon: 8/10 Can’t wait to play again, and definitely want to see more
Monumental Duel (Exploration)
My brother borrowed this to try out since it’s 2-player only. We played a couple of times.
The system is really neat, and I like the variety of things to do and different ways to build your deck. Though, it’s quite the table hog for such a small card game (the box is small but could have probably been even smaller). Lots of cards displayed all over the place; my photo is only of my player area and two discard piles on the left.
The downside is that, clearly, the small amount of cards are spread too thin to make up all these offers and decks. Both games felt pretty similar, and you’ll be able to do most things in the game. Very few cards actually get discarded from the offer; most get bought up to replace your starter cards (which are pretty easy to cull from your deck). So after two games, it doesn’t feel like there’s anything left to explore in the game. It feels pretty played out other than mixing boxes and trying different factions.
Monumental Duel: 7/10 A neat system with almost no replay-ability in a single box; you need to buy the other Duel releases
Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth
We continued our 2-player campaign. This was the first battle map of the campaign. I like that some scenarios are shorter, with a more “zoomed-in” encounter. I knew what to expect this time and things went better.
Galactic Cruise
Hubworld: Aidalon’s action tokens are from a real game!
While this certainly has the look and gameplay of a Vital Lacerda (and not by accident), it’s actually smoother than his more recent games (though we’ve not played his most recent).
There’s definitely a learning curve, as is the case with any heavy Euro, and it could have used a bit of streamlining (lots of “get a little bonus here, get an extra resource here” everywhere, it’s almost hard to keep track of), but things felt a lot easier after a while. We were able to launch a lot more cruises by the end, and I barely squeaked the resources together to launch another one on my last turn.
There’s not much to mechanically set it apart from most modern Euros, especially Lacerdas. But the developments that you sprinkle around the main action area are interesting, letting you build a limited network of linked actions while also acting as setups for what actions you can take when you need to recall workers. I kind of wish the game had leaned more into this system as it’s the part that’s most unique to the game.
Galactic Cruise: 7/10 (first impressions) A pretty solid heavy Euro overall
Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth
The third scenario is when the game properly opens up, giving you more freedom and more things to do. While it’s certainly not as large as some of the other maps, it’s the first one to introduce side quests where you can earn extra lore, titles, or items. By the end of this one, we earned our second trinket and a title (Legolas is appropriately the Dwarf-friend).
Summit
My friend and I really get into survival themes, so he was very excited to finally get this to the table after owning it for years unplayed.
Firstly, the rulebook is deceptively terrible. It’s not great while reading it (it repeats itself a bit too much, has some organization issues, image examples aren’t great, and uses the tiniest icons you’ve ever seen), you don’t fully appreciate how bad it is until you go to play and find that maybe they forgot some rules or confused overly casual language for game terminology. And why are the Sherpas on the board away from the players instead of giving each player their own Sherpa board so they can actually read the items they have access to and reach the supply cubes?
That said, the gameplay is fine. Despite all the rules—and there are a lot of rules—it’s really not a complex game. They just do a poor job explaining it. However, as a co-op, there’s pretty limited ways to actually cooperate. Sometimes, you draw your hand of tiles and realize they’re all bad and you hope someone else has good tiles. Some of the items are also very situational and just slow you down while you wait to see if they’ll ever be useful.
And the game can be brutal. The events are wildly random. You could draw a good one and get free supplies, or your Sherpa could die (your means of resupplying and holding extra gear), leaving you hopelessly without necessary supplies. Sure, players can exchange oxygen, but you can’t trade food.
Summit: 6/10 (first impressions) Fun despite its issues; it could really use a 2nd edition
Furnace
After Summit, it was very amusing how short Furnace’s rulebook is, with effectively only 2 pages of game rules. It’s an incredibly streamlined game for how much crunchiness it gives you.
The auction system feels similar to Ra in that you can math out each bid and know if and when you can guarantee to get the card you want. It also has a feel of London with running the engine you’ve built, one card at a time (the setting is pretty close, too). It actually feels like a Martin Wallace game. And I love that a failed bid isn’t really “failed” because you get a reward anyway from compensation, and you can lean into it and setup a big compensation payout. And it’s a quick game for how much meat it has.
Furnace: 8/10 A really smooth, crunchy Euro card game
Ticket to Ride: Japan
It’s been a while since we’ve played Ticket to Ride. My brother’s not really a fan of the game but is willing to play it. I enjoy it but it’s not a favorite; it’s just very light. My friend has some nostalgia for it since it’s one of the earliest games he got into the hobby with. But it’s still fun.
The Japan map doesn’t make huge changes, but the bullet trains (shinkansen) were interesting. It added an almost semi-coop element with public routes anyone could use. But it still maintained a race aspect because you earned points depending on how much you helped build them. But that’s kind of all the map did. The “zoomed-in” cities were probably just a way to cheat more routes into a small map.
Ticket to Ride: 7/10 Fun but not one I gravitate towards
TtR: Japan map: 7/10 A minor twist on the game but a neat map
Dinosaur World
After recently watching the Jurassic World movies (just the first two), I was a bit in the mood for a dinosaur park game. We’ve played DinoGenics several times, and it’s on my top 100, but I felt like trying a new one this time, and my friend also had Dinosaur World sitting unplayed for some time now.
I never had much interest in Dinosaur Island; just doesn’t really have much theme to it, and it’s focused so much on the DNA to buy dinosaurs and park management, the dinosaurs themselves barely played any role in the game. It’s a lot different in DW.
DW has a lot more going on, but that gives them more space to explore the more interesting aspects of the theme. For one, the dinosaurs now matter! The park management is also a lot more involved. You build a sort of engine with your park attractions because you only get to use tiles you visit with your jeep and they weaken each time you use them. There are some odd things about the game, like what the jeep income bonuses are supposed to represent or why your workers only go to work if a tour comes by to watch them? But it’s not that big of a deal.
And overall, I like how generous the game is with resources. If you need money or DNA, you can probably get what you need, you just might have to make inefficient moves to get it. But it means your plans are very rarely foiled by scarcity of resources. And most of the game is multiplayer solitaire (which none of us mind, and my brother vastly prefers that), so there’s little worry of other players getting in your way. The threat dice, however, can ruin your day on their own (as they cost me the game).
Dinosaur World: 7/10 (first impressions) A surprisingly different Euro that holds up against DinoGenics; it might go up for me with more plays
Unmatched (T-Rex vs. Sherlock Holmes)
We had some time after DW, and we had recently talked about getting Unmatched out more often, so it made sense to play it. And of course, to follow up Dinosaur World, I picked the T-Rex as my fighter. We thought it was time to get weird with our match-ups and my friend picked Sherlock Holmes.
Both were pretty straightforward fighters (Sherlock doesn’t even have special rules). The T-Rex is just big, has extra melee reach, but its cards are very different. It hurts itself a lot (but starts with a massive health pool) but can also earn extra actions a lot and boost attacks (terrifying). It also has some pretty good boosting since its normal movement is only 1 (though it has some fun ways of appearing seemingly out of nowhere, what I’m sure was a nod to its suspicious appearance at the end of the original movie).
Sherlock apparently does a lot of guessing and can do all sorts of things if he gets it right. Didn’t save him from getting eaten by a T-Rex.
Unmatched: 8/10 A breezy skirmish game with loads of fun variation
Jurassic Park (T-Rex): 9/10 I’m definitely playing the T-Rex next time we play the co-op mode