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Big Board Gaming Weekend 2024

Every year like clockwork, my crew and I get together for a 4 day super weekend of nothing but BBQ, beer, and board gaming. We call it the “Hassela Weekend”, named after the sleepy little Swedish town where the event takes place. It is always the gaming highlight of every year and this, our 8th year of the event was no different.

Today we talk about all the games that were played, how they landed with everyone, and what I think. Enjoy the article!

Bang The Dice Game

Bang The Dice Game has been a Hassela tradition since 2019 when it was first introduced and has become a group favorite filler, usually played before or after dinner. This year the weekend kicked off with it and as always the game was played several times with the usual chaotic antics and gaming group chemistry that comes naturally for us.

It’s about the most basic hidden identity game around, you have effectively three factions (The Sherrif and his deputies, The Outlaws, and The Renegade(s). The makeup of who’s who depends on how many players you have, but this is a game where the more merrier. It’s more or less a simple guessing game where everyone wants to appear to be whatever they think will keep them safe, long enough to figure out who everyone else actually is. You roll some dice and shoot people and hope you kill the right person who is not on your team.

It’s fun, quick, and quite perfect as an entertaining way to spend a half hour while you nurse a beer. It’s not something you want to take seriously and I would argue it’s only barely a hidden identity game as the revelations/discovery is pretty quick. For more robust hidden identity games that focus more on the hidden identity theme and mechanics, I would probably recommend Coup or One Night Ultimate Werewolf. Still Bang The Dice Game lands well mainly because you don’t have to go through any weird opening phases like you do in One Night Ultimate Werewolf which can suck up a lot of time nor do you need to fully grasp the powers of the hidden identities like you do in Coup. Here hidden identities are clearly just teams and the discovery is mostly just about trying to figure out who is actually on your team. If you get it wrong you are likely to shoot the wrong person and that is the punchline of the hidden joke within the game.

It’s silly and very basic fun, it’s universally loved in our group.

Jabba’s Palace – Love Letter

Love Letter is a staple filler for any gaming collection and has been for a couple of years for us. It’s got a bit more strategy and “umpf” in my opinion than most fillers. This is one you’re going to really want to win as it’s very satisfying when you do. I’m not at all surprised that Love Letter makes so many “favorites” lists out there.

For all intents and purposes, Jabba’s Palace is a standard Love Letter with Star Wars art, a basic game of trying to keep track of what cards are played and using the special abilities of the card you play on your turn and the strength of the card you keep each round to ensure you are as protected as you can manage to outlast all of your opponents.

There is quite a bit of luck involved in successfully navigating any round of play, but over the course of several hands that make up a full game, usually, the most clever player will win, so it’s definitely not just luck of the draw here, there is a reasonable level of skill and strategy involved.

Love Letter is a perfect filler game, find a theme you like and there is a Love Letter version out there just for you. I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t like the game, it’s one of those card games that works with everyone, gamers and non-gamers alike.

Game of Thrones: The Board Game

Game of Thrones – The Board Game is another Hassela tradition in my gaming group going back all the way to the early years of the event. In fact, I would say for most of us the term “Hassela Weekend” is synonymous with a round of Game of Thrones The Board Game.

It’s a brutally tough game to win with a lot of strategy and politics at its core. It handles the Game of Thrones theme with perfection, with all of the amazing feints and double-crossing you would expect. There are so many trick plays, subtle chess moves with big pushes, and usually big finishes. In particular, if everyone at the table has a firm grasp of the game’s many subtleties. Our game this weekend was no different, it was a struggle all the way to the bitter end with huge ups and downs, massive upsets and ultimately being decided in a single final battle in the last round of the game. It’s exactly how you hope a Game of Thrones game will go down.

The game does have a few lumps that can be both frustrating and can at times spoil the fun. For one, this is a 6 player game, practically unplayable in my opinion with any other player count. I say that with my group having tried and tried on my occasions, it just doesn’t work. It’s 6 players or bust.

It’s also an absurdly long game, your mileage will vary but you can count on a roughly 5-6 hour game like money in the bank, and if you go the full 10 rounds, you may very well exceed 6+ hours.

It also has some very obvious “balancing” flaws that are very difficult to massage out. For one, Lannister’s position on the board, their starting conditions, and early game options are extremely poor and limited. I would say if you can win as the Lannisters in Game of Thrones the Board Game, you are either a freakish master of strategy or playing against incompetence because they stand very little of doing much more than being a fly to swat at worse to kingmakers at best.

You also have some issues like the Grey Joys which opposite to the Lannisters just have outstanding options and starting conditions as well as a stupidly strong character deck. They are beatable so I wouldn’t call them broken as I definitely would the Lannisters, but it’s going to be a group effort to keep them under control. Starks are also very strong and the Baratheons can quite literally win the game in two rounds if people aren’t very attentive and actively invading them from all sides from the very start. They are like a time clock that tests your knowledge of the game, if you don’t know what to do, THEY WILL win.

Some of these things are just nuances of the game and are part of the charm and challenge. I might make a few changes, via some house rules to help out the Lannisters, but warts and all this is a fantastic strategy game even though it’s very tough to get to the table and is definitely a “once in a long while” type of game at best. I would not want to play this game with any regularity but it’s always welcome at Hassela (as long as we have 6!)

Game of Thrones Trivia

When it comes to judging or even speaking about trivia games, my feeling is that they are basically all the same. It’s a game of questions and you try to answer them, you either like that sort of thing or you don’t. Trivia games with a theme like Game of Thrones, challenge your knowledge in a specific area, so if you are into a show, book, movie or whatever and you can find a trivia game on that topic it can be fun.

I’m a bit indifferent to this sort of thing, I mean, I like trivia well enough so I have no issue sitting around a table and trying to test my knowledge for a bit in particular on a subject I enjoy, but I don’t think this sort of thing falls into the realm of “boardgame” in the same sense of the word in which I normally would use it.

Still, this particular trivia game has an area control mechanic, the questions had multiple choice answers, and the difficulty, at least for my gaming crew who are all Game of Thrones fans was relatively easy. I think about 80% of the questions asked were answered correctly so the game played quickly, it was fun to reminisce about the show, and as a group of fans, it went over pretty well.

I don’t know that I have much more to say about it, trivia games are trivia games. They neither surprise nor disappoint, they just do what they do and you either like that sort of thing or you don’t, the specific version or topic of a trivia game isn’t going to change your mind.

Eclipse: Second Dawn For The Galaxy

Eclipse was number 6 on my all-time favorite games list from this year and I was excited to bring it to Hassela for a big 4x game event, showdown. This epic level 4x game is a cross-over game between classic Ameri-Trash war games and modern Euro’s which might seem like a strange combination but is actually the norm for most 4x games in general. Twilight Imperium of course immediately comes to mind which also had classic Euro game mechanics like role-selection and token-based action economy mixed in with rolling handfuls of dice.

Eclipse I always felt should be great at bringing a Twilight Imperium experience to the table in a much more reasonable amount of time with a lot less nuance, but more “core gameplay”. The mechanics of Eclipse are very efficient and streamlined, there is a very quick progression toward conflict and the hope is that you end up with games filled with big battles and tight final moments as players try to squeeze out as many points as they can out of every aspect of the 4x civilization building experience.

Unfortunately, our experience this weekend was considerably less exciting than that in my opinion, in fact I would say it brushed up against being boring.

I think part of the problem with Eclipse is that many of the games mechanics don’t play out like you hope or imagine they should. The game is about controlling space with spaceships, expanding your civilization, building technologies and upgrading your ships and it tries to encourage conflicts between players through generous victory point rewards for fighting. All the mechanics and the play loops are there to encourage exciting games, but typically what ends up happening is just a lot of turtling and build-up to a very anti-climatic end.

There is just no push and pull on the territory control part of the game and because your economy controls your action economy, very often once you have built some ships, did some research and some upgrades, you are out of steam. Since the game is a race to build up and there is a lot of pressure to “keep up”, you end up getting the build-up without the release.

There are 8 rounds in the game and with a 5-6 player game, it can and does still take 5-6 hours to complete, so in the end the main sales pitch “Twilight Imperium – Light” really is very marginal at best. You shave off a couple of hours, but I’m not sure the investment of time is well spent. I think I would much rather play a 7-8 hour game of Twilight Imperium than a 5-6 hour game of Eclipse and after this weekend’s play, I’m seriously questioning Eclipse’s position on my best-of list.

I think it’s a game with a lot of potential, but this last playthrough was disappointing, there just wasn’t any fire, and no memorable moments. It played like a stale and very uninspired cube pusher. It was a bit of a bummer because this was the game I think I was most excited to get to the table this year and ended up being the biggest disappointment of the weekend for me.

Red Rising

Red Rising was introduced to the crew at the event for the first time. It’s a relatively simple game of hand management and building combinations of cards to create a victory-scoring bonus at the end.

This was a tricky game because, in addition to the scoring points on the cards and the combo bonuses, you also had some secondary resources and tracks to manage which also scored points and were key to triggering the end game. It kind of made the game a race to build up your hand, but you had to keep up on the tracks because your hand was not going to be sufficient to win on its own.

One of the key features of the game is of course the setting and having read the first book (Red Rising), I had a connection to the game that not all the players shared, but as a whole, it was a very abstract card game that really focused on mechanics more then bringing the setting to the forefront. If you are looking to play a game in this Dystopian future, know that besides some familiar names and setting concepts like Hellium and The Institute, the representation here is pretty light.

There is a lot of timing and manipulation in the game that determines your decisions but the moves boil down to play a card and pick up a card from four different tracks. The “player choices” are fairly slim as is the impact of any single play. I would put this into the “light” game category, even though it takes about 45-60 minutes to play, it sort of felt like a fun little filler that went on a bit longer than most fillers would.

I thought it was a competent game mechanic but there really was no twist to the game, it kind of had limited energy that was mostly spent after the first play. I can’t see myself getting excited to have repeat plays of this one, though I would not object to either. It was a fine, middle-of-the-road card game. I will say, I thought the art style was great, it was very easy to learn and there was something very intuitive about how it played. It didn’t require anyone to explain the strategy of the game to me, it unfolded in front of you very quickly and obviously. There are many different routes to victory and I’m not sure I uncovered anything specifically that I could point to and say “do that and you can win”, but it was very clear which cards went with which cards and how you could combo them. The issue wasn’t understanding what cards you wanted into your hand, but manipulating the game to ensure that you got what you wanted.

Tapestry

Tapestry is one of those games that is difficult to define, you just know you like it and you want to play. In our gaming group, this one has shown up in the Hassela weekend lineup several times over the years and is one of the very few games that ever see’s repeat plays at the same event. We ended up playing it twice this year again.

I think if push comes to shove, the only thing I can say about it is, play it at least 3 times before you decide if you like it or not. It may seem strange but this is a game of subtlety and nuance, there is so much genius built into this very simple mechanic of moving cubes up a track. It’s absolutely fascinating to see the kind of growth and expansion you can create from such humble beginnings as the starting conditions of this game. 4 resources turn into a massive, sprawling empire!

There are no “big moves” in this game (usually). It’s a slow and methodical manipulation of resources to squeeze every last ounce of juice out of them. It’s a game about optimization of your actions and efficiency.

Frankly, it’s addictive, I play this game a lot on BoardGameArena and even though I have probably played it more than 30 times just this year, I still feel drawn to it.

To play it in person has its own charm because this is also one of the most beautiful games you could ever put on the table, the production quality is extreme. It’s Kickstarter magic and we are lucky that a member of our group is a super fan and has purchased all of the expansions.

If there is any drawback to the game is that experience = points. When you play with people who have taken the time to unravel the puzzle that is Tapestry, you can have very tight and competitive games, but new players, no matter how competent they are as gamers are going to struggle for quite a few games before they hit those 300-400 point scores that are pretty standard finishes for experienced players. I recall the first game I ever played of Tapestry I barely managed to score 60 points, these days I consider any score under 250 a complete failure. The road to experience is filled with brain-busting analysis and acquisition of micro experiences which for a gamer is basically “the juice” that keeps them coming back.

I love this game, I think it’s one of the finest examples of original and modern game design.

Dumber Than A Box Of Rocks

It’s a silly trivia game, we play it, we like it, and no one knows why. It’s the board game equivalent of a youtube video of a guy taking a golf ball to the balls, I don’t care who you are, that shit is funny and so is competing in a trivia game in which a literal rock can outsmart you.

Valor and Villany: Minions of Mordak

When we played this one, I was ready right then and there to call this “The Best of Hassela 2024”. It was so good.

When it comes to these “you get a character, let’s fight monsters” games, I’m usually not a fan and I have played a lot of them. The main logic is almost always the same for me…. Why are we playing this? Why not just play a role-playing game like D&D?

Valor & Villainy separates itself from the pack of “adventures fighting monsters” games in so many ways. I think its charm above all else is that it doesn’t take itself seriously, in fact, the game is, itself from the instruction book, to the spells, to the monsters, just a series of fantasy genre-driven gags that fit neatly into a well-executed combat mechanic. This is a game where you draw a loot card, read it and laugh, because whoever created that card, has clearly played a lot of D&D. They know the inside jokes and the silliness of the fantasy genre and just leans right into it.

Valor & Villainy is about as close as you can get to watching a comedy cartoon as a board game. Beyond silliness, however, you have very smooth mechanics with a ton of strategy and challenge. It doesn’t punish you for failure as so many of these games often do and so the game never pumps the breaks, it’s always full-force action sequences.

The combat mechanics in this game are perfectly tuned to the theme, the flow of the game is quick and the results are always fun. Right now if you asked me what the best fantasy adventure board game I have ever played was, even after a single play I would instantly point you to Valor and Villainy. It was just perfect.

The core premise of the game is simple, one player is the main villain and for the first 5-6 rounds, they are spreading “evil” in the land in the form of monsters and curses that the player characters, aka, the heroes have to deal with. The main purpose of these early encounters is the same for both the villains and the heroes. For the villain, it’s to try to kill the adventurers so the villain can gain power in preparation for the big fight and for the players it’s to kill monsters and find loot, for the same reason.

After a few rounds, the villain arrives on the battlefield and you have a big fight for the win. There are exploration mechanics, spell mechanics, and several distinctively different characters to choose from. Everything you want out of a fantasy adventure game.

So why is it not “The Best Game of Hassela 2024”? Well, the competition was pretty stiff, more on that later.

Suffice it to say if you love fantasy adventure board games, whip out the credit card, this one is worth every penny!

Condottiere

This 1995 classic filler shows up to the big Hassela weekend event every year like clockwork and this year was no different.

This trick-taking game with an area control element is all about trying to get the most out of your hand so that you can either win the battle, or exit it with sufficient strength to win the next one. You stretch your hand but you have to be careful about overcommitting because you might find yourself winning one hand, but then not even able to functionally participate in the next.

The decisions about which fights are important are driven by the area control mechanic which defines the lands you fight over and you need to pick your battles carefully. It’s not about winning every trick you can, it’s about winning the trick that matters.

It’s a straight shooter kind of a trick-taking game, no big bells and whistles, just play your cards right and know when to hold’em, know when to fold’em and know when to run.

Fun game, I think it’s a staple game that belongs in everyone’s collection.

Factory Funner

I’m a bit hesitant on this one, which is not to say I didn’t like it, in fact, I liked it quite a bit but…. there was something off about the sequence of the play that spoiled it a bit.

In Factory Funner you get some tiles that represent machines that produce things, requiring a couple of inputs of “fluid” of different colors and producing some kind of “fluid” output of different colors. As you lay out tiles and build connections between machines you score points for your efficiency. The fewer pipes and connectors you put down the more points you earn. It is effectively a puzzle game you have to solve on the fly without knowing what all of the pieces you will need to put down will be.

It’s a bit strange, but the factory building part and the stress of trying to make things fit and figuring out the puzzle was fantastic, I loved it right out of the gate. However, the method of how you get the tiles you are actually using has this live-action “grab it quickly or miss out” part, which sort of lacked fluidity and ended up kind of roughing up an otherwise good game.

I can see what they are going for here. You have to build a factory from a limited selection of tiles and you have to decide which tile you are going to take quickly to add extra stress to that key decision. I think that is fine, I actually like it, it reminds me a bit of Galaxy Truckers. I just don’t think they got the sequence of play right.

I would have preferred a drafting mechanic, or some sort of draw 3 tiles, you have 5 seconds to pick one, or some sort of turn-based thing. Anything but the “how fast can you grab the stuff you want before the other players do” thing which works fine in Galaxy Trucker but it’s because you have tons of tiles to pick from in Galaxy Trucker. Here you have as many tiles as there are players and you end up picking your own tiles most of the time just because you at least have some semblance of control that way.

I don’t know, for me the whole “grab a tile quickly” thing spoiled a pretty fascinating puzzle game of building factories. With this mechanic, I put it in the “ok” category without it, meaning the puzzly bit alone, I thought it was very good.

Hunt For The Ring

A hidden movement game based on the classic Lord Of The Rings story where Frodo (one of the players) and his companions make their way from The Shire to Rivendell while trying to avoid the pursuit of Nazgul represented by the rest of the players.

There are not very many hidden movement games out there and even fewer good ones. I’m reminded of another game on my shelf collecting dust with a similar premise called Fury of Dracula which I used to favor but have found over the years is just a bit overcooked in certain places.

Hunt For The Ring succeeds where Fury of Dracula fails in that they really focus on the “searching for them” part of the game and don’t try to overcomplicate the “finding them part”. In Fury of Dracula when you finally locate Dracula you have to fight him using one of the most convoluted combat mechanics I have ever seen put into a game. The result is this weird anti-climatic ending to this great first part of the game where you play hide and go seek with a pointlessly complex combat mechanic to resolve the winner of the game.

Hunt For The Ring keeps that “we found him” part of the game simple using a familiar corruption mechanic from War of The Ring (a game made by the same designer). The result is very satisfying and Hunt For The Ring ended up being one of the highlights of the Hassela weekend as a result for me.

They nailed the hide-and-go-seek part of the game, they did a great job keeping the rules simple and interruption shinanigans to a minimum. It’s a straightforward game of trying to find and trap the fellowship.

I like this one, I would happily play it again. The great thing about hidden movement games like Hunt For The Ring is that they are generally very simple, Hunt For The Ring did have some complexity to it but most of it was there to serve the hide-and-go-seek game which is exactly where the focus should be in a game like this.

A+ from me on this one.

Hegemony

Last but certainly not least is Hegemony, the game I would put as the firm winner of the 4-day weekend and even a contender for my pick for game of the year.

Holy shit my mind was blown by this one. I don’t even know exactly how to put it into words, but this was without question one of the most unique games I have played in a long time. It’s fair to say the game is pretty complex, in fact, I know we did several important things incorrectly on our first playthrough, but even with that, it was abundantly clear that this game was going to be hitting the table in the future. There is a lot of juice to explore here and right now, I’m completely fascinated by the possibilities.

Essentially the game is about navigating the very real feeling issues of social economics from the perspective of one of the four asymmetrical classes (factions in the game) of society (Working Class, Middle Class, Capitalists, and The State). A concept so thematically executed in these mechanics, that it’s almost uncomfortable.

In the game each player has to navigate their social class to success by scoring victory points related to the class’s core function in society. The catch is that the requirements for success aren’t always crystal clear in the sense that there are many combined causes and effects that are not always in your control or fully predictable. The game has a lot of complex interactions in which you are trying to adjust society to serve you, while making sure your competitors are also served, because they are ultimately responsible for serving you in many regards as well (their success is often your success), even though by serving you they are also screwing you most of the time. I don’t know if that makes sense, it shouldn’t, but it’s how it works and the weirdest thing about it is that you end up feeling both the connection to the real world and a sense of compassion for the class you’re representing whether you agree with the abstracted political implications or not.

There is a kind of rhythm to the game that feels very personal in a way. You are hitched up to a mode of thinking depending on your faction and there are basic instincts and an almost belligerent-like execution of actions sometimes where you forget that you’re playing a game and your brain gets wrapped up in the abstracted politics of the fictitious world your playing in. Emotions can run quite high.

For example, the tax rate, a critical policy in the game has a wide sweeping impact on everyone, but there are both benefits and consequences for having a high or a low tax rate for everyone. Meaning it’s never exclusively good or bad. Make the tax rate too high and suddenly businesses start shutting down and creating unemployment, make the tax rate too low and the state might fail resulting in massive penalties for everyone including wage reductions, tax hikes, and potentially mass unemployment.

There are various policies like this each with their own very global impact, but managing these isn’t the only social issue to contend with. The economics of an always-growing population create all manner of issues for everyone and the working class in particular has a core reliance on everyone else’s ability to manage their faction. More to the point, if players fail to manage the society well enough the working class can create stiff consequences which include strikes and demonstrations that can cost everyone both production, money, and victory points.

As such there is a need to cooperate to a certain degree even between the most obvious competitors like the working class and the capitalists, but how do you cooperate with someone who wants the exact opposite thing as you do and neither side can win the game if the other gets what they want.

The whole game falls firmly into the “impossible to resolve” category and so the trick to the whole thing becomes one of maneuvering and clever and well-timed strategic moves in an attempt to simply out-pace everyone else on the victory point track as society is catapulted towards inevitable disaster. Failure in a word is imminent, but from the ashes, one of these classes will emerge to claim victory.

A big part of the game that sort of “breaks the rules” is in the action cards each player has, which are also asymmetrical decks unique for each class. These cards allow you to do things the basic actions don’t and it’s in the smart use of these cards that most players will find their victory. As a general rule, each time you are forced to take a basic action instead of leveraging the effects of a card, it is a step towards defeat as it’s only through the use of these cards you can get ahead. Basic actions are a recovery or corrective measure, not a plan. Playing these cards however, is tricky because you have to create just the right conditions in most cases to really get the most out of them. If you are constantly forced to take corrective measures by discarding cards for basic actions rather than focusing on the execution of a plan that involves the effects of your cards, your chances of success dwindle in the very esoteric and hard-to-see math behind how victory point acquisition works.

There is a natural rhythm to the game that creates inevitable hostility. Basically in a status-quo environment in which everyone cooperates and the game simply plays out at a “medium” give and take, the state is the automatic winner, this is by design as the state essentially wants to keep everyone at an even keel. No one can keep up on points with the state if they are simply collecting medium salaries, paying medium prices for goods, at a medium tax rate with the population growing at a medium level. For each class, there has to be some major advantage in the policies in their favor for them to get an edge in the victory point acrobatics.

Each class has its Achilles heel sort of speak, a single policy that when it’s in their favor to an extreme will guarantee that they will continually outscore everyone else during the scoring round. Manipulating circumstances to get that in place is difficult, usually unlikely as long as all the players are aware of the impact, but inevitably there are short-term gains to be had sometimes by siding with someone to give them what they want.

For example, having a low tax rate can help the working class to expand a little quicker and have some reserve cash so that they can react a little better to a constantly changing game state, but low tax causes problems for the state and the reserves of affordable resources dries up opening an opportunity for the capitalist to capitalize on a starving market. The result is a working class that goes plus-minus, a failed state while the capitalist and middle class score obscene amounts of points.

Often you have to make unfavorable decisions to keep a particular class from failing outright because each class has a failsafe response that screws everyone when they are pushed too hard. The working class can demonstrate and protest shutting down production, the state can fail and do a hard reset causing high taxation and the capitalists and middle class can sell off companies and cut deeply into everyone’s bottom line sending them to the unemployment line. The results are always pretty devastating to everyone when any class fails to remain stable and most often the person least affected is the person’s faction that failed, which is key to the balance of the game. It forces others to worry about your success to some extent. You don’t want to be too helpful, but you also don’t want to outright crush anyone either.

There is so much more to say about this game and its many nuances if you can imagine that all the above is from a single play of the game.

If there is a negative to Hegemony, it’s that the rules are quite intricate and it’s very easy to get them wrong and when you do, even if it’s just a small rule, it has a huge impact. For example in our first play-through, we did the check IMF test after paying taxes, but you actually do the IMF check first and the taxes second. This completely changes the game, yet there is only one line in the entire rulebook that mentions it despite it being a very critical rule. The rulebook however is well written and the cheat sheets that come with the game are very helpful, so once you learn to play the game properly, that initial difficulty of the game which coincidently adds a lot to the length, goes away. Our first game took the better part of 7 hours, but I’m 100% certain we will cut that time in half quite easily for our next playthrough.

Hands one of the best games I have played this year!

Conclusion

All I can ever say about our Hassela weekends each year is that it’s the gaming highlight of the year for me. A fantastic weekend of pure and uninterrupted fun time in the company of the best group of guys I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. It is pure bliss!

Every year I hope that when I return from the weekend I have made a new discovery and most years that ends up being true. This year Hegemony blew the doors off, but I think a big nod of approval has to go out to both Hunt For The Ring and Valor and Villany, two absolute gems.

Can’t wait for next year!

Gaming Articles, On The Table, What Makes It Tick

Songs of Ice and Fire: Season 4 – Targaryan Tactics Deck

Some of the long-time readers of this blog may know that I’m a big fan of The Songs of Ice and Fire miniature game and that I play the Targaryan faction. For quite a while this was a high-profile game in my local gaming group to the point that I was writing strategy articles on this site for the game. Unfortunately, the game sort of died a while back for us because frankly most of us felt like that while the core game was great, the balancing of the game in too many areas was atrocious. To such an extreme that it sort of sucked up all our desire and energy to keep playing.

Fast forward to 2024 and at the start of the year Season 4 of SOIAF has started with all new updates to all the factions, with lots of balancing and fine-tuning of the game. A perfect opportunity (hopefully) to get back into the game we know and love.

It’s a pretty big update and I thought it would be fun to revive articles on this blog that focus on strategy, tactics, list building, and the game as a whole.

Now mind you I’m not a competitive player, I play miniature games for fun, but I enjoy theory crafting and writing articles about my hobby so consider these articles to be from a guy who just likes playing games, less so a serious tournament player. I would imagine most competitive players would have a lot more to say, but I think most people who play this game are going to be more like me, excited fans rather than hardcore competitive players.

Today we are going to get very specific and talk about the base Targaryan Tactics Deck. The tactics deck is a key element of every army, a foundational advantage that dictates a lot of the very specialized things you can do and drives the strategy of your army. It’s, in a word, a key element of an army and to understand the strengths and weaknesses of any given unit you need to understand how that interacts with the tactics deck.

If you’re a Targaryen player, this article is for you! Let’s get into it.

Overrun

Overrun is a pretty niche card that plays well into the Targaryan army general strategic core which is driven by highly mobile units, especially calvary that outflank opponents to devastating effect.

In short, as a Targaryan player, you should always be the one doing the charging, not the other way around. In a way you know that you have learned to use the army well when you no longer find your mobile units getting charged in all but the rarest of circumstances.

Overrun plays off the assumption that you will be successful and in the event you wipe a unit off the table (hopefully a frequent occurrence), this card allows you to either make a second charge or perform a big march move to get yourself into position for a future charge.

If you have the horse NCU spot (which you should and will prioritize most of the time), you get the bonus of this card of being able to re-roll your charge dice allowing you to improve your odds of taking a riskier (longer-range) charge.

This card falls into the category of niche, but powerful. It’s niche because it requires a lot of very clever setup and a bit of luck to pull off. You can’t control the dice, so you’re never going to know for sure if your charge is going to yield the condition (wiping a unit) you need to play the card. Not only must you first destroy a unit to play this card, triggering a surge forth, but you have to have the opportunity for another charge or be facing in the direction you would want to march and be in a position where making a charge or marching somewhere is a good idea. All circumstances are difficult to control and very conditional on what is happening on the table.

My experience with this card is that the conditions to pull it off don’t come up that often and unlike many cards in the deck, you have considerably less control over creating the right conditions.

This means that this card is unlikely to be useful early in the game, turn 1 and 2, you will rarely kill any units outright, making this a turn 3+ card. Additionally, this card does not have any alternative effects like some of the cards do which means that after you draw it, to use it you need to create the rare circumstances to be able to play it and while setting that up which may take a couple of rounds, you are occupying that all-important card slot in your hand of cards.

This is a really good card don’t get me wrong but in my experience, the chances of you getting to use it to good effect that will have the strong impact it suggests is very slim. It’s a rarely played card and most of the time you are chucking it hoping to replace it with something more immediately useful. One of the core concepts of the tactics deck is that you should be going through it during the game. Holding on to cards is not a good strategy ever, you want to be smoking your hand and drawing a new one every round.

What is worse is that only one of the two calvary commanders gets this card in their deck (Khal Drago), as it is excluded from Jorah Mormont (Westerosi Tactician Cavalry) and it is for Calvary units that you want to play this card for as they are your best offensive weapons. Add injury to insult, The Mother of Dragons also loses this card, which sucks for those dragon lists.

Verdict: 3 out of 5 stars

While very strong when you get the opportunity to use it, its niche requirements are difficult to set up making this one of the weaker cards in the Targaryan tactics deck overall. The fact that you can’t combo it with key commanders makes it that much less useful.

That said I’m glad it’s in the deck. It’s kind of a strange circumstance because while you rarely get to use it, when you do, it can be a game-changing moment. I wish this had a draw card replacement effect so that you can chuck it when table conditions aren’t ripe for it. Suffice it to say I have won games on a single play of this card, so the impact when executed is very strong.

Good, but hard to use card.

Sudden Retreat

One of the tactical cores of the Targaryen army is that you are really strong on the charge, but not great when it comes to battles of attrition. Targaryans are well-equipped to outflank, so after you flank-charge, a card that lets you escape once you have done your thing is very welcome in the deck and that is exactly what Sudden Retreat lets you do.

With this card you will never need to take more than one attack if you don’t want to once you get into a melee.

It’s a pretty easy card to use which is really great and especially effective thanks to the high mobility of calvary units which are usually who you will save this card for.

Unfortunately this card, like overrun, is the elimination card for one of two of your cavalry commanders. It particularly sucks that Jorah Mormont is the one that keeps it and it’s Khal Drago that loses it. It is in fact Khal Drago that would most benefit from this card as this is the best calvary commander at least currently for the Targaryans.

Fortunately this card combos well with other units in the Targaryen army, it’s fantastic on Pikemen, especially when comboed with Unsullied Officers for example who love to be charged, so you want to get them out of combat.

Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars

It’s a good card, but its purpose is escape, which doesn’t make it a power play thing, more of a utility thing. The fact that one of the two cavalry commanders (your best commander) loses it is a bummer but unlike overrun, it’s easy to use and useful in a lot of situations.

I like to keep this card when drawn in the early rounds and setup a situation to use it as post retreat you are often in a position an opponent did not expect you to be and most armies are not as mobile as yours.

Swift Reposition

This card can be extremely useful in a lot of circumstances, but in a Targaryen army very often it’s redundant thanks to your already amazing mobility. Frankly getting an extra 2-3 inches of movement is pretty amazing in a game where inches matter as much as they do in ASIOAF, I would imagine almost game-breaking in a lot of armies, but in a Targaryen army it’s handy, but not quite as impactful.

It can come in handy for getting that extra range for when you want to get archers into a better position or make a charge somewhere your opponent thinks you’re out of range to attempt or sliding onto an objective, or slipping out of the way of the line of sight. Lots of fun utilities that can create very nasty surprises. The problem is that you usually don’t have issues pulling things like that off with the Targaryen units anyway. You are already crazy mobile.

I find I use this card more often on infantry units, it’s particularly nasty on Unsullied Swordsmen. Most of the time I wind up using this card to slip into objectives

Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars

Even though Targaryans don’t need even more mobility options most of the time, this is an exceedingly useful card that your opponents are going to hate because it makes pre-measuring carefully and trying to avoid Targaryan charges and being outflanked that much more difficult.

It’s quite devastating against slow-moving armies and especially effective in lists where you out-activate your opponent.

Fire and Blood

I love cards with options, the flexibility to adapt a card to a situation rather than trying to create a situation for a card is so much more useful.

Fire and Blood is a straight-up “I get some extra shit” card that is focused on letting you do more damage, so it’s great. The fact that you get a bonus for horses plays into what you are going to be doing anyway, so most of the time getting the double benefit is pretty easy to setup.

Sundering and Vicious I think are the two best benefits you can have on a charge, especially when you are usually already outflanking opponents.

This card when used on a flank charge of a calvary unit with the horses is devastating, it all but guarantees the destruction of multiple ranks.

Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars

Versatile, easy to use and powerful with literally no drawbacks. All the good commanders get to keep it. It’s without question a top-tier card for the Targaryans, you will use it in every game. If it has any drawbacks it’s the fact that some of your units already get Sundering or Vicious anyway, but in a way that is also a plus as it means you don’t have to rely in those cases on the horse to get both benefits.

Field Control

This is a multi-use card with a lot of utility and it has a very sneaky bonus effect that isn’t written on the card.

The first part, using the horse NCU yourself effectively makes this an improved version of the horses, both when maneuvering and retreating, with a bonus effect on the retreat. Very useful.

The alternative effect; when an enemy grabs the horse NCU from you, it lets you perform a 3′ shift. The key here is the timing, as this shift takes place after the enemy resolution, so you effectively get to do an extra 3-inch move with a unit prior to taking your turn. This can be used to absolutely devastating effect when timed right.

The sneaky effect of this card is that your opponent is going to want to steal that horse NCU spot from you since you gain so much benefit from it in your tactics deck, it’s a common action taken at the start of a round when your opponent goes first. I find that players often don’t think about the existence of this card, make a very calculated move to position themselves for some future move, and then boom out of nowhere you have a calvary able to do a 3-inch move, then on your turn, that same calvary makes a 6-inch free maneuver and then they can move or march or charge another 6 to 12 inches. You can potentially charge a unit with relative ease up to 15 inches away and march as far as 21 inches!

It’s bonkers and you will find that when an opponent see’s such a move one time they will never feel safe again.

Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars

This card is a combination of an improvement of an NCU spot and a swift reposition built into one card and can even be combined with a swift reposition to get a unit a free 6-inch move before your opponent can do anything thanks to the timing of the card.

When people say the Targaryans are a mobile force, this is what they are talking about!

Unstoppable Advance

This two-part card is sort of the Targaryan middle-of-the-road card.

For the first part of the the card, re-rolling charge distance dice, while nice in niche situations, the truth of the Targaryen armies is that as a general rule, charge distance is not normally a problem. Most of the time you are just trying not to roll a 1 so you don’t lose your bonus and I suppose it helps in that situation. There is some use occasionally for it, especially when using infantry units or neutrals. It’s a luxury item and not really what makes this card pop.

The real juice of the card is the surge forth ability. A +3 to maneuvering is huge but the secondary part, weakening everything in the short range is golden. Not only can you get the unit into the action but you are going to be facing an enemy force full of weakened conditions.

Surge Forth requires you to make a kill, which means it has the same problem as Overrun so not a great card to draw early.

Verdict: 3 out of 5 stars

Decent card, I docked it because the first ability is only marginally useful to Targaryans and the second ability has a pretty specific trigger that you don’t have full control of and doesn’t come up that often. Most of the time when you draw this card you are probably going to toss it unless the table situation has circumstances that might allow you to leverage it.

When executed, it’s devastating much like overrun.

Blood of the Dragon

I love “start of any turn” triggers as they are extremely easy to use and easy to plan your actions around.

This card is great to draw early in the round but tends to be considerably less useful in later rounds, but it comes with two effects and you are almost certain to lose units in every match to collect the bonuses.

An additional attack die is always welcome as is the -1 wound from failing panic tests. It’s a straightforward card, not powerful but not weak, kind of a middle-of-the-road bonus. The only trick to it is to simply get it into play as soon as possible.

It is a shittier version of a tactic card other factions have like Starks which has a kind of “feel bad” to it.

Verdict: 3 out of 5 stars

Decent card that gives you a couple of basic bonuses, a consolation prize for losing a unit. If the bonus is stacked with additional tokens this card would be a lot better, but as is, it’s best described as easy to use with a decent effect. Nothing too extraordinary.

Conclusion

The Targaryen tactics deck has always been universally considered to be one of the weaker, if not THE weakest deck in Songs of Ice and Fire in the past and looking at the updates they have made since launch, I’m fairly sure that is still true in such a comparison.

Looking at the tactics deck cards in isolation, the effects are great and they work well with the general core concepts of the Targaryen army, creating strong synergies and sticking to the theme.

It’s only when you start comparing the Targaryan deck to other factions is when you realize just how weak the effects are comparatively and I think it’s here that the Targ deck’s reputation comes from.

When speaking to the balance of the game as a whole, I’m not sure a comparison of tactics decks is particularly useful however and I have always felt like this reputation, while technically probably true, didn’t really say much about the game.

The Targaryen army is very strong in my opinion and very competitive, but it’s filled with subtle complexity which can be difficult to get your head around. As such I find it performs generally far below its strength when looking at stats as it is a lot less forgiving of mistakes and it’s unique in a lot of ways, meaning usual tactics associated with other armies don’t perform well when applied to Targaryans. They have a very different and very specific way they must be played and the tactics deck is built around that specific playstyle.

The point here is that the Targaryan tactics deck is very strong, in the Targaryen army and while it doesn’t appear as strong when tactic decks are compared, within the Targaryan strategy, these effects are very potent.

I think if you asked any player of any faction what they think about their tactics deck they would all come up with a list of winners and losers in their deck. I think the Targ deck is unique in that there are no outright bad cards. There are cards that are niche and very situational, some cards that can feel redundant some of the time, but generally good all around.

I have my beef with some of the commander tactics cards, but that is for a future article. As far as the Targaryen season 4 tactic deck goes, it gets a nod of approval from me. Well done!

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Board Gaming Super Weekend 2023!

For the 7th year running all my buddies and I got together for 4 days of nothing but cold beers, BBQ and most importantly endless hours of board gaming in a remote cabin absent of the hustle and bustle of life. This annual event is always special, but this year it dawned on me that this group has been tight for so long at this point we are like some sort of nerdified fraternity. I can barely think of any other people on earth I could tolerate let alone desire to spend 4 days locked in a cabin with except this motley crew. It was, in a word, a perfect weekend.

Did we play any games? Yes….yes we did. Here is this year’s list and how it went down in the order it went down!

Vampire: Prince Of The City (2006)

If you read this blog with any regularity you might already know that my gaming crew and I love our Vampire: The Masquerade. We have done it all, the RPG, the board games, card games, you name it, we have it. Imagine our surprise during a routine stop at a local game shop on the way to our big board gaming weekend we discover someone made a Vampire game none of us knew even existed!?

This little gem came out in 2006 during the Vampire: Requiem era when White Wolf tried to re-launch their vampire franchise. It was picked up without hesitation and was instantly selected as the kick-off game for our big gaming weekend to the surprise of no one.

There was a lot of discussion about this game on the car ride home, but it was almost universally agreed that, despite being the first game to hit the table, it was the best game of the weekend.

Now I say “game of the weekend” with some hesitation because this is definitely a product of its time and in a class of its own, which is to say that back in 2006 modern board game design in many ways was still in its infancy and were often pet project directed at extremely niche communities. I think if this game was designed today, it would likely have been streamlined, much shorter and perhaps a bit less harsh focusing on a wider potential audience. It didn’t take more than a single play of this game to clearly see some flaws that called for a couple of house rules to make some needed balance adaptations to bring this game into a more modern state.

Despite a couple of warts however, Vampire: Prince of the City captures the essence of the political struggle boiled into the core premise of the RPG on which this game is based with thematic precision. Perhaps the only thing that really mattered to us as Vampire fans and likely the only real design goal the game had. In a word, this is not a game made for the masses, it’s a game made for Vampire The Masquerade fans exclusively.

The game is about a slow but methodically planned hostile takeover of a city run by vampires in which players implement strategies, “acquire” allies, equip themselves with weapons and deal with the nightly troubles of vampire life as they spread their influence and take control.

Mechanically this is a pretty simple game of managing resources and edging very small but critical advantages over each other. Each player represents a would-be prince, a member of one of the five kindred clans, all with nearly impossible-to-overcome strengths and equally impossible to compensate for weaknesses. If you know White Wolfs World of Darkness at all, you know exactly how important this blatant imbalance is to the theme of a Vampire-based game.

Vampire: Prince of the City really nails this thematic horror show of trying to leverage your strengths and avoid exposing your weakness, but more than that, I think even under the examination of a critical game designer, there are some really great mechanics here that are nice and tight and just feel great.

Every action, every play of a card or interaction between players grows an ever-increasing sense of tension and hostility that climaxes with outright attacks that may very well, as it did in our game, leave a player or two feeling the cold and harsh reality of final death (player elimination). This is definitely not a game for the faint of heart, you will win only by completely fucking over your competition in what really amounts to a ruthless embargo on emotions, doing brutally whatever it takes to win.

In short, this is a game for adults and definitely not a replacement for Monopoly, this is the World of Darkness, you’re a monster and you win by acting like one.

I loved it, as did the rest of the crew, but we are sadistic bastards who get our rocks off on take-that mechanics and this game is chock-full of them. If that is not your thing, avoid this game like the plague, but if you’re a Vampire fan, this is going to be right up your alley and may very well be the Vampire game fans are looking for.

One notable drawback of the game and note that I say this after only a single play is that it was quite long. We played the “medium” length game and it stretched into the 6-hour mark. I’m sure some of it was due to the game being new, but we are experienced gamers and this was not a complex game so I think it was long because it’s a long game. This definitely falls more into the “event” level of games, casual gamers need not apply. For us, it sucked up pretty much the entirety of the first day of our 4-day event.

Empires: Age of Discovery

Bright, big and elaborate, Empires: Age of Discovery is a visual treat.

Empires: Age of Discovery has found its way to the big board gaming weekend table a few times over the years, mostly my doing, but I have never heard any complaints. It’s a personal favorite, not only for the theme which while controversial I find fascinating (Colonization) and the fact that I’m a big worker placement fan and this is without a doubt in my humble opinion the Mona Lisa of that mechanic.

To me, this game represents a rather over-indulgence in production value, but I would argue that it’s one of the finest examples of worker placement you will find with a rich theme that is simply enhanced by its visual presence on the table. It’s just a very streamlined and elegant game, that is easy to teach and learn and offers ample strategies all with great depth while being thematic and rich with flavor.

In Empires you effectively colonize the new world by sending a variety of specialized colonists each with special powers to spread all over the frontier. In the process you manage wealth, construction of special advancements and buildings, construction of a military and various other related activities all in a very abstracted way using worker placement mechanics. When you get right down to it, its a game of getting the most out of the limited resources you have, its about timing and position and it’s about anticipating the actions of the other players.

I find it just feels great to have an unnecessarily big map and elaborate components when you have gone out of your way to get together for a big gaming event like this, the fact that this is also a great game is just a cherry on top. It’s a perfect game for such an occasion and even though hauling that fat ass box was a pain in the ass, as it always does, this game fired on all cylinders.

To me, this is a classic in the board gaming world that takes the simplicity of one of the all-time great, game mechanics, worker placement and improves upon it while never making it any more complex. It’s really just great game design and though some might argue that a game about colonization is edgy, to those I say, shut the fuck up, it’s just a game.

Robo Rally

This game falls into what I like to call, “the silly category” of gaming, which I think should probably be its own genre. Like Galaxy Truck, Munchkin, Kitchen Rush or Sheriff of Nottingham, it’s not a game that either takes itself seriously or expects you to have a strategy while playing it. All you should expect from Robo Rally is that it’s stupid-silly fun and if that is what you get out of it, the game has met its design goal.

In Robo Rally you and your opponents each move a little robot through an obstacle course full of traps, walls and elevator belts, but the catch to the game is that you have to pre-program your robot with a limited set of options 5 turns in advance.

All manner of chaos ensues because the other players as well as the obstacle course are going do the unexpected and what seems like a simple exercise in planning quickly turns into a hysterical shit show.

Now I will argue that the game has a very unnecessary and not particularly well thought out “upgrade phase” where players pick and buy their upgrades which slows what would otherwise be a snappy game. My group by our second play eliminated this from the game by creating a quick drafting mechanic instead for the upgrades which just fixed the problem in one fell swoop.

Still, even with this upgrade phase, the game is a lot of fun, I would definitely consider it for the family as the rules are really simple and the game has a very kid-friendly “cute” aesthetic.

Smart Phone

Every time I play Smart Phone, I find my comments about the game are always the same. This is one of the finest examples of great game design I have ever seen, it is, a perfect game.

I adore this one and it has never let me down. It’s made the big gaming weekend several years in a row, I’m fairly certain since it found its way into our collective collections and I suspect it’s going to continue to make the cut for many years to come.

This is an economic simulation about players running mobile phone companies trying to produce and sell, phones all over the world. That, I will admit, does not sound like a particularly exciting theme and the hipster on the cover of the game box really does little to inspire interest but let me tell you that this is, without a doubt, one of the best Euro games you will ever play and I say that without reservation.

Its mechanics are perfectly tuned, it’s puzzly and thinky, honestly, it will melt your brain at times, yet it’s not at all complex or heavy, in fact, I would say this falls into the light category of games. It’s really just a merger of great mechanics, exceptional attention to detail and efficiency while being extremely competitive with fantastic replayability.

People that don’t play board games often ask me what I recommend for a beginner and while I would be hesitant to say Smart Phone because I do think there are better games for introductions, I actually do think that a non-gamer that plays this one risks becoming a full-blown gaming nerd. This is just one of those games that will suck you into this hobby because it’s such a great representation of why gamers game.

I would universally recommend this game to pretty much everyone.

Condottiere

This is a stone-cold classic trick-taking game that belongs in every gamers collection.. period. I’m not sure what else to say about it.

The simplicity of the trick-taking mechanic is enhanced by cards having special powers while the area control mechanics give each round a strategic edge. In a sense, it’s not necessary for you to try to win every round, often you are just trying to draw people into a competition so that they waste cards as you prepare for the more important fights later on. There is a lot of push-your-luck, a bit of card counting and predicting your opponent’s intentions and though the strategies can have a sort of subtle complexity the rules of the game are easy for even the most casual non-gamer. Its a game for everyone.

I have introduced countless people to this game over the years, I have given away 3 copies (I’m currently trying to track down a 4th copy for myself).

Great for road trips, camping trips, for families, as a pallet cleanser for serious board game nights.

Great stuff, you don’t own it, you should, I don’t care who you are.

Highlander The Board Game

A movie-turned tv series turned cult classic, The Highlander franchise is beloved by fans and a completely bewildering mystery to everyone else. No surprise really that someone would take this franchise and try to turn it into a game, targeting the countless gaming nerds out there and even less surprising is that they would fill the box with miniatures and high-quality components to make it as expensive as possible.

The question is, is it a good game and the answer, it pains me to say, god no. This game was made by someone who clearly understood the material and what would excite fans of the franchise, well researched making extensive use of screens shot from the movies mixed in with some original art but at the end of the day as a game there is very little to love even if you have affection as my gaming group does for the franchise itself.

I think the best description I can offer here is that the game is about as random as it can be, boiling down to a dice roll-off with some very rudimentary odds control.

The cards you could acquire were mostly inconsequential with a few exceptions that would result in huge balance issues, it was unnecessarily slow and long in places, and it had player elimination and at the end of the day winning or losing boiled down to winning a dice roll-off and drawing the right card at the right time (beheading).

There was a sequence for “The Gathering”, but you would have to play the game for many hours before you are ever likely to reach it, in fact, I would say that the odds of “The Gathering” ever actually happening are extremely low.

My gaming group of course had fun with it as the movies and tv shows are infinitely quotable and we are all hardcore nerds, but as a game Highlander was less than stellar, hard to recommend even to fans of the franchise.

Broom Service

Broom Service has been in my collection for several years and though I have played it casually with my daughter and occasionally with the extended family, my bringing it to the big weekend with my gaming buddies was a bit of a risk. I wasn’t really sure how strong it was in terms of what more experienced gamers would get out of it.

It’s a very simple game, part card game, part board game with a push-your-luck element and some rather simple strategic positioning. This wasn’t going to be a highly competitive strategy game and though the theme is silly (witches delivering positions in a magical kingdom), it’s not in the “silly genre”. Its a family game pure and simple and that isn’t always a good fit for my gaming group.

With that said, Broom Service is actually quite clever and very unique, I don’t think I have ever played anything quite like it and though it’s simple, it’s also quite short and snappy so it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

I didn’t get a particularly good bead on what my gaming group thought about it, the comments were quite generic “it was fun”.. etc.. but for me personally, I like family games and I think this one falls into the same category of games like Takenoko, Ticket To Ride or King of Tokyo. It’s simple enough to pull out with kids, family and non-gamers but clever enough to make it palatable to more experienced gamers.

I don’t know if I recommend it for seasoned gamers for a veteran table, but so far as family games go I think this is one of the good ones.

Lords of Xidit

Lords of Xidit made its first appearance at our big board gaming weekend a few years back and though everyone was in agreement that its a great game that was the last time we actually played it. Now in its defense, we are gamers and we all have way more games then our shelves can store, games have a way of falling through the cracks and eventually emerging with everyone making the statement “oh yeah, this is a great game, I remember!”

That was more or less my reaction to this one, I recall liking it a great deal the first time I played it and I felt the same about it this time, I believe the rest of the crew agreed.

In Lords of Xidit you move your character around a board taking one of two types of actions at different city locations. Either you are recruiting one of 5 types of units or you are fighting monsters with the units you collected previously. The objective is to build magic towers, build up your treasury (gold) and gain renown tokens. The player that does all three the best wins the game. Simple right!?

Well, the catch here is that you must pre-program your actions 5 actions in advance and each action is executed in turn order around the table. The results can be very unpredictable as players might get to a place before you, killing a monster you planned to fight or stealing units you meant to get or building a tower where you planned to build and so on.

The game is really about trying to predict what the other players will do and timing your pre-programmed actions in a fashion where you maximize your turn without losing anything.

The scoring in this game is particularly clever because rather than simply scoring points (the highest score wins), the game-end scoring is a process of elimination in the 3 different scoring methods. For example in the first scoring phase, you might score who has the most gold, but it only matters that you are not last as the last player will be eliminated from the game and doesn’t participate in the next phase of scoring. You do this for all the methods of scoring and the last player remaining is the winner. Hence the game is really about doing well enough not to be last in each category. This scoring method creates a very different approach to the usual victory point salad winning condition.

This is a really well-designed game and severely over produced as the components are wonderfully overcooked and colorful. The game just looks great on the table. It’s about a light to medium level of complexity, there is some rules and fiddliness but its fairly limited.

As a whole I really liked this game, it’s just the right length, the turns are very fast and there is a pretty smooth streamlined feel to it with a great feeling of competitiveness. Really fun, I don’t know how the rest of the guys rate this one but its definitely on the recommended list, in particular, if you like pre-programing action games.

Spirit Island

I know I said that Vampire: Prince of the City got the vote for best game of the weekend, but it would be dishonest if I said it was a blowout. Spirit Island was absolutely fantastic and a big highlight of the weekend, a very close second.

This is a deeply complex cooperative game that has enormous amounts of dynamics and intricate details that round after round challenge you to solve the puzzle of optimizing your actions. You have to anticipate the next turn as you work on solving the problems of the current turn….. and man, this game is sooo hard.

I will admit I think for the first half of the game I was completely lost, there is no question that this game has a fairly steep learning curve, not just to grasp the game, but to really get a handle on the strategies and mechanical manipulation involved.

In Spirit Island, you are gods of sorts, hell-bent on protecting an island from invading mortals who seek to build cities and pollute your paradise. Each player gets a unique “Spirit” with a variety of special powers, benefits, and drawbacks. You must work together to bring fear and retribution on the invaders, but they spread like a plague each round and the game is almost a-sort of impossible to solve puzzle of trying to curve the domino effect of their growth into a domino effect of destruction.

Each invading civilization, just like the spirits you represent has its unique powers, benefits, and drawbacks and a big part of the game is trying to figure out how to sort of outdo them in the back and forth of play and counter-play.

It’s you and your friends vs. the game itself and while in my personal experience, there have been very few purely cooperative games I enjoy like Lord of the Rings The LCG, by contrast, most fall flat with me (pretty much everything else). With a couple of exceptions, I just generally don’t like cooperative games.

I was however immediately sold on Spirit Island as it is this really great, robust, and fulfilling gaming experience that challenges the hell out of you, and because the game has so much dynamic setup between the different spirits, the design of the island and different civilizations it’s hard to fathom how many different possible combinations there are. The replayability here is quite endless.

This is solid game design, it’s no surprise this game has been sitting in the top 10 on boardgamegeek since its release. It really is that good, well deserving of all the accolades it has received including prestigious awards like Best Coop Game of the year and BBG’s best board game of the year.

Awesome game, that deserves to be played but be weary, this is a gamer’s game, don’t let the pretty art style fool you.

Game of Thrones: The Board Game

This is a game that is played in the minds of the players, the board and pieces are mostly distractions.

Ok it has to be said that while I absolutely adore this game, the last couple of times I have played it have been a disappointment.

A couple of years back we played the game for the first time with the Targaryan expansion and that turned out to be an unbalanced mess, resulting in a very anti-climatic ending, that made the winner (that was me) feel like I lost the game.

This year we played a 5 player vanilla game in hopes of recapturing some of this game’s past glory, which meant we had to fill the sixth seat with garrison units and the result was a quick and sweeping victory by the Baratheon player, which, much as It was the last time we played, very anti-climatic.

So here is the thing, some games just don’t play well and/or as is the case with Game of Thrones, are simply not balanced for anything short of a full table. In this case six players.

This is the lesson here. Game of Thrones The Board Game is an amazing 6 player game and pretty mediocre at any other player count.

That said, I still think this is a really fantastic game as long as you meet the six-player requirement for it. The game really feels like a strategic struggle where players are trying to make trick moves, build temporary alliances and do just enough to one-up each other into a victory. It’s a game of subtle movement and positioning, of setting up your prey for that perfect, unstoppable execution at the perfect and most dramatic moment, risking it all. You win or you die, this game really brings that spirit to the table.

When Game of Thrones fires on all pistons, when you have a full table of six experienced players that really know what they are doing, know what to look for, and know how to counter moves, it’s just pure magic.

When it doesn’t fire on all pistons, when you are short on players or you have a player or two that is really inexperienced, the game can and often does feel like either a king-making situation or just a series of blunders that allowed a player to win far easier than it should because someone wasn’t paying attention.

Suffice to say it makes Game of Thrones a rather irritating game, because you want that awesome gaming experience but you simply can’t get it every time you play. You are going to have to suffer through the bad games, to find the good ones, which actually makes this one tough to recommend.

I would say that if you have six players who are ready to dedicate themselves to learning this game well and play often, I really believe this could be one of the best games ever made. For the rest of us who play inconsistently and have to settle for lower player counts, I’m fairly certain, my recommendation would be to not play it. It’s just too heartbreaking to play this wonderful game, in particular, if you know what is possible and then being disappointed because the game didn’t deliver on the promise.

I struggle to find the words that sufficiently describe what Game of Thrones the board game means to me and my gaming group, it is in a sense, a part of our cultural gaming upbringing, we all see it in a light that I think the game struggles to live up to these days, but its not because the game is bad, its because it’s demanding. It demands a group of six players and it demands dedication and study of the game to get the most out of it. If you can’t meet these demands, it sort of doesn’t really live up to what it’s capable of. I don’t know if that makes sense, but, that is really the jist of where I’m at with this game.

I want to play it, but it’s only good under perfect conditions, outside of that, frankly, it’s pretty bad. You have no idea how much it pains me to say that.

Vampire Vendetta

If it wasn’t for Vampire: Prince Of The City, without reservation, I would tell you that for Vampire The Masquerade fans, this is THE game to play. It has some competition now, but for some fast-paced gothic horror, Vendetta is king.

This is a very straight-to-the-point kind of game. You are a vampire from one of six clans. Your powers are represented by action cards which you use to take control of one of 4 city locations. You spend blood to power yourself up and play games of chicken against your opponents. For winning you score influence (victory points) and gain allies for your cause. For losing you get nothing.

It’s a brutal struggle of trying to exaggerate your strengths and avoid exposing your weaknesses. Every Vampire is unique and not only defines how you play, but how you feint, how you manipulate and how you threaten.

I can’t say enough about Vendetta, for me it was love at first play and this one is very quickly becoming a household favorite thanks mostly to the fact that you get this really robust, fully fleshed-out gaming experience in about an hour. Even if you are not a Vampire fan, mechanically, from a perspective of design, this is an extremely efficient and streamlined game, it’s just good design period.

I love this one, it’s without question one of the most underrated games I have come across in years. On BBG it’s sitting in the 2,750 spots with only 857 ratings.. it’s outrageous! Are you seriously trying to tell me that Go Nuts For Donuts is better a better game than Vampire Vendetta.!!?.. Get Fucked!

To me, this is at least a nominee for Game of the Year in 2020 if not a winner. It’s a must-own!

Hansa Teutonica

Who would have thought that a Euro game made in 2009 could feel fun, refreshing, unique and engaging in 2023!? Honestly most Euro games I play from this era feel like an old used shoe, familiar but still kinda nasty.

Hansa Tuetonica debuted in our big board gaming weekend last year and I personally demanded it be played this year, I thought it was that good.

Mechanically the game is quite simple, as is the case with most Euro’s, its about putting cubes in the right places, at the right time and scoring victory points. Ok, so perhaps its a bit more than that, but this is a game about the strategy of positioning, but its simple, tight as hell, streamlined to perfection and despite the usual “its a game about trading” of Euro-game themes, this one actually kind of nails it.

I don’t know if Hansa Teutonica counts as a classic, but of all the games I have played from this era, and there have been many, this is one of a very tiny handful that I think is worth the cardboard it’s printed on. Its definitely old school, but its quite clever and very competitive.

Great game, if you love Euro games and especially if you love old school Euro games and you haven’t played this one yet, I feel quite confident when I say you have missed one of the best ones. It holds up and is a strong candidate for being one of my personal favorite Euro Games.

Good Stuff!

Conclusion

This was an awesome 4 day weekend and to the surprise of no one, these big board gaming weekends are always the highlight of the year so far as gaming goes.

There were quite a few games that were on my “wish list” that we simply didn’t get to. Eclipse: The Second Dawn For he Galaxy was clearly absent from the list here, I did bring it but we just didn’t have the table space for it this year as we gathered at a different remote cabin than we do most years. It was a bit smaller so it got skipped, which was a real bummer.

I was also hoping to get Great Western Trail to the table at this year’s event but unlike most years when we would have different player counts for different days as not everyone typically goes for the entire 4 day weekend, this year we had 5 players for all 4 days. So it didn’t make it, it was a real shame, been itching to get this one played.

We also didn’t play any small games that we normally do and I felt their absence. No Coup or Love Letter this year, no BANG the dice game, no Resistance or One Night Ultimate Werewolf. It’s great that we played so many big robust games, but I love me some mini-games.

I also didn’t get an opportunity to play any 2 player games. Last year on the first night of the weekend it was me and my buddy alone for most of the first day and we managed to squeeze in Imperial Struggle and Star Trek Fleet Captains. Imperial Struggle is my absolute favorite two-player game and it’s been far too long since it’s hit the table.

That’s it for this year folks, another Big Board Gaming Weekend behind us, see you next year!

Gaming Articles, On The Table, Uncategorized

On The Table: January – February 2023

It’s been a while since I have done an On The Table article, but it’s not because I’m not playing games, it’s BECAUSE I’m busy playing games.

I cover two months this time, and there is plenty to discuss.

Great Western Trail

While dubbed a heavy Euro game, while there is a lot going on and the strategy goes deep, it’s surprisingly easy to get into.

My experience with Great Western Trail has been a rather turbulent one. When I first reviewed the game back in 2017 I’m not sure I painted an entirely flattering picture of the game scoring it at 3.1 in my review, giving it weak scores in the area of Theme and average scores in Gameplay. Looking back at that review, I can say here and now that I think this game deserved a little bit better.

For starters, I think it captures the theme of being a rancher driving cattle quite well though the theme here is really not a critical component of enjoyment of the game. I also criticized the game for lacking interaction and while the game doesn’t have “take that” mechanics, the obstructions of buildings, the race along the rail lines, and the forced actions to player actions is a constant in the game. In the end it is a lot more interactive once you play the game at a higher skill level where those sorts of elements (obstruction in particular) become quite critical to winning the game.

I initially got back into this game because of my daughter, but ultimately I spent a great deal of time playing Great Western Trail on BoardGameArena.com, a site where you can play both the 1st and 2nd editions of the game including the expansions.

Now personally I own the 1st edition and have played enough of 2nd edition to say plainly I think they got it right the first time. The 1st edition of the game is a bit harsher and it was clear that in 2nd edition they softened things up a bit. There are only slight changes but most of the changes make the game in a sense, a bit easier on the players.

The cities where you place your round tokens which represent locations you have delivered to are less penalizing, while the bandit track (formally known as the Indian track in 1st edition) doesn’t have any penalties either when claiming the tokens. The new and adjusted buildings in 2nd edition are also a lot more generous.

Regardless, 1st or 2nd edition, Great Western Trail is a really amazing strategic game that takes planning, resource management and clever maneuvering to come out on top. It’s a challenging game that really delivers a great victory point salad without overburdening you with tons of options with one always being an obvious and really only good one. Every choice you make in Great Western Trail means you have to give something else up, so it’s always a decision between many great choices and your decision ultimately rests on your long-term strategy, while very often being driven by your desire to outpace or obstruct your opponent’s efforts.

I play Great Western Trail games several times a week and have become quite competitive at it and despite repeated plays I’m still discovering new strategies and finding clever ways to improve old ones.

Fantastic game, and comes highly recommended by me.

Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul

Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul has proven to not only be a great strategy game in the CDG influence control genre but has deepened my love for historical war games in general.

I had two separate opportunities to play Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul and my opinion of the game has only improved with additional plays since I originally reviewed the game back last February. The game even made my Top 20 list for 2022, sitting very comfortably in the number 5 spot.

What does that mean? Well simply put, I love this game and for so many reasons.

For starters, it’s infinitely replayable which I honestly didn’t think would be the case given the very static starting setup and the very firm goals of Caesar in particular who has a very clear set of tasks to accomplish each game. This is a card game however and from this are born all of the dynamics and nuances of play that really re-write the circumstances with each game and though the first round might be a bit “standard” as players are likely to have their favorite opening moves, like chess, that does not result in a repetitive game at all.

Caesar is really a game of chicken and pushes your luck in a lot of the strategy that ultimately plays out. Caesar and his powerful army can easily crush any Gaul opposition well into the late game and while mobile, the map is just big enough that obvious gaps in defenses are exposed when he leaves the safety of Provincia.

As such a big part of the strategy for the Roman player is to know exactly when and for how long Caesar’s army can leave his supply lines exposed.

For the Gaul player its an entirely different game. There is less precision and a lot more gambling, as well as the constant need to put influence pressure on the Rome player to keep him concerned about what is happening on the board. Left unchecked, the Gauls explode in the late game and can even become strong enough to oppose Caesar himself in the final rounds.

The game has great tension, and relatively simple rules, it looks amazing on the table despite the use of chits (notably this is a game that deserves some pimping) and above all else it has that “let’s setup again” feeling to it.

Absolutely adore this game though it is not my favorite CDG Influence Control game, that honor falls to Imperial Struggle, but this game doesn’t play second fiddle, it really is its own thing and happily shares a shelf with Imperial Struggle in my humble opinion.

A must-have for CDG Influence Control fans and especially those that have a love for Roman History!

Game of Thrones: Hand of the King

A quick and thinky filler with a fun theme.

This silly little abstract game has virtually nothing to do with Game of Thrones beyond familiar art and names and has been a hit with my family, in particular, my daughter over the course of the last year. It hits our table regularly and is always a must-bring on any outing that might offer an opportunity to steal a few minutes to play a game.

It’s a simple game of collecting cards of the major Game of Thrones houses represented by characters from the Song of Ice and Fire story. Nothing too fancy, it only takes 10-15 minutes to play but it is a bit think, definitely a little puzzle to solve here but there are some take that cards in the game which create some rivalries at the table and it even has some occasional teamwork triggered when one player is getting ahead. Very tight game, rarely does anyone win until the final moments which gives the game a sense of urgency.

All and all for such a simple and fast game it is a lot of fun. Usually, we end up playing 2-3 rounds every time it comes out. If you’re looking for a great group filler that works one on one, this is a great one.

My City

The only legacy game I ever finished and would happily have a second go at.

I’m not big on legacy games, in fact, to date with this one exception they have all been disappointments and not because I didn’t like the game, but because I never get the chance to play out the entire legacy. Legacy games seem to wear out their welcome before they are done and are regulated to the classic “One of these days we need to finish X game” conversations; eternal. I’m looking at you Vampire: The Masquerade – Heritage!

My City is different because not only is a great game, but it’s pretty fast, the legacy adaptation is pretty simple to understand so you don’t have to re-learn the game after each play and you can usually sit down and play 3-4 games in under an hour so you kind of zip through it. In fact, you kind of wish it was a bit shorter, although when the legacy game is done you are left with the core game which in on itself is actually quite fun. Since my daughter and I play it just the two of us and it’s a four-player legacy game, we actually run through it twice with the same set though the game is so cheap that it’s no problem to buy a second copy if you want to do a second run through.

Really enjoyed this one, so far as legacy games go this is the only one that I have actually finished and without feeling like I have to “suffer” to get to the end.

Age of Civilization

A Civilization building filler? Yes please!

Age of Civilization is what I like to call a micro version of Through The Ages even though the two have little more in common than a theme.

This is a simple and fast-moving card game where players are moving through time and taking one of three actions per round available for any given period. There is war, there are civilizations with special powers, and it’s a point grab to a rapidly approaching ending. A Civilization building game in under 15 minutes! I don’t know if anyone asked for that, but they made it and frankly, it’s just short enough not to wear out it’s welcome and it does tickle that Sid Meier Civilization G-spot.

It actually reminded me a little bit of Nations: The Dice Game which I actually think is one of the best Civilization building game fillers on the market today, but this one is actually even faster!

This little gem is a blast from the past, I actually used to play this one daily online for months and its big brother Nations is an awesome game in its own right.

I like it enough to play it for free on BoardGameArena.com and if it was available I would buy it but this Kick-Starter went fast and seems to have disappeared from the marketplace.

A Feast for Odin

The jury is still out on this one, my initial experience I would describe as “confusing”.

I played a “learning” game of A Feast For Odin and oh boy is this a mind-fuck of a beast. I mean I don’t want to say anything negative about it, learning experiences are not a good basis for reviews and frankly 90% of the time playing this game for the first time I had no idea what was going on.

Part puzzler, part worker placement game, part resource management…. and a whole bunch of other stuff. There is a lot going on in this game, just the amount of worker placement options is mind-boggling and man is it unforgiving. You place one thing in the wrong place and you can potentially screw yourself for the entire game.

All I’m going to say at this point is that it certainly piqued my curiosity, I will definitely be getting this one to the table again but I have to say it might be a bit much for a Euro game. I mean I get it, it’s for Mega-Euro fans that want some meat on the bones, the Terra Mystica crowd as I like to call them, but for me, the fun bit of a Euro game is that they are short and thinky. The longer heavier stuff tends not to be my thing in the Euro-Game scene even though big epic board games are definitely my thing. I need theme and player interaction however for long games to stick the landing. This one felt a bit like we were all playing a solo game, the bulk of the interaction was in stealing each other’s worker placement spots.

We’ll see how it goes, but at least unlike Terra Mystica which left a pretty poor impression on me, I recall my conclusion to Terra Mystica review was …and I quote “The entire game just felt like I was waiting for a dentist appointment, I was neither enjoying my wait nor looking forward to my turn, I just wanted the whole mess to be behind me.”

Over-hyped and overrated snooze-fest not worthy of your shelf space or table time. There are far better-cube-pushing Euros out there. Perhaps Feast For Odin will be one of them.

This one fared quite a bit better, but it’s on my “try again and see” list.

Ark Nova

I did not care for this game one bit, long, ugly with stock photography as its primary art asset and a complete absence of any meaningful interaction between players.

I’m going to take a lot of shit for this one given its high status on BoardGameGeek, sitting pretty in the number 4 spot but…. god I hated it.

This was just a pointless game of collecting and trying to house animals which as a theme in on itself was not terrible but you had to look at this really crap stock photography the entire time and the game was just way too long. It says 90 to 150 minutes, you can safely double that. This is a 3-4 hour game that really just doesn’t have the nuts to warrant table time with virtually zero interaction between players.

I don’t usually rush to judgment after one play, but having played this game once I not only never want to play it again, I actively avoid being put in a situation that might result in me having to out of social graces. It’s games like these that cause me to ask “what games are we playing” before accepting an invitation to board game night.

Conclusion

Of course, these weren’t the only games I played in the last couple of months, but they were the ones that stuck out.

Good luck out there folks!

On The Table

On The Table: February 2022

February has been a busy gaming month for me, I managed two full reviews which may not sound like a lot but for a guy who runs a blog as a hobby, that is quite a bit to add to my normal life schedule. This month my gaming group also managed to restart our long-running Vampire: The Masquerade chronicle which had been put on hold a number of times due to corona. With the pandemic taking a massive swing for the better and all the restrictions lifted in Sweden where I live, we are opening the gaming flood gates!

New Aquisitions

In a rare turn of events, there were no new acquisitions this month. I felt I had so many games to play this month it just seemed silly to add to the queue and there are a couple of games on the release calendar that I’m eager for so I’m holding out. Perhaps instead I can talk a little about future acquisitions instead to fill the space here.

Enemy Action: Kharkov

Compass Games component quality on Enemy Action: Ardennes was pretty awful so I have my reservations about this one in that regard, but it’s hard to pass up a Butterfield design, so it makes the list.

The Enemy Action series gets a second game in the series finally after 7 years of releasing the first, the amazing Enemy Action: Ardennes. John Butterfield is without question one of the most renowned designers in the Historical War Game genre right up there with Mark Herman, so when he makes a game we should all be paying attention.

The Enemy Action series is awesome for a lot of design reasons, most notably because it actually is three games in one. You get a solo game for two sides of the conflict and there is a 2 player version as well. More than that though this is one of the most thoughtful, original and exciting game designs to come out in the last decade and while I’m yet to do a full review on Enemy Action: Ardennes, I’m really looking forward to seeing a continuation of the series. It’s a very deep and complex war game, but it works on a wide range of levels.

My biggest beef with the series is that it had really weak publishing, the components weren’t great, there were a lot of misprints and alignment issues as well as missing components. I felt judging the game given that the quality of the components actually made the game nearly unplayable would be unfair to the designer, it was better that I waited for the corrections before I did a review. It has taken quite a while for Compass Games to send me replacement parts so this one despite how much I appreciate the design has remained un-reviewed. I only know it because of the Vassal version which I have used for my gaming but I never do reviews based on Vassal experiences mainly because I’m here to review board games, not digital versions of them.

Pacific War

A Mark Herman classic gets a reprint and its going to be hard to resist.

Pacific War by Mark Herman due to land any day now in Europe is a more tactical operations level world war II game set in the Pacific theatre, a pre-cursor to the amazing Empire of the Sun. I never played the original release but now that it’s being reprinted with a lot of bells and whistles, I’ve had my eye on it and I think in the end it’s going to find its way to my shelf.

I’m a sucker for all things Mark Herman and I have a particular interest in the Pacific War, so this game is right up my alley. I’m intimidated by its complexity, but I made it over the learning curve hump with Empire of the Sun so I feel like I can learn to play anything.

On The Table This Month

This month I focused a great deal of my gaming time on the two games I reviewed (Peloponnesian War and Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul). While Peloponnesian War practically reviewed itself, I struggled with Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul quite a bit. Doing reviews isn’t always easy, one of my goals with all reviews I do is to not only be fair and impartial but respectful to the designers. Games are not easy to design and I think as a reviewer it’s my job to have a good understanding of what the designer was trying to accomplish which sometimes can be quite tough. In either case, played lots of great this month so in no particular order.

Brass: Birmingham

The game is very pretty and while the theme is very historical, like most Euro games it is highly abstracted. It’s a thinker and a very tight point salad.

Brass: Birmingham has been on my must-play list for quite a while, as a game reviewer I feel obligated to play every game that appears on the top 10 list on BBG and this one has been sitting in the no. 3 spot for a while getting ready to challenge the two top spot games Pandemic Legacy and Gloomhaven.

This was a fascinating game based on the industrial revolution in England between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. You effectively take on the roles of business moguls trying to control the various early industries of the era building factories and transporting goods through canals and railroads.

The game is a quasi-card game with a fairly dynamic setup creating very unique obstacles and puzzles to solve each round as you try to outpace your opponents in a game where making money is important but points are scored more through expansion and control.

It did not take more than a round or two for the game to click, so while Brass is quite robust and there is quite a bit going on, the rules are streamlined and it was easy to catch on. Playing it well, however, coming to grips with what is and isn’t a good strategy is going to take a few plays I think. I did well but I was outpaced by the more experienced players on my first run, but I think I’m going to perform a lot better next time based on my first go.

We played it 3 players and while I think the game played fine in that player count, this game is clearly going to be best with 4 players and the next time I play I’m going to be aiming for that. With 3 players part of the map is kind of a “no go zone” and I always find that this way of handling reduced player count in games always feels off. It was strange that the map was two-sided and rather than creating a 3 player and a 4 player map to compensate for the player count, the two sides are identical having a day and night side which has no impact on rules and is just for cosmetics. Definitely a missed opportunity in my opinion.

Endeavor: Age of Sail

This is a really solid Euro-style game that plays very fast with a lot of great tension and great balance.

This one hit the table twice in February and continues to impress. I’m working on a review for it but I don’t mind spoiling a bit and say that I really like it quite a bit.

It’s a big and busy-looking game but is actually lightning-fast and super-tight which gives the game a sort of high tension right in the first round that stays with you until the very claustrophobic conclusion. There is a lot of dynamics in this game, but as we play it repeatedly we have uncovered a few strategies and counter-strategies and so far none have proven to be dominant which is great as it gives the game a really strong balanced feeling. Victory counts at the end of this game are always tight, we are talking 2-3 point differences between first and second place typically.

Great game, I think this will definitely be going on the list for our big summer board gaming weekend this year.

Empire of the Sun

There are games, there are historical war games and then there is Empire of the Sun, a game that demands as much as it gives. One of my all-time favorites, always happy to make time for it on my hobby table.

This beast hits my table in late February multiple times and I suspect I will still be playing it in March. Whenever I set up Empire of the Sun on my hobby table to play solo against the AI bot (Erasmus) I know it’s something I will be playing over the course of a week or so. Usually I become instantly obsessed and end up playing it for weeks at a time over multiple games and that certainly has been the case this month.

I’m playing as the Japanese right now as I find playing the historical loser in this game is very challenging against the AI bot and I really love the many different approaches you can take to this game and how that core is driven by your card draw. That initial card draw in Turn 2 completely changes the dynamics and direction of the entire game and never ceases to surprise me.

I can’t praise this game enough but I always caution anyone considering getting into this one that it’s super complex and a very robust game that will take some time to learn to play properly. Lots of exception-based rules driven by historical chrome that you might initially find to be overkill but if you are fascinated by the tragic history of the Pacific War like I am, these details really just give this game a narrative flair like no other. This is a game that is as complex as it needs to be, no more, no less. Mark Herman is great at explaining the why of his rules in the rulebook which while adding page count actually helps you to remember the rule itself as you make the connection so it’s a blessing in my opinion. I adore this game and I find it hits my solo hobby table often in long stretches at a time. Takes some doing to get into it, but if you make the crossing you will not be disappointed.

Peloponnesian War

This one blew the doors off, a complete game-changer with a core concept (switching sides) that I’m finding to be applicable to a lot of 2 player games I play solo. This one stands out in the crowd of solo gaming.

Definitely, the game of the month and one of my favorite recent discoveries, this absolutely amazing solo game is one of the most challenging games I have played in a long time. Rules are relatively simple to wrap your head around but unraveling this puzzle is going to take some serious effort.

This is one of the most unique handlings of a solo mechanic I have seen in any game ever and I keep saying this to anyone who listens but why on earth is this approach not seen more commonly in solo games. The concept of playing one side and then switching gives this solo game a really awesome feeling of playing a real opponent, there is no one better equipped to beat you than you.

Love the historical detail of this one and how that brings out the narrative of the game, it’s so good, absolutely a must-own for any historical wargaming solo fans. I put this one up there with Enemy Action Ardennes in terms best solo games I have ever played.

Find the full review for this game HERE.

Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul

I understand some of the complaints about balance in this one, but I don’t really share them. Let’s just say, I get it but not everyone will.

This latest addition to my CDG collection was a hit with my gaming partners both online and offline, myself included. Despite some oddly shaped balancing in the game that might trigger some to proclaim the game unbalanced, I personally found this game’s design goals to be intriguing and unique. It spoke to me and I suppose I’m on the “I get it” side of the discussion.

I can understand the arguments about the game being tilted towards a Gaul victory, I address my opinion about this one in my review but the short answer is, it is exactly what it needs to be to make this game work.

For me this was a keeper, it fits nicely with some of my other CDG games that I know and love and while it certainly didn’t kick my favorite Imperial Struggle out, I can see an argument for playing this over Washingtons War for example. I look at it like this. I have 4 CDG at the moment. Imperial Struggle is the best one, but it’s fairly complex and actually not really a CDG in the purest sense. As such it comes down to the other three, Twilight Struggle, Washington’s War and Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul. All games I can teach you and get you playing quickly, so it boils down to picking the historical subject you find most interesting.

Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul is a great game, it’s doubly so if the subject matter interests you and you already love CDG’s.

Find the full review for this game HERE!

Vampire: The Masquerade

The single best RPG experience of my life and I speak on the behalf of my entire gaming group of long-time RPG players.

Role-playing is as much a hobby for me as board gaming, but the truth is that the term role-playing is really redefined in Vampire The Masquerade. This is a game that goes deeper and more immersive than most RPG’s I play and this is precisely why my gaming group adores this game.

We have been playing the 5th edition since its release and we have created memories and stories that we will be talking about for the rest of our lives in my gaming group.

My gaming group post-corona-apocalypse restarted our ongoing chronicle right where we left off this week and everyone is super psyched to get this gaming going again.

If you have never played a role-playing game before this might not be the best place to start as it really makes a lot of assumptions about the player experience, but it’s definitely the crowning jewel of my personal role-playing experiences.

On The Horizon

I already mentioned a couple of games I’m looking forward to in the near future, but there have been a few new entries in the future-future section that got my attention this week.

Rebel Fury

Another Mark Herman game… I’m starting to think I’m a fanboy!

I have been looking to add my first Civil War game to my collection as currently, I have none! This is not a topic I’m super interested in at the moment, but I certainly see a lot of potential here.

Rebel Fury seems like a good entry point, its a Mark Herman game and it’s based on a game series that is highly regarded. This is a bit out of my scope in that the game is about specific battles rather than more global conflict, so while I’m still on the lookout for a game that lets me fight the whole war, this seems like a great place to start the next phase of my gaming education.

That’s it for this month!