Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
Talisman: New Characters for Digital Game
Recently Nomad Games released a bunch of new characters along with Legendary decks for the Talisman digital app (the base game of which is currently 80% off on Steam for a few more hours if you act now!)
Today we’re going to examine the three new characters Nomad Games released: The Swordsman, the Ranger, and the Witch Finder. A post later this week will talk about the Legendary decks.
All three of them are interesting in their own right, but one of them seems to break the AI in ways that are kind of annoying.
Let’s talk about the Swordsman first.
The Swordsman is actually one of the more interesting ones because of its weapon ability.
He always starts with a Sword, and if you lose it, he can just get another one if he goes to the Village or Castle.
Boardgame Geek Top 100 – Played or Play? 100-91
It’s no secret that I’ve been in a bit of blog doldrums over the last couple of weeks. The social isolation and not playing many games (none until last weekend, actually) except the apps that I do asynchronously, plus getting really busy at work (not that I’m complaining about that because at least I have a job that I can do remotely) has caused the number of posts on this blog to plummet.
But then I started trying to catch up on some of the blogs that I follow but haven’t been reading as much as I should have, and I happened upon a post at the Boards & Bees blog by Asutbone (Jesse Hickle on Twitter).
(By the way, he runs a great blog and you should check it out).
The series of posts in question consist of Jesse going through the BGG Top 100 games and talking about the ones that he hasn’t played yet.
Because I take inspiration from wherever I can get it, and because I’m nothing if not original (Editor: *cough* *cough*), I thought I would expand on that idea and use it to get me through what has become a tried and true funk.
Why don’t I go through the Top 100 games on BGG and comment on all of them? The ones I’ve played, the ones I haven’t, the ones that I may want to play some day and the ones that I have absolutely no interest in?
And, just to avoid looking like a copycat, I’ll be original and count down from #100 rather than counting up from #1.
Because that’s how I roll.
So with all of that being said, let’s get this show started!
After I’ve had my nap.
Dead Reckoning from AEG coming to Kickstarter This Summer
Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) just announced that the new card-crafting pirate game designed by John D. Clair is coming to Kickstarter this Summer.
I played this game at Dice Tower West in February and really loved it. I love the card-crafting genre anyway (though not all iterations of it) and this one seems to be another winner.
It’s almost a pirate sandbox game!
How can you go wrong with that?
You can sign up now to be alerted when the Kickstarter goes live.
Which I would highly suggest you do.
Here’s another couple pictures to whet your whistle.
As for my absence lately, I do have some stuff planned for the next few weeks that will hopefully get me out of the posting doldrums.
Keep an eye out or hey, why not subscribe to/follow the blog (handy buttons over there on the right) and you’ll get to see what comes next?
Are you going to be signing up for this one?
Let me know in the comments.
Blood Rage coming to Steam on May 27
And it’s discounted until then!
I know it’s been a long while since I’ve posted. Apologies for that.
What could bring me out of my blogging doldrums?
How about the news that the hit board game Blood Rage is coming for Steam on May 27?
I admit that I have never played Blood Rage on the table (Editor: You heathen!) but I’ve heard it’s a very cool game.
In Blood Rage (designed by Eric Lang and published on the table by Cool Mini or Not), each player controls their own Viking clan that will be raiding and pillaging across the board because Ragnarok has come! (who knew that the spell-checker would actually know how to spell Ragnarok?)
Spirit Island Coming to Steam Early Access April 16
Another day, another app post.
One day, this blog will get back to face to face board gaming.
But in the mean time, the wonderful folks at Handelabra Games announced over the long weekend that Spirit Island, the cooperative game where players are the natives of an island trying to resist being encroached on by horrible colonizers, will be coming to Steam Early Access on April 16.
How do I know this?
Well, this showed up in my email box on Friday.
So I think I’m safe in saying that this is a thing.
I’ve only played Spirit Island once and I did enjoy it, but it wasn’t a game that really hit all of my “I must play this again!” buttons. It was a big hit when it came out in 2017 (by Greater Than Games and designed by R. Eric Reuss) and it’s still pretty popular. (Editor – “That’s an understatement, it’s #13 on Boardgame Geek!)
Boardgame Apps – Steam Sales
After yesterday’s Through the Ages app review (still on sale until April 10!), I thought I’d pass along a few other Steam sales that are going on for popular and excellent boardgame apps that you might want to try out since you’re as socially isolated as I am right now.
I may comment on the app itself if I’ve played it, but otherwise this is just a suggestion for something you might want to try since you’re stuck at home.
Most of these (at least the ones I’ve played) are worth the full price too, in case you find this post much after April 10 and they’re not on sale anymore. Or flag them until you see them on sale again!
Of course, you could try online gaming platforms other than apps too.
Prices are in Canadian, but I assume the percentage of the sale is the same regardless of currency. Sorry I can’t give you US$.
Isle of Skye (Digidiced) – $1.99 (75% off until April 10)
Isle of Skye is an interesting tile-laying game where you are trying to build the best clan territory in some kind of Middle Ages Scotland. You and the other players are clan leaders trying to impress the people with your territory so you might become king!
It has asynchronous multiplayer and Digidiced always does good apps. Previously for asynchronous play, there was a bug where only the player who finished the game could see the final score. I don’t know if it still has the same problem, but for $1.99 how can you go wrong?
It’s a fun little game.
App Review – Through the Ages
With social distancing and us isolating ourselves, apps are becoming even more important in our boardgaming lives.
For the longest time, I’ve been referencing how awesome the Through the Ages app from Czech Games Edition is, but I’ve never actually, you know, reviewed it and such.
While I’m here and while this blog is getting tons of hits for online gaming, let’s rectify that little issue, shall we?
Through the Ages is one of the more complex games I’ve played, but the app makes it so easy. The original base game came out in 2006 and was designed by Vlaada Chvátil and was published by (hey, this sounds familiar) CGE.
When the app came out in 2017, it was based on the revised edition of the game, Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization (2015) that reworked a bunch of the cards and rebalanced the game some.
In a nice switch, when the New Leaders & Wonders expansion came out in 2019, it came out for the app first.
The app is brilliant and the game is pretty damned good too.
Let’s do a short overview of the game before I go onto the app (while you already know it’s awesome, read on to find out just why it’s so great).
AEG & The OP bring Marvel Comics to Smash Up
Late last year came the news that Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) and The OP (formerly USAOpoly) were joining forces to bring licensed characters to the Smash Up universe.
Finally, yesterday, the announcement came as to what the first team-up will actually be: Smash Up: Marvel.
I’ve actually known this since Dice Tower West, as during my game of Dead Reckoning Alederac CEO John Zinser told me but I was sworn to secrecy. I’ve been chomping at the bit to release this news!
How will this work?
Let’s take a quick look.
Board & Dice Announcement – Tawantinsuyu!
Say that 3 times fast.
I received an email from Board & Dice overnight with a cool new announcement! They keep coming with these things.
Yes, it’s Board & Dice with another unpronounceable board game name (though the picture shows that they obviously don’t think it is!)
Tawantinsuyu is the new game coming from the brilliant mind of David Turczi.
I can just see the pitch now.
Labyrinth: the War on Terror – Early Access on Steam – First Look
With all of us hopefully staying indoors for a large part of our day for the foreseeable future, digital boardgaming apps (as well as online gaming, but that’s not what this post is about) are becoming more and more important in our lives.
This brings me to last week’s release of Labyrinth: the War on Terror on Steam Early Access. If you follow this blog, you saw my excitement when this was announced.
Labyrinth: the War on Terror is by GMT Games and released in app form by Playdek, one of the masters of boardgame apps in my opinion. They certainly have asynchronous multiplayer down to an art form.
The game was designed by Volko Ruhnke and came out in 2010.
What is Labyrinth: the War on Terror?
Let’s take a look, and then talk about the app.
Dude! Take Your Turn! 