There is also a set collection aspect - scoring based on the nations and company types. That has always been in, though. Not sure if the mass-produced version added more.
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The new version of QE is great. It adds the flexibility of playing at 3-5 players while retaining as much of the old ruleset as possible with the change. The Scoring is almost exactly the same as the first edition (companies are worth points, getting your country is worth points, getting your industry is worth points, etc). If you liked the first edition you’ll like the Second Edition.
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I have played a few more games of Aegean Sea via TTS since I last discussed it and I continue to come back to it. I think there’s a really compelling game here that is a unique entry in the Chudyk lineup. I’m starting to get a better feel for how I think it’s supposed to play and the general rhythm of the game. It does seem to draw a bit from Innovation, in that you don’t so much chain a sequence of cards in a single turn as you do progress decisively through various board states - but in pieces instead of one go.
I’ve been trying to figure out where this game fits in my cabinet and how it’s supposed to feel, and I honestly think that would be helped with finalized artwork. I know what the game is about, but visual reinforcement of that would go a long way to making it feel right.
The interactivity is wild. Faction asymmetry is stronger than I thought, and the faction balance in any game creates very different boards. We played with Crete, Rhodes, and Athens recently, and the Cretan pirates nuked the board twice, effectively cancelling out the progress both Athens and Rhodes had made.
I believe this game suffers a lot in TTS. I get a feeling that this would work better in person for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it needs to feel closer and more personal. It seems like it wants to be a game of brinksmanship, and you lose a certain something trying to posture at people over the Internet. It’s also hard to just sorta look around and see everything, and knowing whether or not a player is about to refresh their hand - for example - is one of those vital pieces of information that is more easily gleaned in person than in TTS.
I feel like this really is headed into a proper “board” game than a more typical Chudyk “card” game. There’s a central physical space we’re all manipulating, and I wonder if it would be more engaging with something more chunky and physical than a bunch of cards.
Overall, I am still pretty interested in this game, and am increasingly likely to buy it if it’s ever finalized. It’s definitely not for everyone, though; it’s more akin to an aloof strategy game than a constantly-engaged card game like Mottainai, GtR, or Innovation. I can’t see myself playing consecutive games of it; it feels very much like something I’d play once a week.
I also feel like I’d probably be satisfied after a single play in a night.
So, promising, sorta awkward placement in Chudosphere, may have been better as a proper board game but I’m still into the fiddly card nonsense nature of it.
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Just when you thought there couldn’t be more, there’s more.
Huge layoffs at FFG.
Apparently this is true. Comments say they had a mold problem at the factory. Many copies of the game have an awful poop/vomit smell. Don’t buy any RftG unless you can smell it and be sure.
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The former owner backed Hnefatafl at the Anglo-Saxon King tier.
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Just saw that article. I have a friend who does period beadmaking that is looking at duplicating it. Might convince her to make a whole set that way!
Of course, also, archaeology being what it is, the actual use of that piece is extremely speculative.
Said “raid” on Lindisfarne was later found to be one of the first “Tabletop Gaming Conventions” that got out of hand.
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The [E]nglish tried to fight off the Norse who had clearly not showered or applied deodorant.
Excuse me we were the clean ones, the English were dirty and smelly.
http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/viking/viking-male-grooming
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I know. I only reversed it because English starts with E, so I was able to incorporate the [E]nforcer reference.
Happened to play Scythe for the first time on Sunday.
I had completely forgotten all reviews about it and so just thought of it as a dudes on a map area control game which it was but it was also a euro at the same time. Rondel-esque mechanics for the turn actions, randomization of faction and player mats making each experience unique in a way combined with multiple victory paths and I can see how it blew up on BBG at the time it came out. I don’t think it does any particular thing well, but it does all of them good enough that I could see enjoying learning different strategy prioritization and interactions with other players based on starting location and numbers of players.
I played it once. I mistook it as just a Euro only, so it turned out poorly. It’s actually just a political dudes on map game like Risk. However, you have to be good enough at the Euro to be able to have any impact on the dudes on map aspect. Sort of like how RTS and Fighting games are actually about all these strategies, positioning, bluffing, and such, but you have to be good enough at fast and precise button pressing to be able to access that game.
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The more I hear about Scythe, the more it sounds like Cones of Dunshire
- everybody claims it’s the game even though barely anyone you know personally has played it
- it’s got really cool sounding theme utterly consumed by mechanical minutia
- most people don’t know a thing about how it works so they assume it’s brilliant.
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I’ve played three or four games of Scythe, and we’ve yet to not fuck up an important rule each game.
Next time someone suggests it, I’m going to push for Root instead.
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I pretty much agree with your take on Scythe. Other than the stuff you mentioned, my biggest problem with it is that it’s really hard (at least for me) to predict when the game is going to end. There’s so much going on that having to track how close every other player is to reaching the end state, and trying to figure out the various ways they could end the game, just became too much for me.
While I’ve played the base game multiple times, I’ve never played it with the second expansion that changes the end game conditions so that the game ends after a specific number of rounds. For me, I think that would make the game a lot more enjoyable.
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We were playing a 2 man game so the political aspect was completely occluded. I think helping mitigate it being who wins Risk question is that there are hidden or fast victory stars (1 objective star, 2 combat stars) that can just let someone close it out fast if they want to. I think also with more people the mental capacity to track everyone’s board state (which is public) to determine actual positions would be unlikely and there is even a rule variant to deduct end-game points whenever some wastes time at the table on their turn by trying to calculate end game score.