Kickstarter Quick Thoughts: 25th September 2018

So here is another big month of Kickstarters. So without further ado, here they are.

EVERDELL EXPANSION by STARLING GAMES: Well the first game was very well recieved. However, this expansion is very expensive compared to the base game. It does have some upgrade, but for me, considering it has been described as an intro worker-placement game, the price is giving me pause. Undecided but probably pass.

LOCK-UP by THUNDERWORKS GAMES: I love Roll Player. I was less keen on the expansion, as I feel it makes the game swingier. I was unsure looking at this, so I watched a couple of playthroughs. This game looks really good. Backed.

EYE FOR AN EYE by DARWIN GAMES: I played this game at a convention. It was… okay. It reminded me of Roar-a-Saurus, but I preferred the simplicity of Roar-a-Saurus. It is a shame, as I probably would’ve backed it if I didn’t have Roar-a-Saurus as a duelling real-time game. Pass.

DALE OF MERCHANTS COLLECTION by SAMI LAAKSO: A very highly regarded game. It has a river offer where decks (like Dominion kind-of) are placed and you have to buy them and make stalls to win. It looked really good awhile back and I was trying to hunt it for awhile. However, now I feel other games that have come out have kind-of supplanted it. I really want to try it first. Pass.

ARTEMIS PROJECT by GRAND GAMERS GUILD: This looks really pretty. It also has a cool way of making both low, medium and high numbers good in your dice allocation phase, meaning you want a good spread of rolls. This seems really cool. Probably Back.

Marvel Cinematic Universe- Some Thoughts

I was thinking about how the Marvel Cinematic Universe has the Hydra was part of Shield, revealed in Winter Soldier

For me, this was a cool twist. It also fixed one of the problems of the previous movies. For example, in The Avengers, why did Shield not want the Avengers team put together. And even when they did, why did they go for nuking New York.

I mean, it still made a couple of problems. But thinking about how there first (not last) resort was to nuke all their heroes as soon as they were together foreshadows that maybe they aren’t that good.

NRL Finals Week One

So after the first week of the NRL finals, I have been following them closely. I thought it was a relatively exciting first week of the finals. Most the games were close, and those that weren’t were exciting for being upsets.

I guess seeing the Warriors and Broncos get eliminated was exciting. The Panthers and Dragons were written off and they put in the two most dominant wins of the week. In all fairness, these were more Broncos and Warriors playing very badly but the competition is nothing if not momentum driven.

It was good not to hear about referee errors constantly. There was still there fair share of poor decisions, but it was good not hear constantly about really poor calls. I guess this will change when teams get knocked out after losing close games. Because the NRL players can’t help themselves.

I guess I am looking forward to the next week and see what happens.

Board Game First Impressions: Rise of Tribes and My Little Scythe

So I just wanted to share a couple of first impressions for a couple of new games that have come in:

Rise of Tribes- Only played it at two player. It plays very quickly. The goals and event cards feel quite swingy but I enjoy how fast it plays. Curious to see if multiple plays allow multiple strategies.

My Little Scythe- I was concerned that it would feel like dumbed down Scythe. Instead it manages to feel like its own unique game using the Scythe engine. It is now a pure race game. My only concern is the game start feels scripted but I think it is a home run for a faster playing war game.

Kickstarter Retrospective: Orcs Must Die and Boss Monster

So next on the list are two games with a distinct video game theme.

ORCS MUST DIE by PETERSON GAMES: So Cthulhu Wars is one of my favorite games of all time. Orcs Must Die is a game I really enjoy. Thought this would be a home run. Instead, it takes the worst of the Zombicide randomness but leaves behind all the little things Zombicide does right (tiered levelling, etc.) to give a game that is pretty random. Sold.

BOSS MONSTER by BROTHERWISE GAMES: Another game where it had video game routes. I really thought it looked good. However, it also felt very swingy with player elimination. The game was too punishing to account for the swinginess and, once again, I felt like the game was playing me. The theme kept it around for quite a few plays but eventually, it was sold.

So they are two games where the publishers and thems got me excited. In hindsight, I should’ve just left them alone.