Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
Review – Le Havre : Inland Port
I’ve never done well with a number of Uwe Rosenberg’s “big” games (A Feast for Odin, Agricola, Caverna, etc), which I’m sure is my problem and not his. I can see the good design in them, but they’re just not for me (though I don’t mind Caverna that much).
One of the cool things about him and these games, though, is that he often later creates 2-player versions of them that are slimmed down and perhaps more appealing to those of us who bounce off of the originals.
Le Havre: Inland Port is an example of what I’m talking about, at least thematically (the description says that it shares design elements with Ora et Labora, but I’ve never played that so I couldn’t comment).
Le Havre: Inland Port was designed by Rosenberg with art by Klemens Franz. It was published in 2012 by Z-Man Games.
Yes, I know! A timely review!!! (Editor- you’re going to review Chess next, aren’t you?)
Anyway, let’s see how it works.
Fox in the Forest Duet – Coming From Renegade Games Studios & Foxtrot Games
I’m a big fan of the 2-player trick-taking game The Fox in the Forest, published by Foxtrot Games and Renegade Games. It’s a really interesting to see a game like that work well with 2 players (though I am aware since that review that there are more out there).
But whoever heard of a 2-player cooperative trick-taking game?
Renegade Games and Foxtrot (as well as designer Charles Wright) have!
And now, so have you.
That’s right.
In January 2020, they are releasing The Fox in the Forest Duet (that’s a nice take-off on how so many 2-player versions of bigger games are called “Duel.”).
Not a lot has been released about this (the announcement just came today, actually), so let’s blurb the page instead!
That’s what real journalists do, right? (Editor: you keep believing that, sport)
“Work together to play tricks and move through the forest. Use the special abilities of the characters to exchange cards with each other, the let your teammate follow with any card, and more. Win as a team by collecting all the gems, but be careful to stay on the path and not get lost in the forest! “
The game is set to play in 30 minutes and takes (duh) 2 players.
Since I like the original so much, I definitely have to check this one out.
It’s available on the Renegade site for pre-order at $15.00.
Stay tuned to Renegade, Foxtrot, or hopefully even me for more information as it comes out.
Really looking forward to seeing how this works!
What do you think of this? Or even the original game?
Let me know in the comments.
App Review – Talisman: Origins
Talisman has a reputation for being a long-ass game that starts to outstay its welcome on the table. That being said, it does have tons of fans and a bunch of expansions have been released for it, so somebody must like it.
I’ve never played it on the table, but I have enjoyed the app version against AI players (once again, no asynchronous multiplayer, though I can see how it might be difficult in this case). Playing against numerous AI opponents, though, can be a bit of a drag.
Nomad Games came up with a solution to that, though: story-based single-player Talisman!
That’s the conceit behind Talisman: Origins, developed by Nomad to tell individual stories within the Talisman universe.
It’s an interesting conceit, and makes for some entertaining game play as well.
Of course, this is only if you don’t hate roll and move games to begin with.
New to Me – August 2019
It’s September, and it’s hard to believe the school year’s about to start. Where has 2019 gone?
August was a good month for new to me games, even if there were only three of them (I did playtest a couple at Dragonflight, but I’m not counting those as “new to me” in this case).
The Cult of the New to Me was also going through its Summer doldrums. Everybody was just tired, enjoying the sun, or just goofing off.
They were too busy relaxing to revolt!
Funnily enough, two of the three I played are by GMT Games, which might be considered odd.
Or maybe not!
So, without further adieu (all of my adieu was lost in a NASCAR bet anyway), let’s get this show on the road track!
Preview Playthroughs Harming a Game?
Ok, it’s Friday night and I’ve had a bit to drink, so I thought I would opine on something that I’ve seen over the last couple of days (hopefully in a non-offensive manner).
I watched the Dice Tower “Testing Tuesday” playthrough of Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein by Plaid Hat Games (designed by Dan Blanchett with art by Mikhail Palamarchuk and Tony Sart).
I’ve been anxiously awaiting this game since I saw the awesome “how to play” from Girls Game Shelf and all of the accolades on Twitter from people like Meeple Lady (an awesome follow on Twitter if you aren’t already). It’s sitting in a pre-order right now, and apparently Plaid Hat has said that there’s been a production delay and it may be a month or longer before it’s available via retail (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).
Anyway, Tom, Sam, and Zee played the game, and it’s clear that this is not their type of game. It’s too macabre, and it is longer than the box says that it is (numerous complaints have been made about that, so much so that Plaid Hat has said they may be releasing a variant that will quicken play soon).
While Tom kept on insisting that he did like the game, but it’s just too long (as the game play time rose to 3+ hours and then to 4), it was clear that they weren’t having that much fun with it.
Since I haven’t played it, I obviously can’t comment on the play time and whether it harms the game. And I can’t comment on whether the game is fun, though it does look great from what I’ve seen.
However, to me this video gave a disservice to the game that I’m not sure is warranted. They were playing slow as it was (cracking jokes, making fun of things in the game like you are wont to do if you aren’t necessarily enjoying it) and I could see why it was dragging to the 4 hour mark.
Others have been raving about the game, and it’s very possible that a review from the Dice Tower (I don’t know who would do it) would be a positive review but talking about some of the faults that they found in the game during the playthrough.
What bothered me was that there were people in the chat talking about how they had been looking forward to the game, but watching this video had shown them that the game was too long and boring to actually get.
How many sales did this cost Plaid Hat?
I don’t know, but I do know that the general feeling about the game in chat was negative.
The video didn’t turn me off of the game. In fact (and maybe this is the alcohol talking right now), it made me determined to show that the game is good despite their experience in the game.
But it brought to mind something that I hadn’t really thought about.
Are these types of videos detrimental to games?
I’m not talking about playthroughs in general.
The Heavy Cardboard stream of Planet Steam was amazing to watch. They seemed to be enjoying it but at the end, the general feeling about the game was “eh.”
And that’s fine! It’s an older game for one (so maybe it wasn’t as bad), but the playthrough itself was entertaining and they saved the negative opinions about the game until they were actually done.
I just think some of these videos that come out prior to an actual review can be unfairly detrimental to a game when really there could be any number of reasons for the bad experience. Maybe they got rules wrong? I can’t say that’s what happened this time, but it’s possible for this or future videos.
I think they played a couple of rules wrong, but this was also just a first play of the game. They had to consult the rulebook at some point, which also slows things down.
There’s no way to know whether it would grow on them or not (their feelings about the theme in general makes me think that it won’t change in this particular case).
I haven’t watched any of the other “Playtest Tuesday” videos, so I don’t know if it’s an ongoing problem with them or not.
But this one stuck in my craw.
Who knows? When I finally get the game, maybe my opinion will be similar to theirs.
But to me, it’s sad that so many people’s opinions were seemingly shaped by what might be a subpar gameplay experience by three prominent personalities in the games industry.
I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
What do you think?
Let me know in the comments.
Review – Colony
Apparently, the world isn’t going to end through nuclear fire, an asteroid hitting it, or aliens invading and overwhelming us with their cuteness (and deadly plasma weapons that they whip out while we’re all cooing over them).
No, the world is going to end through a nanopocalypse (I think Ted Alspach just likes making up words, and no I’m not going to look it up to prove myself wrong, thank you).
In Colony, you are the leader of a faction who are trying to rebuild the world after all of this nanotech goes awry and wipes most of the people out. You are doing this through rolling dice (isn’t that always the way it is?)
Colony is a dice-tableau-building game designed by Ted Alspach, Toryo Hojo, and N2 with art by Stephanie Gustafsson and Ollin Timm. It was published in 2016 by Bezier Games. It plays 2-4 players.
In the game, players use resource dice to build building cards and amass points as they work to become the best of the worst (meaning that really, establishing a colony in a nanopocalyptic wasteland is never pretty), amassing victory points by building the best buildings.
How does it work?
Let’s take a look.
Clank in Space Expands to the Cyber Station 11
It’s no secret that Clank in Space (designed by Paul Dennen and published by Dire Wolf Digital and Renegade Game Studios) is one of my favourite games and I will always be willing to sit down and play it if I have time.
The Apocalypse expansion really adds to the game, so much so that I will always play with it if possible.
Now comes word that there’s a new expansion coming out in November!
Clank in Space: Cyber Station 11 will add some really cool stuff to the game.
According to Boardgame Geek, this expansion was designed by Evan Lorentz and Tim McKnight.
In Cyber Station 11, you’re no longer trying to steal from Lord Eradikus. Instead, you’re dealing Commander Preon.
Let’s blurb this thing because there’s not a lot of information out there yet.
“Eager to prove her worth to Lord Eradikus, COMMANDER PREON has built a research station on the edge of civilized space. There, she’s developing strange and powerful CYBERWARE — and using all the best of it to augment her own half- mechanical body. “
The expansion will include 40 new cards to add to the deck, as well as a new double-sided playing board (does this mean it’s a board like the original Clank and not a modular piece combined with the rest? Interesting).
You can also install (somehow) cyberware that will give you abilities that work throughout the rest of the game.
Does that mean…asymmetric powers?
I’m very intrigued, and November isn’t that far away.
Let’s hope more information comes out soon.
Keep tabs here for when that happens and you’ll know as soon as I do!
Mystic Vale App Gets Stormy With Mana Storm Expansion
Previously on this blog, you may remember that I have mentioned Nomad Games‘ app version of the classic John D. Clair card-crafting title Mystic Vale. The tabletop game is published by Alderac Entertainment Group.
I sung its praises as a great app, polished and well-done and a fun game to boot.
It just desperately needs asynchronous multiplayer because I haven’t touched it in quite a while for that very reason.
With today’s release of the Mana Storm expansion, the app…still desperately needs asynchronous multiplayer.
But that’s not what this blog is about (though really, Nomad, is it possible to eventually get this? Please?).
No, this is about Mana Storm itself, and what it adds to this already very cool game.
The expansion adds some more advancements and vales to the plethora of choices you already have.
Big News from Dire Wolf Digital Games – Trailers!
There’s just too much to put into a headline!
Previously, Dire Wolf Digital had announced a number of games that they would be putting into digital form over the next year or so.
The first of those games was just released on July 30. Raiders of the North Sea is an amazing app (review coming next week, sorry for the delay).
However, at GenCon in July, they released trailers for three more of these games, all of which I either already love or have really wanted to try on the table.
I’ll point you to the Dire Wolf announcement page for all of the video trailers (I want to send them some traffic), but I have to post the most amazing one of the bunch.
Root is coming out later this year, and if the trailer is any evidence, it already looks wonderful! We’ll see how the gameplay holds up in app form, but given Dire Wolf’s history, I’m expecting big things.
Other games on the Dire Wolf page are Sagrada (full trailer) and a brief look at Reiner Knezia’s Yellow & Yangtze. The latter game I would love to try but haven’t had the chance to.
We all know how much I love Sagrada though.
Good things are coming from Dire Wolf Digital this year, and I for one am chomping at the bit to get these on my iPad.
No word from them on Mage Knight or Wings of Glory, though. Some people are bummed about that.
Let me know what you think of all this in the comments below.
Expansion Review – Smash Up: That 70s Expansion
Another day (ok, month), another Smash Up expansion.
You’d think that was all I played. Granted, it does get played twice a month because of a regular workplace get-together, but I do play more games than that!
With two expansions a year, there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight for the game.
And that’s a wonderful thing!
Today, we’re going to be talking about That 70s Expansion, with four factions that come straight out of the disco or corny movies you remember (if you’re a certain age) and into your smashed up heart.
Does it meet all of those expectations raised by such interesting subjects?
That’s a solid yes.
Let’s take a look at it.
Dude! Take Your Turn! 