At the start of this summer, I wanted to have a writing project for the blog, something unique to work on when those rainy days come or when I’m up late with a cold beer after the family has gone to bed. It’s something of a tradition for me and has produced articles such as my Battletech Guide series (Part I, Part II & Part III) and my Star Wars: X-Wing guide (Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV & Part V) for example.
This year’s summer project is to evaluate and write a comparison article on Science-Fiction 4x civilization-building games, a topic that is something of a passion of mine. I have always been a big fan of monster games in general as far back as I can remember, getting my start with classics like Advanced Civilization, Axis & Allies and Shogun back in the 80’s. My love for SF 4x games however comes from the world of PC games with classics like Master of Orion and Galactic Civilization series of games.
For years Twilight Imperium has been the ruling king of the hill of this genre in board game form, it has floated around in my top 10 best games of all time since I started it nearly 10 years ago and remains the mecca of this genre in my opinion. Equally, for the same amount of years I have searched for alternatives for Twilight Imperium if for no other reason than the simple fact that Twilight Imperium is a real pain to get to the table despite its many positive elements. Simply put, it’s a very long, very heavy and conceptually complex game to get into. It demands a bit more than most gamers are willing to give and so I have searched for alternatives that might bring the 4x experience to the table more often with a wider range of players.
My hope was that if I explored this genre in detail, I might find some 4x games that might be a bit more approachable. Going into this project I have no expectations that any of the games I will try will replace Twilight Imperium for me as my ruling favorite, but I am hoping to find some new 4x games to explore.
My research has shown that there are quite a few potentially great SF 4x games in the board game world and it’s my intention to go deep with this article series and do some detailed assessment of what I believe are the most popular of these games that will hopefully act as both a buying guide for those looking to get into the games and a sort of review for each individual game.
The List & Why
There are quite a few games that could go on this list, in fact, arguably to be a proper assessment of the whole genre I think a list of 10-15 would be needed but I wanted to narrow it down to the most widely popular games and I wanted to have some games that hardened veterans of the genre would also approve of which is to say, games that might be more obscure to general mass markets but the experts within consider staples of the genre. This I felt was important because the goal here is to expose you, the reader to something new and interesting and battle-tested, not necessarily a comparison of the most known games.
Twilight Imperium 4th Edition
The ultimate 4x science-fiction epic, it is considered by many to be the king of the 4x genre.
Twilight Imperium was a very obvious choice, it is considered a hallmark of the genre, ask any fan of SF 4x civilization building to make a list for you, and this one will always be on it. It is widely accepted as one of the best in the genre, arguably the one by which all other games will be judged so it had to be on this list.
Eclipse: Second Dawn For The Galaxy
Many argue that Eclipse is the Twilight Imperium killer, a more refined, faster playing 4x game.
Eclipse is perhaps the second most widely known and accepted game in the genre and actually has even broader mass market appeal. More importantly, it’s considered the most natural competitor to Twilight Imperium by the gaming community even if the publisher makes no such claims. It is also highly disputed by Twilight Imperium fans as a contender, some argue for it’s shorter play time while others insist it comes up short. I love a good controversy, so it had to go on the list as well.
Star Trek: Ascendancy
A relative newcomer by 4x standards, but this 2016 release has made a splash with 4x and Star Trek fans alike often compared to Eclipse.
A very popular franchise but a less commonly listed game, Star Trek: Ascendancy is a full-fledged 4x game that has had quite a bit of buzz among 4x fans and has seen a number of reprints since its 2016 release which means people are still playing & buying it. One really interesting element of Ascendancy is that many argue its a better, albeit less refined Eclipse and there is a lot of debate about its quality that seems to have created a sort of Ascendancy vs. Eclipse grudge match. From that, it was an easy decision to include it.
Exodus: Proxima Centauri
While my first experience with this one was less then stellar, it’s a community favorite and many argue that it is a far more competitive and varied game in direct competition with Twilight Imperium and Eclipse.
I was very hesitant to add this one to my list mainly because I own it, I have played it once and neither my gaming crew or I thought much of it. Despite this among 4x circles, it’s considered a staple and standard for the genre and it’s been compared to Eclipse and Twilight Imperium in countless reviews, many feeling this is the superior game. While I have my doubts, the evidence is in its success. It has also not only remained in print but has received a 2nd edition and been nominated for some prestigious awards including the 2013 UK Games expo for Best Boardgame of the year. It’s clearly a competitor, it had to go on the list.
Stellaris Infinite Legacy
Based on one of the most popular 4x games in modern times, this new kid on the block is making a lot of bold claims about being an evolution in the genre and we are going to give it, its shot to prove it in this competition.
The final game on the list comes from Academy Games which attempts to create a board game version of one of the most popular modern 4x PC game franchises in existence, the fan favorite and beloved Stellaris. I know very little about this one but I felt strongly that if someone is going to try to re-create a board game version of one of the best 4x PC games on the market today, it needed to be on the list.
That’s your list, 5 games. I’m committed to play each game a minimum of one time, though it’s likely I will have a couple of plays of each game before this article is complete and I have the advantage of having played some of these games already before I even start. I have no idea how long it will actually take me to complete this article series, but I’m hopeful that it will make for some fun gaming and writing.
How they will be judged
I think it’s important to establish some method or standard for how all the games will be judged to ensure not only that the competition is fair, but that there is at least a general understanding of what the expectations for a 4x game are. Each game will be rated from 1 to 5 on each of the following categories.
Is it a true 4x game
The first category simply ensures that the game meets its advertised goal which is to be a 4x game. 4x is a reference to the four key elements of a science-fiction civilization-building game.
Exploration
Does the game have a fun/interesting exploration mechanic, after all this is a game about building a civilization in space and exploration has to be a part of that.
Expand
This is a bit of a tricky one as the word is intended to have multiple meanings. It’s a reference to the civilization-building component of the game and covers anything that helps to build your civilization from a fledging single planet to a mass empire. Science research, fleet and base building, economic engine growth and really anything else to do with the construction and forward progress of your civilization.
Exploit
Similar to expanding in a way, exploiting is about making sure that the galaxy itself is the source of the struggle in the game and that it breeds player competition for resources to ensure players are forced out of their comfort zone of their homeworld. Exploitation is about the economics of the game and the road to confrontation and the final and arguably most exciting element of the 4x genre, war (Exterminate).
Exterminate
In the end, the exploration, expansion and exploitation of the galaxy should put the players into conflict with each other and lead to the expected eventual outcome which is war. All good 4x games are in the end in some shape or form war games.
The Extras
While the 4x civilization-building genre is very specific, many of these games include concepts like politics, diplomacy, trade, espionage and other elements often associated, but not directly mentioned as part of the 4x mantra. These extras should count and hence they get their own category in the evaluation.
Competitive & Fun
This second category is a bit more opinion driven, it’s about a general judgment and comparison of how competitive and fun the game is. Does it hit those joy centers with its mechanics, do players walk away satisfied, is the game balanced and fair and of course naturally how does it fair in general as a gaming experience.
The Event Status & Presentation
Civilization-building games should be an event, a robust, full-fledged game that everyone is excited about and builds a foundation for a great gaming event. This combines its visual appeal and presentation, its replayability and its status as a game around which an event can be played. 4x games shouldn’t just be board games, they need to generate a much higher level of excitement beyond just a simple game night, they should feel epic in size and scope. This category is a measurement and discussion of its status as an event game and includes its presentation.
Deliver On The Promise
This one is important mainly because I don’t think a game should be judged solely on the expectations and desires of players, but on what the game actually promises. Whether it’s by advertisement on the box or website, we use that information to determine how well it delivers what it promised. Does the game do what it said it would? That is the question we are answering and rating here.
Strengths vs. Weakness
This is the only category that will not be scored so much as listed. I will attempt to outline each game’s strengths and weaknesses and help guide players to the game that is right for their group.
Comparison Ranking
Finally is the comparison ranking. This category will not be included with each game, but rather be an article in its own right where I compare and contrast all of the games and come to a conclusion about where they ultimately rank in this competition. It will be a definitive, top 5 of the best from this list of SF 4x civilization-building games.
Conclusion
Ok so that is the setup for this article series, we have our game list and we have our established method of judgment. I’m uncertain exactly what order these articles will appear or even what approach I will take beyond these simple goals but the plan is first to play all of the games so that I have a strong basis for assessment. I expect this series will go well beyond the summer to complete, but keep an eye out for it in the near future.
The sacred annual event known as Hassela weekend in my gaming circle is a staple of my gaming group’s gaming life. We look forward to it all year long, the holy event is a 4-day gaming excursion where my buddies and I hide away in a small remote Swedish town and do nothing but drink beer, BBQ and play board games. It is sacred, it is glorious and it is a board gaming super weekend.
This year’s event was overflowing with amazing gaming, so much so that I kick-started this article only an hour after I came home still buzzing from the countless mini experiences of playing classics and new gems alike.
Get ready for the list, because it’s quite meaty, in no particular order.
The Pillars of The Earth by KOSMOS 2006
Designer: Michael Rieneck, Stefan Stadler
The Pillars of the Earth is among the first board games I bought and introduced to my new Swedish friends when I first moved to Sweden. In fact, it’s among the first reviews I did for this blog (The Pillars Of The Earth Review). My first gaming group was a mixture of gamers and non-gamers, it would be a couple of years before our gaming crew really formed, so I needed an easy-to-learn and teach game that non-gamers could get their head around while being interesting and fun for board gamers like me in the group. This one came highly recommended but wasn’t the usual recommendations I had heard for introducing people to gaming like Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride. Nothing against those two, but I always felt like while they are introduction games, they aren’t that interesting for more seasoned gamers.
The Pillars of The Earth is a very pretty game, with a theme based on a book that gives it a sort of regal and intelligent presence and it was very easy to learn and teach so no one is going to get overwhelmed. It was quite perfect as an introductory game and even to this day when someone comes to me wanting to take their first venture into board gaming, I find it to be a great choice.
This is a really pretty game with a lot of color and thought put into aesthetics, so despite the rather odd theme of being about 12th-century architects building a cathedral, it has a lot of personality.
That however is not why it’s still in my collection years later and why it found its way to our Hassela weekend. Despite its simplicity, this is a very elegant Euro that really stands out and will challenge veteran gamers.
It’s a simple worker placement and resource management game on the surface, which is to say, the standard formula in which players place workers on limited spots, get resources and use those resources to score points. Nothing too fancy…
The twist is that in addition to managing the resources needed to score points you have money that is used in a pre-round auction of sorts where you draw “worker” tokens out of a bag and if your color comes up you have to pay the current cost of putting your worker on the board or pass your chance to put down a worker until the end of the round. This means that having more money gives you a better chance of getting your workers on the board first, which is a huge advantage, and being broke is equally really, really bad. It is in this mini-management element of the game a lot of the planning magic happens.
It’s a struggle between doing what you want, doing what you can and doing what you need to do while competing for the best spots on the board and finding victory points wherever you can. It’s a pretty tight game, so every inch you claim counts. Additionally, the method of scoring points is all about having the best craftsmen cards that convert resources into points, but getting those also costs money and there is a very limited supply of craftsmen available in any given game.
The whole thing boils down to a thinky resource management puzzle, not so difficult that you don’t understand what and how to do it, but always challenging to do it well.
The Pillars of the Earth is a stone-cold classic in my opinion, it’s a straight-to-the-point Euro that uses well-established worker placement mechanics but does so in a unique way that even nearly 20 years later it still holds up in veteran gaming groups in addition to being a very serviceable introductory to board games-game.
It’s still in print and available today, this is a real gem and comes highly recommended if you are looking for a good gateway game that carries over to more serious gaming tables.
Root By Leder Games 2018
Designer: Cole Wehrle
Root has been on my must-play list since its rise in popularity over the last couple of years, I’m certainly a late comer to the experience, but someone brought it so I was excited to finally have go. Root already has over a dozen expansions, it has been converted to a digital game and clawed its way to the 28th spot on boardgamegeek.com. Impressive resume for a game about cute woodland creature cartoons fighting in a forest.
Despite its endearing art and theme, Root turned out to be a pretty complex gamer’s game with what I can only describe as extreme dynamics and asymmetry. Each player in the game takes control of one of four or more available factions (depending on expansions) in what can best be described as a sort of quasi-war mini-series. Each faction not only plays wildly different but has entirely different game mechanics and methods of scoring points. Some factions don’t even have units on the map, some have entire armies, while others are essentially solo adventurers who wander around the map causing trouble.
It’s a pretty crazy setup, so nutty it’s difficult to fully express but I suppose the best way to describe it is that every player is effectively playing an entirely different game (quite literally). Each faction has unique rules for the game and while there is a lot of interaction in the game between players, which is great, this extreme asymmetry can be a bit confusing when you are learning to play the game.
It’s probably not a great idea to do what my group did which was play a 5 player game with expansions on our first go (or at least my first go). That likely complicated the matter unnecessarily.
When we played it took us quite a bit of time to get the game going and even though I found my faction to be quite straightforward (I played a Vagabond, essentially a solo adventurer), I didn’t have a bloody clue how anyone else worked or what the hell they were doing until the late game when it all abruptly ended. It felt a bit anti-climactic and I was a little disappointed, but I don’t think it illustrated a flaw in the game, just the unexpected reality that despite being about adorable little forest creatures, this game is a fairly robust and serious gamer’s game. I don’t think describing it as a war game is unfair, though perhaps not 100% accurate for every faction, yet despite its cuteness aesthetically the game was quite brutal.
This game’s adorable theme is in stark contrast to its rather harsh, take that gameplay.
It’s difficult for me to form an opinion on a game this diverse after only one pretty wobbly play. What I can say is that I was immediately sold on the theme, concept, and mechanics and definitely excited for another go, so the game certainly didn’t turn me off. For me this was the surprise discovery of the weekend, to be honest despite a kind of lackluster first go, I really liked it quite a bit and I was hoping that we would get a second play during the weekend but we never got to it.
All the buzz on this one is warranted I think, looking forward to taking another crack at it again in the near future.
Hansa Teutonica by Pegasus Spiele 2020
Designer: Andreas Steding
Originally released in 2009, this is something of an old-school Euro classic with a pretty impressive list of prestigious game awards. We played the re-printed 2020 big box release which I think is largely unchanged from the original but comes with several expansions packaged together.
Our game took place on the German map and going into this one I didn’t really know what to expect, I had never even heard of it and at a glance, it looked like a rather boring Euro cube pusher. I was not terribly excited, my relationship with cube-pushing euro-classics is a bit of a mixed bag.
I swear I have nothing against a good Euro cube pusher, but I find for every 3 or 4 I play, I find one I like and the rest are meh… so I tend to be a bit skeptical.
Fortunately, Hansa Tuetonica turned out to be a delightfully simple, yet very thinky and clever game with tons of player interaction and wonderfully streamlined mechanics. Everyone at the table took to it right away, there was none of this “now that I know the rules, I will be able to do much better next time” kind of talk after the game, it was crystal clear what you needed to do to win from turn one, the challenge was figuring out how to do it well.
This was a game about building trade routes and controlling buildings by placing down control cubes. The tricky part is that if someone placed a cube into a route you want to control, while you can kick them out, it costs you an extra cube to do so and gives them 2 cube placements elsewhere on the board for free. So the game is all about players trying to get under each other’s feet to get the free rewards and then use those rewards to outpace each other. Each player also has their own gameboard and you can upgrade various properties of your little business to improve the sort of actions you can take which opens up various advantages as well as scoring you additional points.
It’s really a victory point race as you might expect from a Euro, but highly interactive and cutthroat and there is a kind of sense of urgency with everything as the board fills up over time and your options start to slim down as the game progresses. The game had really good tension and unlike so many of these old-school Euro games, you didn’t feel isolated from the other players, quite to the contrary, it all felt very crowded.
Really enjoyed this one a hell of a lot more than I thought I would when it came out of the box, another of a long line of pleasant surprises this weekend. I think it’s difficult to offer a comparison for this one, I suppose you could say in a way it’s a worker placement game but that would be a real stretch of the term. I do think like The Pillars Of The Earth, this is a good example of a game that is going to be very newbie friendly while having plenty of steam for the more seasoned gamer. Really nice find!
Dune Imperium by Dire Wolf (2020)
Designer: Paul Dennen
I never did a full review of Dune Imperium and I probably should have, but it did appear in the number 9 spot of my Top 20 Best Games of All Time list I did earlier this year so that should tell you a little something about how I feel about this one.
To make it short and sweet, this is hands down among the best games that came out in 2020 and remains one of my favorites to put on the table. It was no surprise to me that this one found its way to the Hassela super weekend rotation, I’m fairly certain most of my crew enjoys this one as well.
We played Dune with the new expansion (Rise of Ix), which has not received particularly high marks and was rumored to be very poor so I was mildly concerned about adding it into the mix. Boy are those reviews wrong!
Dune Imperium – Rise of Ix was a fantastic expansion that vastly improves the game, in particular in the variety of viable strategies for winning. Without the expansion, the method of winning is pretty strict, you must get lots of influence with the different factions and you must win a few victory point-based battles, else your chances of winning a game of Dune Imperium are slim to none generally reduced to a lucky intrigue card draw.
I played a lot of Dune, it’s a fantastic game and I’m always weary of expansions for games I already think are amazing. A game that was nearly perfect already gets better with Rise of Ix, its a must-own for any fan of the game.
With the Rise of Ix the game opens up a great deal proven by my own victory which I achieved without ever winning a single battle. The combination of interstellar shipping, technologies, new faction cards, dreadnoughts and various micro additions, there are a lot more ways to score points so the game is just a lot less linear. Perhaps repeated plays might reveal some flaws, but from where I was sitting, the game not only felt even tighter but there are more ways to make a comeback. Our game ended with 3 players achieving 10 points and the 4th sitting on 9 at the end of the game and the tie-breaker was a technology card I picked up earlier in the game. One of the most exciting and closes games of Dune Imperium I have played yet.
The expansion does complicate the game ever so slightly but really one play without the expansion should be all the education one needs before adding it in, it’s really not that substantial rules-wise.
If you haven’t played Dune Imperium yet, this is a combination of worker placement and deck builder no serious connoisseur can live without, it’s a must-play game in my opinion, without question among the best games in my collection.
Imperial Struggle by GMT Games (2020)
Designers: Ananda Gupta, Jason Mathews
On the first day of the Hassela, a buddy and I were the first arrivals and we had a chance to play a couple of two-player games, so I did not hesitate to bring what I consider to be THE best two-player game in my collection.
To put it plainly, I adore this game, it’s incredibly challenging, deep and thematic while being reasonably short for a two-player historical board game affair. It doesn’t hurt that the influence struggle card-driven mechanic is one of my favorite mechanics in board games and I have collected quite a few in that category for comparison and this one remains my favorite among them (List includes Washintgons War, Ceaser: Rome vs. Gaul & Twilight Struggle…. So far).
This can however be a pretty frustrating and unforgiving game, it is not for the faint of heart. A couple of bad decisions can quickly break your momentum and lead to ruin, in particular if you’re facing a clever opponent who knows how to leverage errors in judgment. I have played about a dozen games of Imperial Struggle at this point and it really doesn’t get any easier over time either. This is due in part that the game has a lot of dynamic elements that can really alter what strategies will be effective and these dynamics really push you to constantly think globally.
I could probably write several blog posts about my theories and ideas for strategies which are probably all terrible, but that is really the beauty of a game like this is that you never really stop thinking about it and trying to figure it out.
I would not recommend this as a first venture into the influence struggle card-driven genre unless you are a board game veteran, there are lighter games like Twilight Struggle and Washingtons war that make for much better starting points, but to me this is the final word in the genre, the standard by which all others are to be judged.
Love it!
Eclipse: Second Dawn For The Galaxy by Lautapelit (2020)
Designer: Touko Tahkokallio
Eclipse was a smash hit with the entire gaming crew in Hassela and really the highlight of the weekend, we actually ended up playing it twice with everyone nodding in approval. I picked this game up as this summer I took it upon myself to write an article about 4x science-fiction civilization-building games and Eclipse was a natural contender for such an analysis along with games like Twilight Imperium.
I played the original Eclipse and it triggered two articles I did back in 2015 called Top 5 Games That Were Almost Great and my Top 5 Popular Games You Can Skip. Suffices to say I saw a lot of potential in the game but it had a few flaws that just made the game pretty stale after repeated plays. I think at the time I was probably a bit more sensitive about the sales pitch as well which suggested that this was a faster, lighter Twilight Imperium which really is just objectively false advertising. It was for all intense and purposes a cube-pushing Euro disguised as a Twilight Imperium wanna-be.
I will be the first to admit I may have been a bit elitist and harsh in my assessment of the original Eclipse and while I still don’t think Eclipse is even in the same class as Twilight Imperium as a game, at least with Second Dawn the game delivered on the promise of a proper fully fleshed out 4x science-fiction civilization building game that can be played in a reasonable amount of time.
The game has been streamlined generously, on our second game when everyone knew the rules and we just setup and played, we finished a very tense and very exciting game in a little over 3 hours which is at least half the time it would take to play Twilight Imperium if I’m being generous (probably more like 1/3rd of the time).
More than that though the game just had a rhythm that worked. Turns were fast, there was always some action on the board each round, the game felt tight and uncertain and you really had to take some gambles in response to other players’ activities. There is a lot of tension in this game, you can’t sit on your butt and just build-up, you have to act; the game feels, because it is, extremely short. It was just a really fun and exciting game.
There is a lot more I want to say about this game, but I’m saving that juice for the big 4x article I’m working on, so for now I will just say that all the accolades this game has received over the last couple of years is well deserved, this is a really great 4x formula that delivers on the promise of a shorter yet very robust 4x empire building game. I don’t really remember the old game enough to specifically point out which changes made the difference here, but clearly, the game is a lot more streamlined that is for sure. Loved it, can’t wait to play it more!
Nidavellir by Grrre Games (2020)
Designer: Serge Laget
A curious little game about recruiting dwarves destined to fight a big dragon, though in practice it’s about creating a point-scoring engine driven by a competitive blind auction for point-scoring cards. I honestly thought I would like it a lot less than I ultimately did as the rules were being explained to me, but the game is very short and quite clever, it was a nice distraction and worked well with 3-players which was our player count at the moment it hit the table.
Very nicely published for a game this simple with great components and pretty art. I think this would make for a really good family game with kids, this is a concept anyone can pick up instantly and it demands a bit of math which is a good way to sneak in some education for the youngsters.
At a table full of veteran gamers it was quite well received, maybe a bit too robust to be called a filler, as it required some explanation with some of the specialty hero cards, but once you know the game I would be surprised if it took 3-4 players more than 30-45 minutes to play.
I liked it, if you’re looking for a light family game this is a really nice pick.
Star Wars Jabba’s Palace Love Letter & Lovecraft Letter
Designers: (Lovecraft): Vincent Dutrait, Kouji Ogata
We played not one but two different themed versions of Love Letter, both of which I found to be fun takes on an established classic. Love Letter is a sort of take-that player elimination game where you attempt to knock out the players with various card effects to be the last man standing. It’s a very simple game with a bit of deduction strategy and psychology playing into it.
The Star Wars Love Letter featured two different factions which played off each other a bit and included some special mission cards that created alternative winning conditions.
The Lovecraft one used an insane mechanic that worked similarly to factions (sane and insane) and had some alternative winning conditions to the standard love letter rules.
All and all both of these games were really fun just like the original Love Letter is. Each had a unique thematic take on the concept, but ultimately these were just additional layers on a game that just works really well.
I’m not a huge Lovecraft fan and I am a massive Star Wars fan, but if I had to choose between the two-themed versions I actually thought the sanity mechanic in Lovecraft letter worked a bit better.
Love Letter is a really great game and there are so many different themes for it, so you pretty much just pick a theme that speaks to you and buy that version. There really isn’t much more to say about it, I have always really liked this game and having some fun themes like Star Wars and Lovecraft adds a bit of flavor.
I’ve never met a person that doesn’t like Love Letter, the only real downside to the game is that you really want at least 4 players, it loses a lot of its tension with 2 or 3 players. No gamers collection is complete without Love Letter in it.
Smartphone Inc by Cosmodrome Games (2018)
Designer: Ivan Lashin
This little sleeper hit I think is one of the most underrated games on boardgamegeek.com, sitting in the 399 spot it’s practically criminal. This is without question one of the most unique Euro’s I have played in years, it never disappoints. Actually, I would argue if you are looking to become a board game designer, this is a must-play game because it proves that game designers are still coming up with original ideas despite the tens of thousands of games released each year.
In Smartphone you are running a mobile phone company, producing and selling phones on a global scale. It’s a simple combination action selection and area control game with an economic twist, but the real brilliance of the game is how you define your actions. Players have two, two-sided game boards which they must secretly layer over each other to determine what sorts of actions they will take during the execution phase of the game. The rules here are simple, but this a brain teaser that will have you tearing your hair out and it’s absolutely brilliant.
I adore this game, don’t let the hipster on the cover distract you, this is a polished gem that exemplifies great game design. It has a fantastic, albeit simple aesthetic which some might find a bit pedestrian but the level of streamlined play here is a real achievement in my opinion.
Don’t miss out on this one, games this original don’t come every day, this is a must-play, it will make you a believer!
Tsuro by Calliope Games (2005)
Designer: Tom McMurchie
This one made an appearance last year and really my opinion on it has not changed in anyway so for posterity I just copied the same thing I wrote about it last year!
I’m not a huge abstract gamer, looking at my shelf I can count the number of games I have in this genre on one hand minus a few fingers, but every once in a while a game comes along that I find irresistible (I’m looking at you THE DUKE).
Tsuro however was not one of those games and though I really didn’t see anything particularly wrong with it as it was clever, simple and quick, exactly what you want an abstract game to be, it’s not the kind of game that floats my boat. It’s not an issue with the game, but rather just my general gaming preferences, in fact, I would argue that if you like abstract games, this would probably hit the spot just right. From what little I know of the genre, this game seems to have that puzzle element I think abstract gamers are looking for. When we played it I’m not joking when I say the game took about 10 minutes to complete multiple times, it was a very quick game.
Undaunted by Osprey Games (2019)
Designer: Trevor Benjamin & David Thompson
I liked this game quite a bit when I first played it a couple of years ago, but I haven’t seen it hit the table again until now and I have to wonder why not? This two-player part tactical war game, part deck-building card game is elegant, pretty and fun. It has great tension, a push-your-luck element, lots of little clever tricks you can pull and alternative strategies you can deploy. All that wrapped up in a game that can’t possibly take more than 30 minutes a match to play once you know the rules.
There are different scenarios for the game and arguably some are a bit more lopsided than others but from what I have seen of the game, there aren’t any obvious flaws.
We played the Normandy variant which is the original game but today there is already an expansion for it (North Africa) and another on the way (Stalingrad). I doubt that will be the end of it, this one has picked up something of a following and it’s no surprise to me, this is a really fun two-player game that borders on filler speed and simplicity while having a bit of meat on the bones.
I really loved this one, I definitely would like to see it hit the table more often, in fact, this weekend’s experience had me seriously considering adding it to my collection because while the theme is war, it runs like a fun two-player family game, something I can see myself playing with my daughter.
This is good old fashion fun gaming.
The King Is Dead by Osprey Games (2020)
Designer: Benoit Billion
Originally released in 2015, I picked up the 2nd edition of the game and packed it with me for the weekend, I thought it could act as a little filler and distraction as we knew going into the gaming weekend that we would be at 2 and 3-player counts for a part of the weekend and this was a strong recommendation as a 3 player game.
This one has a bit of a Condottiere vibe which is one of my all-time favorite trick-taking card games, though The King Is Dead leans a bit less on card play mechanics and a bit more on being an area control game. As a general premise however this is a game of strategic maneuvering, the whole thing is basically a brain-teasing puzzle where you are trying to arrange control cubes to favor your own position with limited card play.
It’s a really quick and straightforward game but like Condottiere it relies a lot on the psychology of the players and trying to predict what people will do while thinking several moves ahead. It’s very clean and fun, and easy to understand. I like it quite a bit but Condottiere is in no danger of being replaced in this kind of funny sub-genre of games.
A fun little distraction, not sure it’s a full recommendation because honestly if I was going to recommend a game of this type I think I would argue for Condottiere over this one.
Star Trek Fleet Captains by Wizkids (2011)
Designer: Mike Elliott, Bryan Kinsella, Ethan Pasternack
I’m a huge Trekkie, always have been, always will be so Star Trek Fleet Captains is a game very close to my heart. I did a review for Star Trek Fleet Captains back in 2015 and I have not changed my mind about this one in the slightest.
This IS Star Trek in a box and very much like War of The Rings or Star Wars Rebellion, this is a game all about the theme which it nails with perfection.
While the game can be played with 3 or 4 players using the expansions (Romulans & Dominion) both of which I have, ideally this is a 2 player game which is how we played it this weekend. It’s a game that is part adventure game, part ship-to-ship battles and part sort of a bit of everything else. You fly around with your little Star Trek ships, you play cards to add crew and equipment onto your ships, you have encounters and eventually, you scrape phasers and shields against your opponent. It’s all very … Star Trekie.
A big part of the appeal in Star Trek Fleet Captains is that they went to extreme lengths to include the most iconic elements of the tv shows and movies into the game via various mechanics. Every time you pick up a card, if you’re a Trekkie like me, you immediately connect the card to an episode of Star Trek be it the original or the next generation. The cards themselves are all still photos from the shows and movies, which normally I would complain about but in this setting that actually works really well.
I’m not sure I would describe the game mechanics as “good”, in fact, arguably they could probably use some work and the components for this game given its price are pretty flimsy, but I know of no other game that embodies the Star Trek experience like Star Trek Fleet Captains. It’s a nostalgia-fueled trip into one of my favorite tv series of all time and I love that about playing this game.
This one has been out of print for quite a while and the re-sell value on it is a bit extreme likely putting you back 250-300 dollars to get the game and all three expansions. My recommendation is that you only do it if you are a crazed fan like me, this is nothing to dabble into unless you love Star Trek madly! If you do, however, this is the single best Star Trek game ever made, hands down!
Conclusion
What can you possibly complain about after a 4 day board gaming weekend with your best buds, limitless beer and top-notch BBQ? It was an amazing weekend filled with awesome gaming, I can’t wait until next year.
That said to me there were a couple of omissions that require a minor complaint.
This year Game of Thrones the board game did not make an appearance and it was sorely missed. Some of my favorite memories of these big board gaming weekends is playing a massive 5 or 6-player Game of Thrones. Unfortunately, we spent the majority of the weekend in a 4 player group and there just was no opportunity to get it to the table. It was really too bad.
I also felt the absence of The Sheriff of Nottingham. This game has appeared in the Hassela super weekend several times and it’s always a hilarious blast. When my friends get this game on the table the ridiculousness of our outrageous humor has no boundaries and I’m usually laughing until my face hurts.
Well that is it for this year super board gaming event, see you next year!
A song of Ice and Fire the miniature game is back in my gaming group with a vengeance and while I had planned a What Makes It Tick series on the game for quite a while, I have not pulled the trigger until now. Today we start the series that will take a deep dive into the Targaryen faction (my faction) in hopes of expanding the series to eventually go through the entire army. Enjoy!
We begin the series with Jorah Mormont a Commander, An Attachment and a Solo Unit in the Targaryen army. Now before I begin, let me just say that sometimes in miniature games there is a phenomenon known as “One Good Wayism”, which is similar to the concept of “competitive meta”, except unlike in the competitive meta which is what players do more based on tested reality, “One Good Wayism” is when players do something on pure perception.
In ASOIAF the miniature game, while there definitely is a competitive meta and this drives how people play the game, how they build list and pick factions, the truth about the ASOIAF community is that a lot of how the community operates is simply based on perceptions rather than the meta realities. I bring this up because Jorah Mormont is definitely a really strong case for how true this really is.
Jorah Mormont is a cavalry commander that fits neatly into the Targaryen theme as a fast-moving, hard-hitting, flanking army. With the 2021 update, Jorah Mormont however has not fared particularly well in competitive play sitting in the 34th spot out 88 commanders overall on ASOIAF stats but in second to last place in the Targaryen faction.
Certainly, the competitive meta is not something to be ignored entirely, there is usually a good reason for a commander’s position in the rankings, but it’s my opinion that Jorah is actually one of the most underrated commanders in the Targaryen faction, perhaps even the game. I think his position among Targaryen commanders is directly linked to the fact that Jorah Mormont – The Wandering Knight (solo) is perceived as so good, that most players favor using Jorah as a solo rather than a commander or anything else for that matter. In fact, this would probably be how I personally favor using Jorah best as well, so I think the stats reflect this, but I think this definitely falls into the category of “One True Wayism”.
This perception of how to use Jorah (as a solo) is so strong that this commander unit is practically ignored entirely and it’s a real shame.
As a commander, Jorah is actually pretty fantastic, without question one of the strongest commanders in the faction. His Ambush ability is pretty amazing as weakened protects the unit during counter-attack and panic helps to increase the chances your opponent will fail their panic test, a great combo. Given your already charging from the flank or rear as a strategy in general, you are also likely making a pretty strong attack with any one of the Targaryen Cavalry units.
This ability is made ridiculously lethal and potentially game-changing thanks to the potential of combining it with one of Jorah’s fantastic tactic cards, Feinting Maneuver. This is arguably one of Jorah’s best tactic cards, perhaps even one of the best Targaryen tactic cards as a whole.
It cannot be understated what a massive difference there is between charging someone from the rear instead of a flank or a flank instead of the front and the fact that you can do this with a card is just absolutely devastating. One well-timed play of this card can and often will be a total game-changer.
Stubborn Tenacity is just a sort of sugar on top kind of ability for Jorah, great to have but nothing to get too excited. Most important thing is to remember to use it.
Marshal to me however is one of the most universally useful cards in Jorah’s tactic deck because while Feinting Maneuver is amazing on the offensive, one thing about running Cavalry as the Targaryens is that you really need them to be attacking at full ranks, this is so key to the game and to the Targaryen Cavalry strategy. One of the simplest way to declaw the Targaryen Cavalry lists is to simply take the money bags away from a Targ opponent to prevent the 3 wounds heal. This secret in the sauce is often ignored by less experienced players who are eager to steal the horse NCU spot, but the truth is if you really want to hurt the Targ. Cavalry, prevent them from healing 3 wounds.
This is why Mopatis is an auto-add for any Cavalry list, but Marshal not only doubles down on this by giving you a second out it does so as part of the activation. You have to remember that Targaryen Cavalry loses a lot of steam when they lose a rank and Marshal allows you to heal and still act. With cards like Swift Reposition and Sudden Retreat, you have alternative options for additional movement to your free maneuver anyway, so losing it is not the end of the world and these cards can combine to create some real surprises for your opponent.
Betrayal is also a truly amazing late-game card that can turn a game your opponent thinks is going to end the next round into something you win this round. Those end game situations which come up often where the score is tight and you are sitting on 7-9 points and you’re just trying to squeeze out those end game points to end things early, this card is perfect for. Don’t ever discard this one, once you draw it you want to keep it! This, just like the first two cards we talked about is a game-winning card.
You don’t want to pull the trigger on this one too early however, there is no way out of the Betrayal card once it’s on you.
Opportunist is one of the weaker cards in Jorah’s deck, though notably still among the strong general commander cards in the game. This is the chink in the armor, yet is still pretty strong. Certainly gaining Precision or Vicious on any attack is always a bonus but truth is that with a typical Calvary list you are trying to stall quite a bit, its always best to attack later in the round rather than early in the round to avoid potential counter-charges and extra retaliatory strikes against your units. Hence this card kind of works opposite to your standard strategy.
I find in general, just like the Cutthroat’s ability Ruthless Aggression ability, attacking someone before they have activated is never ideal and I just don’t think precision carries that much weight statistically so you are likely going to choose vicious for most occasions. It’s a very useful card, but I personally use it the round I draw it or toss it if I don’t, just about any other card draw in your deck will get you more mileage.
Jorah as a commander is clearly tailor-made for a Cavalry list, remember that Marshel only works with Cavalry units and if you are going to eat a Betrayal card you will want it on something that can get the hell out of dodge (aka a fast-moving cavalry).
Arguably both Opportunist and Feinting Maneuver are useful on infantry units, in particular, something like Unsullied Swordmasters combined with a Feinting Maneuver are absolutely devastating. Generally, though I think Jorah and a heavy-handed cavalry force is the most bang for your buck.
As a commander, I would personally rank him much higher than where he sits in ASOIAF stats, especially in the Targaryen faction, but I’m not at all surprised to see him as low as he is and the reason for that as mentioned is Jorah’s solo variant and this perception that the solo is so good, that you favor it over taking Jorah as a commander.
Jorah Mormont – The Wandering Knight (solo)
There is no doubt in my mind that Jorah Mormont (solo) is one of the most versatile and useful units in the Targaryen faction. The 3-point cost alone is worth the extra activation for a Calvary unit with a move of 6 that can control objectives. The fact that Jorah has a great moral score means simply Crowning him to death is unlikely so as long as you keep him out of harm’s way even without Scout Openings he is a worthwhile investment.
Scout Openings however takes this unit over the top in particular in a calvary heavy force that is reliant on charging but can and often does get stuck in unwanted melee brawls. Precision is a nice bonus but it’s the re-rolls you want and that ability means Jorah far exceeds his cost in value. The potential of a well-timed attack with Scout Openings leading the way can be devastating.
Use him to hold objectives, use him for Scout Openings, and use him as a blocker during those final end game moments.
It’s true he might die unexpectedly and this will happen. Your opponents are going to be highly motivated to kill him, it’s a pretty easy victory point and activation reduction for them if they can trap him, but if you use Jorah well and extra cautiously, he is amazing and is worth keeping alive just for the activation and objective control.
One of my favorite things to do with Jorah in the early or late game is to use him as bait. It never ceases to amaze me what risks and foolish plays players will make to try to kill Jorah and at 3 points he is worth trading up for just about any unit in the game.
Jorah Mormont – The Exiled Knight (Attachment)
At 2 points I find the Jorah Mormont – The Exiled Knight attachment to be extremely circumstantial and a bit difficult to use. The keyword for this unit is “Start of an enemy turn“. If it was any turn, then this would be a force to be reckoned with but doing it on an enemy turn makes this a defensive play typically or potentially a setup for a charge on your turn. Personally, I have found this one to be quite awkward to set up and use, in particular with attentive opponents.
I also find it’s a kinda dirty attachment with its timing, one of those things your opponents might forget and you try to surprise them with it “aha, I shift 3 inches”, but the timing is important here. You have to do it before they choose a unit to activate, so what is more likely to happen is that you forget to use this one rather than the other way around and your opponent forgets you have it.
I think there is potential for this attachment but I think it falls into that expert player area where you really need to know what you are doing to leverage it. I have never had much luck with it, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s bad, It’s just tricky to use I think.
Jorah Mormont – The Andal (Attachement)
The other 2 point attachment (infantry) of Jorah is a bit more straightforward. Both abilities are extremely useful and pretty easy to use.
Martial Training is just straight up awesome on, well pretty much anything that doesn’t already have re-rolls as a unit. The combination of re-rolling and Vulnerable is just straight-up beast mode. Typically I think this attachment is best on scrappy units that want to stay and fight like Unsullied Pikemen, but strictly speaking, all infantry units become considerably more dangerous when they can re-roll dice and hand out vulnerable when they are engaged in a fight.
Stand Your Ground! on the other hand, while really good on paper gets less use than you might think. It’s great when it goes off, but infantry units rarely just stand around and fight without being attacked by something else, there is always a catalyst of charges and counter-charges in fights. It’s a great ability, but this card is worth 2 points just for Martial Training to be frank, Stand your Ground is just extra value and it’s very welcome.
Jorah Mormont – Penitent Betrayer
What I like to call “The Forgotten Attachment”, Penitent Betrayer can only be used when it’s added to a unit with Daenerys Targaryen. This is a one-shot, one-point attachment that I can only describe as circumstantial at best. Under the right conditions, it can be extraordinarily useful, other times it’s just kind of meh.
It’s nothing you can plan around, favorable conditions to use him will either come up or they won’t, but given that typically using Daenery’s means dragons, odds are that whatever list you are building is going to be tight on points anyway so even for 1 point it can be a tough sell.
Conclusion
Personally, I think Jorah Mormont is a highly underrated commander and very underutilized outside of his Solo variant for one very, hard to argue reason. That solo is amazing and it’s really hard to pass on a 3 point activation that can do so much for so little. We have currently no cheap alternatives for activation outside of the very peculiar Freed Men which I don’t think can hold even a dim candle to our mounted friend.
The fact that we have a really great alternative cavalry commander in Khal Drogo, makes this decision point that much easier. In a sense with Khal Drogo and Jorah Mormont (Solo) you can have your cake and eat it too and I think that is both the best way to utilize Jorah and simultaneously why his popularity as a commander is so low in the ASOIAF stats.
I don’t see that changing anytime in the near future, the entire Jorah package’s fate was sealed by the Jorah solo unit, it’s just too damn good!
Every year in early March my extended family and I take a trip up to the Swedish ski slopes for a week of fun in the snow. Naturally, there’s a lot of downtime in the evenings so we play a lot of board games, in fact, I pack up as much as I can carry and despite bringing a considerable selection we manage to play through everything every year, this year was no different.
Texas Hold’em
Texas Hold’Em is the modern and most popular poker variant in the world, yet it is generally not considered part of the board gaming sphere which I find rather odd as it’s an awesome card game.
Some might not count Texas Hold’em as a game belonging to the world of board gaming but I beg to differ. If Texas Hold’em didn’t exist as a game for gamblers today and was packaged up as a family card game I predict it would be a smash hit.
It certainly is with my family, playing poker is a long-standing tradition and while we never play for money, the games are no less competitive and intense.
For those that have never played, Texas Hold’em is a unique member of the poker family mainly because the game is as much about the cards as it is about the betting and psychology of the game. Most hands of Hold’em are won and lost without cards ever shown. We have 4 kids between the ages of 10 to 17 in the family and they take their poker pretty seriously creating what is without a doubt the most competitive game of the week. This year the kids really showed us some serious skill taking the old dogs down with ease, clearly, we need to step up our game.
Hero Realms
Hero Realms takes the very basic premise of dynamic deck building and turns it into a dueling game with a fantasy twist, in my eyes a perfect combination.
Hero Realms is typically played two-player and it’s a fine game for that purpose but in our family, a free for all 4-6 player mega game is the way we do it and while it can go a bit long and there’s player elimination, this cut-throat competition brings with it various negotiations, alliances and betrayal which the kids love!
Hero Realms is a deck-building card game based loosely on the Dominion concept. The twist here is that each player gets a fantasy character (Thief, Wizard, Fighter etc..) represented by cards in a 10 card deck. In the center of the table are an additional 5 cards always available for purchase into your deck. As players take their turn they play cards from their hand, which include gold cards allowing them to purchase more cards for their deck. As play goes on players build up their decks with bigger and bigger plays possible. Anyone can attack anyone on their turn and so the game is as much about surviving as it is about looking threatening and negotiating to keep people from attacking you.
In the end it’s complete chaos, eventually, someone makes a big attack, that triggers rivalries and the game devolves into an all-out war until there is one hero left standing to proclaim victory.
This is a really fun game, it’s actually a variant on a science-fiction version of the game called Star Realms. It’s easy to teach and learn, while there is some reading required, there is really good iconography for the game that the younger kids pick up on really quickly so no major trouble getting the younger crowd into this one. I would not call it a deeply strategic game, but there is a lot to the deck-building concept, so which card you buy is a key decision point and how you build your deck will ultimately determine how well you combo when it’s your turn to play cards. Like Dominion, it’s all about keeping your deck lean and effective.
Twilight Struggle
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Twilight Struggle is THE finest representative in board gaming that creates a bridge between historical wargaming and the rest of the board gaming market. It’s a bonafide cross-over hit.
This classic cold war card game was for a time a major obsession for me, but it’s really difficult for experienced players like me to bring a new player up to speed to a point where they can be a challenging opponent because of how card knowledge in the game is such a huge advantage.
Thankfully over the last couple of years, I have been slowly but surely training my brother in law and whenever we do family trips like this, TS comes with us and we play a few rounds. He is not quite far along enough yet to beat me, but I offer him a fairly sizable handicap, and it’s starting to click for him. I think a few more games and he is going to be ready to play without the training wheels. My hope is that this will be one of those games the two of us can play together into our retirement years.
Unless you have been living under a board gaming rock, you know what Twilight Struggle is at least by name, but what I think most boardgames miss is that while this game is a historical board game, some might even call it a war game, it does not really fall into the standard historical war game formula. It really is just a great two-player strategy game and I would definitely recommend it for people who are not into historical wars. TS definitely transcends beyond its roots as the designers intended and while I will still argue that Imperial Struggle, the designers follow up to Twilight Struggle is a much better game, it does not cross over as easily as TS does.
One of the best games ever made in my opinion, an unquestionable classic and a fantastic gateway game into the larger world of historical card-driven games from which there are many fantastic titles to choose from.
Endeavor: Age of Sail
The more I play it the more I like it. This game is quickly becoming one of my favorite Euro-style games thanks in big part to its big board game feel in a very reasonable time frame.
This game comes in a big box and has a lot of pieces so I was quite hesitant to bring it with me, but my daughter insisted as she loves this game so I hauled this beast with me despite protests from the wife.
In the end, it turned out to be well worth it. The thing about Endeavor is that it has this great “big board game” feel and table presence but is actually a relatively short and simple game. It looks kind of intimidating and complex but once you understand the basic flow of a turn, it’s very easy to connect the rules to the strategy and players are typically off and running after a round or two. We had an age range between 12-50 and everyone picked it up very easily.
There are many deep and meaningful choices in the game, it’s a bit of a race to victory points, with resource management and much of the strategy is about well-timed execution of the five different actions you can take in a turn. What I find really interesting about this game is that it plays really well at all player counts including 2 player games, but the strategies that work in the game change wildly depending on how many players you have at the table. It’s a very dynamic setup for the game as well so you end up having to “re-think” your approach each time you play.
The version of the game I have is the new deluxe version which comes with a bunch of expansions we are yet to try, so far the base game has been more than enough for us.
This is a great family game having as many if not fewer rules than RISK or Monopoly, but a far more robust and interesting execution. I think my favorite aspect of Endeavor is how it works with a wide range of gaming groups, casual to veterans, it always finds its audience.
King of Tokyo
This silly dice chucker never stops impressing me with its uncanny ability to turn anyone into a fan.
Between the cartoon art style, the giant monster theme and the Yahtzee style gameplay, to me this is the perfect family game. The rules fit on a napkin and while there is some strategy this is a game of pushing your luck with dice which works really well with the casual crowd, yet makes for a great filler for more seasoned gamers.
It’s a pretty simple concept, you select one classic Japanese-themed monster like King Kong or Godzilla for example and you try to proclaim control over Tokyo in what is essentially a king of the hill game, as you fight all of the other big monsters in the game. You roll dice to do damage, build up energy to purchase special ability cards and simply try to last on the hill as long as you can to score points.
I always say that for every classic old-school game there is a modern replacement that is much better. In the case of King of Tokyo, it totally replaces Yahtzee for that light-hearted simple dice chucker.
A really fun game that produces a lot of big moments that had everyone cheering.
Sheriff of Nottingham
A party game for gamers that will have you in stitches, it has never let me down.
We played this one multiple times during our vacation, it was without question the big hit of the week.
Sheriff of Nottingham is closer to an “activity” than a game as the premise is quite simple. Each player draws six commodity cards (Chickens, Cheese, Bread etc..) at the start of each round and slips any amount of cards into a hidden baggy. One player is the Sherrif each round and that player must decide to either open (inspect) the baggy or allow it to pass through. The trick is that players can lie about what they are trying to get past the Sherrif and there are various “illegal” goods that are worth more than the legal ones. Things like Crossbows and Alchemic potions.
Players can bribe, make promises and deals, pretty much anything goes, but if the Sherrif catches you on a lie and inspects the bag, you have to pay a penalty. If the Sherrif opens the bag and you were telling the truth, the Sherrif must pay you a fee in addition to you getting to pass through with your goods for additional scoring at the end of the game.
Each player gets a turn at being Sherrif and whoever manages to get the most goods through (legal and illegal) wins the game. Typically games are won by the player that manages to get the most illegal goods past the Sherrif so there is a lot of motivation to lie, but if you get caught too often you aren’t likely to win, nor will you win if you inspect too many legal commodities.
The entire premise of the game is about social interaction and while there might be some strategy here, the game is rarely played with that approach. Most players naturally take to the psychology of the game and try to trick each other into opening or not opening the baggies as the case may be.
This game produces a lot of silly moments and when we play it, most of the game is spent hysterically laughing the entire time. It’s an absolute blast and works really well with pretty much any group, cocktails are recommended while playing this one!
We play this one at our summer gaming weekend retreat as well which is made up of many serious veteran gamers and this is usually a major hit there as well so this is one of those games that just always hits well with any sort of group which is why it comes so highly recommended by me.
Seven Wonders
I actually think it’s a great game and tend to agree with the general consensus about that, but personally, every table I introduce this to seems to shrug its soldiers with an audible “meh”.
Seven Wonders is a game about card selection and has been a highly rated game for years. This one didn’t hit that well with our little family gaming group and I have had trouble with it in the past as well with other groups.
I think it’s a great game and highly rated for good reason but it’s one of those games that doesn’t make a great first impression for some reason. You have to play it a few times before things click and that can be a hard sell if after a first try if you are unimpressed.
Seven Wonders is a bit like a professional golfer playing golf left-handed for the first time. Everything is familiar and logical, but there is just something off about it and some might see that as a challenge worth pursuing, others just feel like it should work differently than it does.
I have personally always really liked it, but to quote my daughter “It’s like a crappy Seven Wonders Duel”, which I think is a fair assessment. Seven Wonders Duel is a kind of two-player version of Seven Wonders that came a few years after the release of this one and I agree with her of the two games Duel is a much more interesting and less “odd” version of the game. It’s for two players only, so there is that drawback and unlike Seven Wonders there are no expansions for Seven Wonders Duel which notably are rumored to improve Seven Wonders a great deal (I have never tried them). For me personally, I have never had much luck getting anyone excited, it has always landed a bit flat, but I actually do think it’s a pretty fun game.
There were a few other microgames we played including Albion: The Resistance, Coupe, For Rent and The Hand of the King, all great games in their own right but I have talked so many times about these staple games in my collection I will just leave it here as a list.
It was a great week for gaming and skiing, now I need a nap!
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.
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.
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.
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