I'm Saddened... (Board Games)

I never played Xeno Invasion. What’s in it?

Arc 3, so you mix the new cards with the base cards (no Gathering Storm etc). 51 new cards, which is about the size of GS + RvI. Also, when you play with XI all explores are mix-with-hand (which makes Explore +5 useful for building combos).

The “invasion game” has a separate deck of cards that manage the relative strength of a hostile xeno invasion force that attacks everyone’s tableau, unless the players collectively have enough military (and military vs xenos) to fend them off each round. Production-y players contribute goods to the war effort for bonuses and VPs. The extra stuff fits in really naturally (similar to the stockpile goals from New Frontiers).

Orb Exploration is skating the limits of “Boxing Chess”.

Yeah… I really wanted that to be good but it distracts too much from the part of the game that’s actually RftG. Xeno Invasion is a much more successful addition.

This is what I’ve read all over the place. I own the Orb expansion and have still never actually used the orb - just the additional cards.

download

trumpInSaudiArabiaOrb.jpg

http://www.dicetowernews.com/rio-grande-announces-puerto-rico-expansions/56924

Back in print for the first time in forever.

The noble thing looks like it just gives people a viable alternative end game engine. If other players already bought all the harbors and factories, just go nobles instead. That’s kinda meh. The whole point is to fight over the limited buildings.

I like the cloister, though. It’s often meaningless what to get with the settler after the early game, so this fixes that slightly.

I guess two forests are a quarry that doesn’t need colonists in it? Again, just adding more to the game in case quarries run out, you don’t get burned.

Trading post is the dumbest. It’s effectively almost identical to the office. The difference is so small, and in most cases I think an office is just better. Both of them mean you can always trade no matter what. But with the Office you can block a spot on the global trading house to prevent someone else from trading. With the trading post you trade, but you don’t stop anyone else from trading. Unless somehow it lets you trade twice, once in each house.

Library is very interesting and generally powerful. But the opportunity cost of buying it might mean you lose the race in buying something bigger, or that it won’t matter much because the game will end before you get a lot of use out of it.

FWIW, this is a reprint of the expansions that came out in the mid-2000s, and were later repackaged by Rio Grande in the Alea Treasure Chest and the Anniversary Edition. The rules for the building expansion require that players draft the violet buildings that will be in a given game, and require the costs to match those of the “original” set of buildings.

I wrote a Python script in 2013 to randomize building sets, and other people have done similar things. I should probably rewrite this like the web apps I did for Root and Paris Connection.

https://pence.github.io/root/
https://pence.github.io/sncf/

In that case meh.

I have those expansions. They’re meh.

I got the treasure chest, no one wanted to play with expansions.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtWLF99h6KX/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=vla04aq6qvrc

You go too far. You am play gods!

I can’t believe I put off A Feast for Odin for so long. It’s been a long time since I was so excited after 3 hour plus plays for the next time I get to dive into a game. There are so many options but it never feels overwhelming and you feel like you can pursue any strategy and it’ll be viable.

2 Likes

oh no

https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/02/15/1726226/0/en/Funko-Acquires-Award-Winning-Board-Game-Studio.html

https://youtu.be/iUA3ZI1galM

1 Like

My brain saw ASL in the context of tabletop gaming and took a full minute to process it correctly. Advanced Squad Leader - Wikipedia