Nytmare
David Jose
We tried a handful of new (at least for our table) games this past weekend.
Roll Through the Ages: The Iron Age - Yahtzee-esque, die rolling, civ game sequel. We only put in one game of this version of Roll because we assumed that one of the reasons why we didn't enjoy ourselves was because we only had two people. From my limited experience with this game, it really seems like they missed the mark. With the first two versions, the majority of the game felt like it was focused on the slow and steady buildup of your civilization and maybe the game ended with you feeling like you hadn't had a chance to play with the toys you had collected. With the one game of Iron Age we played, all six dice were dumped into our laps within the first couple of turns, and I ended almost every round feeling as though we must have read the rules incorrectly.
The Cure - Yahtzee-esque, die rolling, end of the world disease game, practically a sequel.Pandemic has always run kind of hot and cold with me, but this game really made me long for the cold, hard, brutality of its predecessor. On the plus side, there's almost no set up time, so the four or five games we played in a row where we lost before the 2nd player even had a chance to take his turn weren't really that much of a set back. We gave this one eight or nine tries all told, and all but one of the games was seriously lost within the first 5 rounds. There's no way I'm holding on to this one, and it's probably burned me from ever trusting a new Yahtzee mechanic game again.
[HI][EDIT!] Boardgamegeek has come to the rescue and informed me that we were actually playing a very key part of the game VERY incorrectly. This game is officially out of the trade stack and we'll give it another go this Friday![/HI]
Pillars of the Earth: Builder's Duel - Though I have never read the books, this game was a delight. The mechanics were fresh and interesting: players compete for rows of special actions on a randomized 3x3 grid by flipping coins of differently valued faces and collect resources that they use to build their castles. It was simple and will be a good every once in a while two player filler game.
Some Random Card Based Civ Game That I Don't Remember the Name Of - I have no idea what this one was called, and it didn't strike me as any better or worse than any of the other card based civ games I've played over the last couple of years, but I'd definitely play it again. Cards in hand were both new technologies and the currency that you use to discover them. As technologies are discovered, they increase the stats associated with an array of actions that you're allowed to take on your turn (different card drawing abilities, the number of actions you're allowed to take, etc) as well as your victory points. As you would expect, some technologies make future discoveries easier, an Alphabet might give you a discount on Book Binding, whereas having both Mining and Smelting might make a Foundry free to play. I feel as though I've been up to my neck with different takes on the genre recently, and it feels strange to me that so few of them really stick in my brain.
Roll Through the Ages: The Iron Age - Yahtzee-esque, die rolling, civ game sequel. We only put in one game of this version of Roll because we assumed that one of the reasons why we didn't enjoy ourselves was because we only had two people. From my limited experience with this game, it really seems like they missed the mark. With the first two versions, the majority of the game felt like it was focused on the slow and steady buildup of your civilization and maybe the game ended with you feeling like you hadn't had a chance to play with the toys you had collected. With the one game of Iron Age we played, all six dice were dumped into our laps within the first couple of turns, and I ended almost every round feeling as though we must have read the rules incorrectly.
The Cure - Yahtzee-esque, die rolling, end of the world disease game, practically a sequel.
[HI][EDIT!] Boardgamegeek has come to the rescue and informed me that we were actually playing a very key part of the game VERY incorrectly. This game is officially out of the trade stack and we'll give it another go this Friday![/HI]
Pillars of the Earth: Builder's Duel - Though I have never read the books, this game was a delight. The mechanics were fresh and interesting: players compete for rows of special actions on a randomized 3x3 grid by flipping coins of differently valued faces and collect resources that they use to build their castles. It was simple and will be a good every once in a while two player filler game.
Some Random Card Based Civ Game That I Don't Remember the Name Of - I have no idea what this one was called, and it didn't strike me as any better or worse than any of the other card based civ games I've played over the last couple of years, but I'd definitely play it again. Cards in hand were both new technologies and the currency that you use to discover them. As technologies are discovered, they increase the stats associated with an array of actions that you're allowed to take on your turn (different card drawing abilities, the number of actions you're allowed to take, etc) as well as your victory points. As you would expect, some technologies make future discoveries easier, an Alphabet might give you a discount on Book Binding, whereas having both Mining and Smelting might make a Foundry free to play. I feel as though I've been up to my neck with different takes on the genre recently, and it feels strange to me that so few of them really stick in my brain.
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