Ok, found an interesting one.

I created a response to this thread:

https://www.boardgameatlas.com/forum/TpUtEexVj3/do-you-ever-go-back-to-your-old-reviews-what-does-it-take-for-a-game-to-get-55-stars

I then went in and replied to my own comment.  Decided I should edit it on to my original comment.  

Hit delete on my reply...it deleted my original comment as well.  

Oops!

Is it just usable for upgrading avatars? Are there any other plans of using it for other features? Can we invest in BGA stock with it? lol

First, I need to get into a habit of leaving a review on the games I've played.

Second, I ask this question because I suddenly had a thought to go through my old reviews, and couldn't help but decrease the ratings on a number of them. I guess it's just a natural part of how well a game ages? And certainly reflective of my own excitement at the time of the play (especially for the first games I've played after getting into this hobby) and how it can drive up the rating. I haven't yet experienced raising the rating of a past review because again, I need to get into a habit of leaving reviews.

So again, here are my questions:

1. Do you ever revisit your reviews to adjust your scores? Which game took the biggest plunge in its rating? Or perhaps got better with each play?
2. What does it take for a game to receive a perfect score from you? What are those games?
3. Is there an anomaly among your ratings that defies your criteria?

A number of you have asked me if there is any sort of gaming community here in El Salvador.

I was doing some shopping in the capital yesterday, and went to a very, for here, upmarket store to pick up a gift for my wife. While there I saw the biggest selection of games I have seen in El Salvador. This selection may help explain why there is no real gaming community here. 

Had a chance to play the solo mode of #Paladins of the West Kingdom over the weekend and wanted to share my initial thoughts about the game. 

(+) The art style is incredible. The art is evocative without being terribly stereotypical, something which is important considering the theme. 

(+) The component quality is amazing. The cards feel great with a nice linen finish. The player boards and main boards are durable and  glossy. The wooden meeples are great. 

(+/-) The rulebook is serviceable. It’s mostly good but there were a few sections that I had to read a couple of times, and one rule that I couldn’t figure out until I watched a gameplay video. 

(-) The Box size is too small. There is a lot of game and it just fits in the box. Why not make it a little bit bigger?

(+) There is a LOT of game here, with a lot of interlocking and codependent mechanics. 

(+) The solo mode is easy to run and simulates playing against a real person. This is not a “beat your high score” type of AI. Multiple times the AI foiled my plan by placing first a worker where I was going to go, and then by taking a space on the main board that was essential to my plan.

(+) The Engine Building aspects are phenomenal. Once you get something going it’s so fun to watch the engine churn along. It can be difficult to get something going though.

(+) Resources can be tight which makes for really interesting decisions- especially with the suspicion/criminal mechanic. Do you take a criminal on your team and hope to get rewarded with some extra coin? But will that trigger an inquisition by the King... which could land you a debt and negative VPs (unless you can pay that debt)?

(+) The Paladin selection are the beginning of each round is a brilliant idea. You draw 3, pick 1 to use, then send 1 to the top of the deck and 1 to the bottom of the deck. Correctly picking your Paladin is a huge part of this game.

(+/-) There is a lot to wrap your head around in this game. The systems are all connected and amazing and interesting but it can be overwhelming at first. I actually first set this up on Saturday but found I had not prepared enough to play the game. I needed to go back and watch some more videos and learn more about what I was doing. So I put it all away and tried again on Sunday. After additional preparation I was ready to go. 

A Quick Rundown about what the game is actually about:

Your primary goal is to earn VPs. You can earn VPs by advancing your 3 tracks - Faith, Influence, and Combat. The higher your score on these tracks the more points you earn at the end of the game. 

You advance those tracks by completing various actions on your player board. Actions make sense thematically as well. 

Commissioning Monks to send out to convert the population requires a certain level of faith and increases your influence in the kingdom. 

Fortifying towns across the West Kingdom requires a level of influence and increases your combat strength. 

Sending garrisons out to protect the West Kingdom requires combat strength and increases the people’s faith. 

There are 3 more major actions but you can start to see how the interlocking systems play off each other. 

You can also recruit townspeople to your squad for long term bonuses or send them on a quest for a one time bonus. And you can attack outsiders for a one time bonus or convert them for a long term bonus. 

There is a LOT going on in this game. 

Conclusion:

This game is great. It was very overwhelming at first but by the end of my first game I was really into it. It’s definitely more thematic than I gave it credit for initially.  I’m not sure where I’d rank it right now (I’ve only played it 1.25 times) but I really enjoyed my first play of it. 

The more I get into gaming, the more I see that thematic depth is quite important to me. I greatly enjoy games that are relatively dry as long as it has solid mechanics and satisfying strategical/tactical depth, but for a game to be at the very top of my list, I think I highly prefer owning games with a bit of that wow factor where it doesn't just present a challenge, but provide an experience for me and my wife.

This is one reason why I tend to like Stonemaiers' games like Viticulture and Wingspan. The mechanics, the personality of the cards, the board, and the tactile components--the details come together to provide a glimpse into the world of a viticulturist or a birder. It's also why I love Root, because it doesn't just test your tactical abilities, but presents unique warring factions each with a distinct personality that comes through in their mechanics.

The reason why I'm posting this is because I started cleaning up my wishlist (still not done yet). It had become cluttered with all kinds of games that I've been eyeing on for the past few months, and I could see now that I probably won't play some of them as much because the thematic games will get the priority. And my eyes have started turning toward games like Scythe, Spirit Island, Atlantis Rising, PARKS, etc.

Well, now it's your turn! How important is thematic depth in your games?

The main things that I go to BGG for are the following: 

1. Reviews - This is very User Driven so I will be doing my best to provide reviews for the games that I've played on BGA. 
2. Used Pricing - When I'm interested in a game, I try to see if I can get that at a decent price used either through the Geek Market, Auctions, or Ebay. Not sure if BGA gives alerts when items are back in stock for retail, but that is useful. Also, notifications for new listings in the used field would be fantastic! I'm not sure if BGG has a way for you to subscribe to 'new listings' in the geekmarket, but if they do it's probably kinda clunky like most things on there. Happy to hear that BGA will be implementing a market for users to sell games. In addition, a "sort by state, city" section would be AWESOME!!!!! One of the issues with buying used games come from shipping, which takes a great deal and makes it equal, sometimes more, than a new game. Having the 'sort by local' feature will help see what games are being sold locally at any given time. 
3. Auctions - Love this feature on BGG. Granted, took me a while to figure it out, but you know, clunky. Auctions on here would be great :) 
4. Forums - the forums on here already look better. I think links to folders for the forums for each game would be great. BGG has this divided pretty well (ish).

I'm sure there might be some other things, but I know a lot of this is user driven so keep it up, Trent and team. you guys are doing great. Remember that BGG has been around for 20 years, so it may take a minute or two to get some things going. The important thing is that you're listening and that matters!

D.E.I.

I know I'm probably going to get @Skurvy5 ire for sharing this KS preview page. Haha.

But, when I saw The Great Wall offer this in their KS, my wish for board games is that this would become the trend.  There are some games I really enjoy minis in, but overall I think I prefer meeples.  Having two options is really cool and I hope to continue to see more of it.

Roll call! Where are you from? 

On Sunday, I invited some friends over to play my most recent arrival, #Oceans, and I thought it would also be fun to play a game of my current favorite game, #Evolution: Climate, beforehand. In case you aren't aware, Oceans is the follow-up game to Evolution from North Star Games.

So that is what we did! We started with Evolution: Climate. As stated above, this is my current favorite game. We played at 5 players (1 first-timer), and it was an extremely close game. The winning score was 63, I had 61, and I think the lowest anyone had was 55. Great game!

Next, I taught everyone Oceans. After setup was complete, teaching probably took about 15 minutes, and I'd say it was fairly easy to teach. I actually had 2 more friends show up before this game started, so I let them both play, and I sat out and ran the game and answered questions and they came up. For anyone not counting, this is a full game (6 players).

With the Kickstarter, I received the 5-6 player expansion. The rules for this warn that Oceans was designed for 2-4 players, and adding more makes for a lot of downtime. This was true in our case. While you're still partially engaged on other people's turns, I can see how playing at 6 is maybe a little too much downtime. I expect the downtime to decrease with future plays, however.

Comparing Evolution and Oceans:

These games share a lot of the same DNA (science joke, heh), but are definitely distinct games.

Turns
One major difference is the way turns are played. Evolution is played in rounds with phases, with some phases having round-the-table turns within them. Oceans is completely played in discrete turns. This is the main reason the downtime could be a slight problem for larger groups.

Feeding and Scoring
So in Evolution, you score after every round, and you score the amount of food tokens your species were able to eat in that round. Whatever populations go unfed are lost and must be paid for again if you wish to regain them during the next round. If you aren't able to geed a given species at all, that species goes extinct. You can eat plant food from the watering hole, if available, or, if your species is a carnivore, you can eat the populations of other species, which can also cause them to go extinct.
In Oceans, it doesn't matter how much your species eat during a round. Scoring is achieved through the process of "aging", which is simply moving a certain number of population from your species board to your score pile. If you are not able to age the correct amount, that species goes extinct. This is the only way you can go extinct. You cannot be driven to extinction by an attacker.

Cards
Evolution has a set of trait cards (maybe 20 different traits or so) from which you can build tons of different species, and these traits are duplicated many times over throughout the deck. You may not duplicate them on a given species, however.
Oceans, on the other hand, has 2 separate decks: the Surface deck, and the Deep deck. The Surface deck is very similar to the deck in Evolution, in that the (12) traits within it are duplicated many times over, are well-represented within nature, and can be used to build all kinds of cool species, and really cool combos and engines. The main difference here is that you can duplicate these on a species if you want, and the benefits stack.
Then there is the Deep deck. This really changes the game. There is a sort of midpoint in the game when these cards can come into play, and then things get crazy. The cards in this deck are 100% unique - there is only one of each. They are more powerful than the surface cards, and in many cases, not at all rooted in science. This is a lot of fun, and makes for some WHOOOAAAA moments.

Feel and Strategy
Oceans feels a bit more forgiving than Evolution. It is hard to kill off someone else's species, where in Evolution, it's extremely plausible. To me, Evolution has a bit more tension, and feels a bit more like survival. Because of this difference, in my observation so far, it seems less advantageous to have an unassailable beast of a creature in Oceans vs. Evolution. I can be wrong, of course, but it seems to me that you're better off trying to get more species out onto the table (while being able to sustain them), and trying to tie up your opponents resources (cards) to prevent them from getting successful species onto the table. Those are just thoughts after a few plays, keep in mind.
Oceans definitely has the edge in "WOW factor", because of the Deep cards. Because of these cards, there are always going to be creatures that no one else at the table can create, and that makes for a fun time. Also contributing to this wow factor, in my opinion, is the art. The art in Evolution is fantastic, and they stepped it up even further on Oceans. The game is beautiful - very vibrant and colorful.

Conclusion
I don't have a conclusion - this was always the hardest part of essays in school for me, lol. I love Evolution. Playing Oceans makes me appreciate certain things about Evolution more. I love Oceans. Playing Evolution makes me appreciate certain things about Oceans more. These are great games you should play if you get the chance.

Hello guys, I just signed up @ BGA.

if you like take a look at my Facebook page, it’s a sort of board games images collection featuring my games layed out on the table and stormed by my cats. Nothing serious or invasive. Here il the link:

https://www.facebook.com/Mattone-Gatto-Da-Tavolo-153805858719758/?eid=ARDaGoWZWIX2q2TjLIq5I2_e5JT_QgcFrE6iaFpJ8m_HK25SsNm71Eu_O-j4TXhBqKbURSMKX0gBN7Xa

Cheers from Italy.

What happened? I'm sad to see that Throne of Allegoria, Queens Edition was cancelled. I hope they bring it back. The worker placement / bluffing mechanic looked interesting and was a big reason why I wanted to back this.

Not sure if this is an “Old Man Yells at Cloud” moment or not... but... I am SO SICK of all these Kickstarters. 

Can’t a cool company release a great game in a normal fashion sometime? A game that hits retail as a complete game and you can buy it for a reasonable price.

Why do all these great games that are being announced recently have to be locked behind massive Kickstarter campaigns? Campaigns that are designed to capitalize on “FOMO” and drive up resale value. Campaigns that lock exclusive Kickstarter promotions and deluxe bits that you can never see again unless you pay exorbitant amounts of money.

What do you guys think? Am I way off base here?

Sigh. I’ll put away my cane and stop yelling at the kids in my lawn now. 

Cheerio. 

Like my last post about my official-ish solo play of #Cry Havoc, I got to play the solo variant of #Targi that is also official-ish. The variant was designed by the original designer of Targi so you can probably say it’s more official than a publisher-accepted, fan-made variant like that of Cry Havoc.

Needless to say, it was good! It adds and takes away a few things from the game as expected, but still play very similarly. The AI functions as a “player”, yet receives no score. Your win conditions are based on points acquired and objectives completed. 

Overall, it was difficult and I lost...but I had fun doing so! Another incentive to buy Targi!

CHAMPIONS OF MIDGARD REVIEW

Click above for our review of Champions of Midgard, the epic worker placement Viking combat board game. See how we rate the game across categories of fun, replayability, player interaction, quality and art & style.

FOR MORE: Champions of Midgard Page | How To Play Champions of Midgard | Games Like Champions of Midgard

I have actually only played one true area control game, #Blood Rage but I did not know it when I bought it. I thought it would be more conflict heavy, but the real winning strategy is less fighting and more controlling. I am now more curious at some more area control type games. I know #Root is often mentioned, #El Grande is another, and #Dominant Species is another that blends worker placement with Area Control. What are your favorites??

I have been learning a little more about #Age of Steam and the game is actually pretty simple rules wise, but complex in strategy. I am curious if anyone has any experience with games like this, or 18XX? 18XX is more intimidating to me due to the stock market component. 

My wife and I didn't get to play #Root as I had hoped, but we did get to play #The Voyages of Marco Polo together (Root should happen some time this week!)

Here are some thoughts after our first gameplay, where I won't mention some of the things I said in my first impressions post (I will also be making comparisons with Viticulture/Tuscany since it's been our go-to worker placement game):

• This is definitely more complex and prone to AP than Viticulture. There are just so many options to choose from, where a regular action could be to travel, visit the bazaar for goods, gain Khan's favor, get more contracts, etc. There are also bonus actions to get better rolls, gain more workers or some pocket change, etc (makes me wonder how #A Feast For Odin would go for us with its almost infinite number of options haha).
• In this regard, Viticulture is much more accessible because the players are presented with limited number of action spaces as they walk through each season. It's a fantastic way to provide a bit of hand-holding for beginners who just need to make one step at a time, and they can observe the more nuanced strategies by watching the experienced players.
• But along with complexity, Marco Polo can make you feel pretty clever when you manage to pull off a combination of different actions to fulfill multiple contracts or to travel to your destination at a budget.
• Traveling is very tight in this game and it seems difficult to reach all four of your goal destinations unless you have the right character. So while going for those destinations could hand you a hefty number of points in the end (somewhere in the range of 20 extra VP's total), instead of spending a lot of money and camels on traveling, prioritizing fulfilling as many contracts does seem like the way to go especially if you're competing among inexperienced players (each contract fulfilled will average somewhere around 5 VP's and the person who fulfilled the most number of contracts will earn an additional 7 VP's). This sort of strategy probably won't work as well against experienced players though.
• Variability between game sessions is one of the biggest selling points of Marco Polo. Each game, you're starting with a different goal card which dictates your overall travel route, the bonus you receive in each city changes, and most importantly, the characters are all vastly different and equipped with almost game-breaking powers reminiscent of an instant-transmission Goku. The characters' powers remind me of #Santorini with the crazy god powers that completely change up everyone's strategy, and this should breathe new life into every game session.

To conclude, we both enjoyed this quite a lot. It certainly isn't at the level of wow factor that we got when we first played Viticulture, but it is challenging in a different way and provides just the right amount of unpredictability.

Oh and after we play a new game, I always ask my wife where she would rank it among her top games. This is the current standing if your curious:

1. Viticulture - Provides just the right amount of gameplay length for its complexity, while giving you the satisfaction of building a pretty cool engine. Plus, its production value is hard to beat and the thematic ties in mechanics are brilliant.

2. Catan - She played this for the first time during Thanksgiving last year and it was the reigning king for a while until Viticulture knocked it out of the park.

3. Forbidden Island - She likes its simplicity and and enjoys the co-op experience. I might get Forbidden Desert or #Atlantis Rising (second edition) later on.

4. Marco Polo - We'll see where this remains after more plays.

Other games she's played include Wingspan, Quacks, Just One, Railroad Ink, Welcome To, Skull, Santorini, and a few others. Anna highly prefers games with good amount of player interaction (I'll get to see how she feels about player conflict in games when we play Root).

Board Game Music

Hey everyone, I thought this was really cool.  Planning on trying some out.

I've been very inconsistent in my interview schedule and I'm trying to get back into it. Vincent agreed to an interview but I've made him wait for a long time now :(

If there are any questions you have for him, please comment below and I'll try to squeeze them in when I send over the interview questions! I hope he'll still be available haha

Looks like this is the latest trend in the facebook communities!

How would you rank BGG's top 100 games? Would it look significantly different? (you can also add a row for games you haven't played yet).

If you try this out, make sure to leave a comment below with the image!