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A Gaming Life
Can Stefan Feld Turn US Politics into Point Salad?
It’s been a busy week at Dude Central, so I wasn’t planning on posting anything this week.
Then I happened to check my Inbox (Editor – Always a bad move).
What was this email that made me have to hop on my computer and post something quick?
Renegade Game Studios has announced a new Stefan Feld game coming in April 2019.
About US politics.
Thankfully not current US politics (I don’t like orange in my point salads), but the election of 1828.
Revolution of 1828 is going to be a 2-player game about the election between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson with the candidates vying for people’s votes.
It’s a no-holds barred election, too (you thought today’s smear campaigns were bad).
I have to be quick, so let’s blurb this puppy from the web site.
“In this two-player game, you are trying to become the next President of the United States! To reach this lofty goal, each player will try to take Election tiles that suit you best and hinder your opponent’s campaign. Election tiles allow you to garner the allegiance of Electors and use the power of Smear Campaigns to skew the populace in your favor. If you also use the powerful Campaign Actions to your advantage and have the press look the other way, nothing should stand in your way!”
This sounds so intriguing, even more so because it’s a Feld game about a subject that doesn’t seem up Feld’s alley.
Maybe he can prove me wrong?
We’ll find out in April.
Review – Majesty: For the Realm
Have you ever thought about what you would do if you became King or Queen? What policies would you implement to keep your subjects happy? Or would you even want to keep them happy? Maybe you’re in it for the money?
Even before you talk about policies for when you’re the Ruler of the Realm (and yes, capital letters are very important there), you have to think about how you would do your takeover.
I honestly wish it was as easy as it is in Majesty: For the Realm, a game published by Z-Man Games in 2017.
That’s not to say you don’t have competition for becoming ruler in the game, of course. But imagine if it were really as easy to do as having people in various professions that are important for realm-building just lining up and having you recruit them?
I’d take that in a flat minute.
But how does it play as a game?
Let’s take a look.
New to Me – October 2018
Holy moley, true believers!
October is usually a quiet month, but a gaming marathon at the beginning dumped five “new to me” games all in one day and it was only upwards from there!
That was the exciting part of the month. I was going to share it far and wide to the rest of the Cult of the New to Me, but unfortunately they all took great advantage of Canada’s new cannabis legalization laws and, well, this happened…
That seems to happen a lot when I’m talking, actually.
It’s obvious that fatigue is an on-going problem in our society.
Anyway, with nine “new to me” games on the list, my pal David over at Roll to Review should be happy.
So without further adieu (all of my adieu was taken by some dwarf and used to forge some stupid hammer named Mjölnir anyway), let’s get started!
Ascension – Valley of the Ancients drops on Digital
Hi, my name is Dave.
And I’m an Ascension addict.
I had a sponsor who was helping me with it, but when I showed him my online profile and the number of games I’ve played, he ran away screaming.
I’m not sure how to take that.
Anyway, I was about to head to bed last night, when somebody mentioned that the latest digital expansion for Ascension, published by Playdek and Asmodee Digital (Editor – Them again?) had dropped unexpectedly.
I quickly downloaded it and devoured a couple of games.
What does this new expansion bring?
App Review – Terraforming Mars – Steam
(Edit – 5/29/19) – Terraforming Mars is now in beta on iOS and Android devices, and it’s pretty good! Still some issues, though.
(Edit – 12/1/19) – Terraforming Mars iOS & Android is coming out on December 4! I would assume it will have cross-platform play with Steam like most Asmodee games, but I haven’t heard for sure. The iOS beta has been working pretty good except notifications stopped working a few days ago. Hopefully the actual game when it’s launched will have them again. The asynchronous play with 45-day timers works like a charm. You shouldn’t be timing out unless you are missing your turns because of the notification issue.
I’ve seen reports of cards that don’t work as they’re supposed to either. I haven’t played it enough recently to know how prevalent that is, and I’m also not sure if that also affects the mobile games (I would assume so?). Please keep that in mind.
Thanks for visiting this post so much! It’s my first 1000 hit post and I’m very happy about it. Hope you continue to enjoy Terraforming Mars!
(Edit – 12/5/19) – The mobile version of Terraforming Mars came out yesterday and I’m not going to be getting it. Check out this post for why)
(Edit – 3/28/20) – If you check out the above-mentioned post about why I’m not getting the app, you’ll see that I actually did buy it about a month ago. It shows promise but still so far away from what it could be.
The Prelude expansion is now available! It really makes the game shine even more. Especially with a couple of improvements also noted in the linked review.
Original review below.
Digital boardgamers have waited with bated breath since it was announced that Terraforming Mars was coming to Steam and (eventually) to mobile devices, brought to you by Asmodee Digital and Lucky Hammers.
As anticipation ramped up and a release date was set, people were starting to hold their breath (the hospitalization rate was staggering, so I’ve been told).
Dave, the wonderful (and very well-groomed, from what I’ve heard) proprietor over at the Stately Play web site, even posted a glowing review of it the day before it launched.
Now that I’ve been able to dig into it some myself, does it hold up to all of this praise and anticipation? (Editor – Don’t look at Reddit or the Steam public reviews)
I’d say yes, but with some caveats.
Let’s see how it works, first.
Can you Terraform Mars with Steam power? Why yes, yes you can
I’m so freaking excited, and I wasn’t thinking “freaking” there.
One of my blogging inspirations, Dave over at the elegant Stately Play web site, has posted his review of the Steam version of Terraforming Mars (produced by Lucky Hammers and Asmodee Digital) that will be dropping like a ton of bricks onto Steam tomorrow.
How many games will we be playing in that first day? Ten, maybe twenty?
I’m not sure, but I know what I will be doing as soon as I get home tomorrow night.
And Glory to Chuck, it has working asynchronous online multiplayer that apparently actually works. What could be better?
Look for a full review from me at some point, but I don’t know if I can say anything better than Dave already has.
But I will try.
In the meantime, after this drops, if you want to play some asynchronous multiplayer games, just hit me up for a game.
Assuming my keyboard doesn’t short out from all of the drool on it.
Book Review – War at the End of the World: Douglas MacArthur and the Forgotten Fight For New Guinea, 1942-1945
I am an avid military history fan, so give me a good book on World War II, and I’m in heaven. It may take me forever to get through it, depending on the density of the material, but I’ll be enthralled from page 1.
Today’s review is a fascinating look at a part of the Pacific war that isn’t talked about that much, other than maybe a small section or two in some grand strategic World War II overview book somewhere.
In War at the End of the World: Douglas MacArthur and the Forgotten Fight for New Guinea, 1942-1945 (don’t think I’ll by typing all of that again this review), author James P. Duffy chronicles the vicious fighting that took place all over the Papua New Guinea island in the South Pacific as US General Douglas MacArthur tried to make good on his promise to the people of the Philippines to return after his evacuation.
Terraforming Mars: Colonies – Card Previews
What better way to get back into the “hey, this blog isn’t just about reviews” mode than to talk about a new expansion for one of my favourite games?
Terraforming Mars (published by Stronghold Games) easily made my Top 5 games played in 2017 list as it’s just so amazing. I can see why some people don’t like it (the production values aren’t the greatest, it can get long sometimes, etc), but I love it to death.
Each expansion has added interesting elements to the game, and Terraforming Mars: Colonies looks to be doing even more of that when it comes out later this year.
And FryxGames has been doing their job to increase the hype:
Here’s the next Colonies spoiler, enjoy! https://t.co/ZkIq9tmjOE pic.twitter.com/rJKTVEwZzr
— FryxGames (@FryxGames) October 12, 2018
In the Colonies expansion, players will be moving beyond Mars and trading with (or establishing) colonies on and around some of the outer planets in the solar system.
This expansion has me so excited.
New to Me – September 2018
After an August that was gangbusters, September slowed down on the “New to Me” front, but I still did enough that I was able to keep my role as cult leader.
There was no attempted insurrection this month, though that could have been because I secretly switched the coffee in the lunch room to decaf.
I’m evil that way, but aren’t most cult leaders?
It’s a good thing I did, too, because they could have come after me. Most of the games in this month’s list came out in 2018, except one that came out in 2017.
That’s hardly avoiding the “Cult of the New” phenomenon!
In my defense, though, I only own one of these (the 2017 game), so it’s not like I succumbed to temptation that much. (Editor: UPS driver at the door with your latest 401 Games delivery).
That’s not what it looks like…
So without further adieu (all of my adieu hopped a train and headed west anyway), let’s begin!
Review – Takenoko
Sometimes you’re in the mood for a light, relaxing game rather than a no-holds barred slugfest of a game where your brain feels like it’s going to melt from all the decisions you have to make.
Sometimes you happen to find that game and you have a nice smile on your face, ready to enjoy a luxurious romp through some fun game mechanics.
And then a panda comes along and eats it because you’re out of bamboo, and you’re back to square one.
Yes, I’m talking about the classic 2011 game published by Matagot called Takenoko.
Takenoko was designed by Antoine Bauza with art by Nicolas Fructus, Picksel, and Yuio. It plays 2-4 players.
Is it a fun game?
To borrow a phrase, does a panda…uh…do bathroom things in the bamboo patch? (Editor: Actually, we don’t know that they do)
Let’s take a look!
Dude! Take Your Turn! 