Ghaz

My flavor of the month favorite changes all the time, but if I had to be stranded on a deserted Island, I would bring Agricola. It’s my favorite of all time.

It has such an unassuming theme, who thought farming would be so engrossing? Well, it is.

Basically the definition of worker placement, Agricola presents you with many simple actions each turn. It’s the vast number and way they synergize that makes the game so compelling. Add in hundreds of cards and many paths to victory, you have a game that plays differently each time you play it.

It scales well with any number of players, and even the solitare rules are fun.

Play this game. I’m going to wrap this up so that I can do the same.

I love the Game of Thrones universe, and for the most part I like this game, but it has one major drawback. It just takes way too long to play.

Production values are top notch. Deck building is fun. The mechanics reflect the theme well.

The game tends to run long, especially with more than 2 players. Perhaps house ruling victory conditions would help. Another complaint is that there are a lot of text on the cards, so if you haven’t memorized all the cards, it’s hard to tell everything your opponent is capable of.

Bottom line: I won’t suggest playing this game, but would play if someone else really wanted to. I would play 2 player on occaison, but rarely with more. If I wanted a GoT experience with more players, I would recommend the GoT boardgame.

This is the best game I know that can play more than 5 people, last less than an hour, and has the feel of something bigger. In fact, it’s the only game I know that can do this! It is the game of choice for my group when we are waiting for more people to show up. Don’t confuse this for a filler though. It masquerades as a filler, but it’s something I actually look forward to playing.

My biggest complaint is that you can only directly interact with the players sitting immediately next to you. If someone is winning across the table, you are pretty much powerless to stop them.

Other things of note: Replay value is high with lots of monument cards to choose from, and each of those having 2 different sides to choose from. There are also lots of viable strategies as far as choosing cards.

Give it a try, I recommend it!

I have a lot of respect for Dominion. So why is it then that I don’t like playing it?

I think it comes down to the abstract nature of the game. I prefer games with a strong theme that create at least a hint of a narrative as you play it. Dominion has a hint of theme, but it creates no narrative. When the game is over, there are no high points, no remember-when stories.

These are subjective opinions. I have seen how beginner friendly the game can be, and can appreciate how other people might like it. I think it’s a good game that has trail blazed a path that other games have been able to improve upon. Thanks Dominion, I appreciate what you’ve accomplished, but when you hit the table, I’ll ask your owner, “Bring anything else?”

Privateer Press makes it really easy to get into Warmachine. They offer a simple 4 page rule set for free on their website that has all of the rules you need to play the game. Combine that with any faction’s starter “battle box” and you are ready to go.

For a typical game of Warmachine, two players face off with a small skirmish force led by a single Warcaster. These warcasters are unique personalities that bring to the table a plethora of spells and abilities that drive they way your force performs. While extremely powerful, these warcasters can be easily defeated if overextended. Three other types of combatants fill in the rest of the skirmish force. You have warjacks, large warmachines that lumber across the battlefield leaving a wake of destruction in their path, units, groups of six or more infantry models that can form the bulk of your force, and solos, powerful individuals free to roam the battlefield filling in where their skills are most suited.

One thing that sets Warmachine apart from other miniature games is the focus point system. Each turn, your warcaster has a set number of focus points that can be used to cast spells, augment jacks, or be saved to increase the warcaster’s defense. This adds a resource management aspect to the game. Do you use all of your focus to zap enemy models, or do you allocate some of it to your warjacks so they can move faster and hit harder? Each turn you will be faced with agonizing choices on how to utilize the resources that you are given.

There is a lot of thought that goes into designing your skrimish force. Units and warcasters synergize with each other very well. A unit that might be underwhelming on it’s own can potentially dominate the battlefield when supported by the right solo or warcaster. In my experience, the combinations are limitless, and there is no single most powerful unit that shows up in every game.

The miniatures themselves are top notch, both in design and quality. There is also new stuff coming out every month. Some people like this, while many do not. Although new models aren’t necessarily more powerful, it can be very daunting to stay on top of everything. Not knowing what you are up against can be the biggest disadvantage you can have.

The rules themselves are solid and elegant, especially compared to other systems. It is very rarely that something comes up that the rules can’t explain. They are clear enough that there is not much open to interpretation. The game plays quickly and while it’s dice driven, it’s not a dice fest. You’ll rarely be rolling more than three or four dice at a time.

I really enjoy this game. It looks beautiful on the table, it plays well, and even between games, I enjoy playing around with different force combinations, trying to find the best combination. But that’s the thing, there is no best combination, just many really great ones.