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A Gaming Life
GMT Games Time of Crisis expansion – Made the Cut!
(2/12/19 edit – it’s charged and it’s shipping at the end of the week. Whooooa Nelly! Can’t wait to get my hands on this. The title is Time of Crisis: the Age of Iron and Rust)
Fans of this blog (Hi, Bob!) are aware that I’m a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge fan of GMT Games Time of Crisis. (Editor: Here, have another “u”. They’re free).
The brilliant game, designed by Wray Ferrell and Brad Johnson, depicts the Roman Empire during the tumultuous 3rd century, a time where if you became Emperor, your days were most likely numbered.
When Wray (or maybe it was Brad, but I think it was Wray) announced that they were working on an expansion, my ears perked up immediately.
When they said that it was now available on the P500 list at GMT, I jumped onto it so fast that there was still an after-image of me standing there gawking at the computer.
The other day, it was announced that they had reached 500 orders and it has officially “made the cut!” Woo!
New to Me – March 2018
I’m tired.
It’s been a busy month of playing new games! So I’ve definitely enjoyed it.
But I’m tired.
If I hadn’t been writing this post as I played the games, I’m not sure if it would have come out. This is a long one.
It totals 12 new games. My month of March itself consisted of 21 games played a total of 24 times.
Woo!
So, without further adieu (I lost all of my adieu in a card game that I was too embarrassed to put on my play list), let’s begin.
Raiders of the North Sea (2015 – Renegade Games Studio, Garphil Games) – 2 plays (owned)
Designer: Shem Phillips
Artist: Mihajlo Dimitrievski
Players: 2-4
Expansion Review – Smash Up: Science Fiction Double Feature
As I’ve stated a few times before, Smash Up and I have a bit of a checked history. I actually almost traded it away because I found it fiddly and didn’t really care for it.
Then I played it again and something just clicked. Not sure what it was. Now I really love it.
Since that point, I have bought a couple of expansions and really enjoyed them.
This review is for the Science Fiction Double Feature expansion.
As with the base game, Science Fiction Double Feature is designed by Paul Peterson, this time with art by Víctor Pérez Corbella, Igor Heras, Wen Juinn, and Brynn Metheney. It’s published by Alderac Entertainment Group.
Stonemaier Games Announces Viticulture Rhine Visitors
One of the knocks against Jamey Stegmaier’s wine-making opus game, Viticulture, has been the fact that you could potentially win the game without making any wine at all.
Earlier, Jamey had teased the fact that a new expansion would be coming out sometime soon. Today, that announcement came.
Viticulture: Visit From the Rhine Valley (Pictures on this post taken from this page) will consist of 80 new Visitor cards and it’s considered an alternative to the visitor cards from the base game.
Review – The Fox in the Forest
I’m a big fan of trick-taking games, most especially the wonderful game Diamonds.
But what happens when you’re sitting there with only one person, trying to figure out what game to play? You’re both fans of trick-taking games, but there are only two of you. No trick-taking games work with two.
What can you do?
Suddenly, an annoying-looking man appears with a Shamwow. And with a game that will suit your needs!
That game would be The Fox in the Forest, designed by Joshua Buergel, with art by Jennifer L. Meyer and Keith Pishnery, and published by Foxtrot Games and Renegade Game Studios. It was published in 2017.
This is a two-player trick-taking game that overcomes all of the limitations in regards to why trick-taking games are terrible with two players.
Let’s see how it works.
Martin Wallace Discworld Game to be Rethemed
I am a big Terry Pratchett fan, so I was so sad to read it when he died three years ago. Knowing that no more Discworld books would be coming out was a big blow to this reader. Those books are hilarious, thought-provoking, and definitely must-reads.
When he died, the Pratchett estate began to pull back the Discworld licenses, which had a big effect on gaming.
Martin Wallace has quickly become one of my favourite designers, and he designed what was supposed to be a trilogy of games based on the Discworld franchise. Two of them came out, one based on the main Discworld city of Ankh-Morpork and one based on the Witches franchise.
When I heard that the estate pulling back the licenses would mean there would be no more Discworld: Ankh-Morpork printing once the current game was out of stock, I quickly went out and bought it. Sight-unseen (though I did look it up on Boardgame Geek, of course).
It is a really fun game. Not a heavy Wallace economic game, but instead a game with some fun card play that really uses the Discworld setting and characters to their fullest extent.
First Impressions – Space Base
Edit (4/1/19) – My full review is now up! Check that out if you want my opinion of this game after 5 plays rather than this quick and dirty one.
Original post below:
What if you could play the good parts of Machi Koro without all of the annoying things about it? What if a game came out that doubled down on those positive aspects of the game, and added some interesting mechanisms to make the game actually fun?
If you were thinking of an idea for that, too bad. AEG and designer John D. Clair have already beaten you to it.
At this weekend’s Terminal City Tabletop Convention, I finally got the chance to check out the new game from Alderac Entertainment Group called Space Base.
I have to say that this game really dazzled me, at least in my first play.
Smash Up Goes to the 70s
(Edit – 12/20/19: For those of you finding this article in some other way, the review is up!)
Smash Up is a game with a special place in my heart, mainly because it had to earn its way there. When I first played it, I didn’t really care for it; even tried to trade it away.
When nobody bit on it (maybe because I had no expansions?), I decided to give it another try, and now I really enjoy it. I have three expansions for it now and will be adding to that.
My list of yet-to-buy expansions has grown, unfortunately, as Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) has now released That 70s Expansion, another creatively-named edition following the likes of Cease & Desist.
In this expansion, we get four new factions to try to figure out how to best play, all based on genres made popular in 70s movies and TV.
Review – Imhotep
I really seem to have an affinity for Ancient Egypt. I’ve played around with burying things and trying to earn the regard of the Pharaoh. But now I want to become an architect! It’s always been my dream, since I couldn’t become a lumberjack.
What better place to be an architect than Ancient Egypt?
In Imhotep, players are architects vying to build the most prestigious buildings and monuments in that desert area. They do this by getting stones, loading them on ships, and then shipping them to one of the five different sites where they can offload them.
Let’s see how this works.
Renegade & Garphill Move on From Vikings
As a huge fan of the Renegade Games and Garphill Games production of Raiders of the North Sea (I haven’t played the other two in the series, Shipwrights of the North Sea and Explorers of the North Sea), I was really excited to see today’s press release of a new game.
Designer Shem Phillips, along with first-time designer S J McDonald, has moved on from the Vikings. I guess maybe he felt like he’d done enough with them?
Apparently he’s moving on to Carolingian history instead of North Sea. Today’s announcement was for a really interesting-looking game, Architects of the West Kingdom.
Another series of games?
Maybe. Which has this History buff going nuts.
I’ll try and calm down.
(Looking at the Architects page, it does look like this is a new trilogy)
Dude! Take Your Turn! 