Magic Aces

It’s is easily one of the best card games around. I own the Black Box edition and my ratings reflect that fact.

Components:

My cards and I know many others were certainly not in amazing condition with unusual wear along the edges, I felt compelled to sleeve this game when normally I do not sleeve a game like this. Once sleeved I have been pleased.

Rule book is great and the player mats are great with intuitive iconography and a flow chart to aid mid game.

Gameplay:

I own Race for the Galaxy, Innovation, & Dominion with nearly all the expansions and my opinion is that Glory to Rome implements the best of all the other games and I am a fan of all them all and play them all.

The game can be tricky to learn and trickier to teach but once the engine gets going it is a ton of fun with awesome replayability.

Of the other games mentioned Race for the Galaxy is probably the most similar game and while I love it, we tend to play GtR more often.

Look, this is certainly a good game, but there is no question that the C&C system is better represented through the more recent itterations, I’m partial to Commands & Colors Napoleonics but Ancients is also great. They are more elegant and blocks suit the hexes better than mini’s. I had my doubts and the sticker shock is real but once you get it up and running you will never play Memoir ’44 again, unless you are a die hard WW2 history buff.

Pandemic has been a big hit in our friendly couples gaming group (2 couples). It was the first co-op game we had ever played and was a big hit as the wives are not very competitive. The expansion Pandemic on the Brink is very good as well, we use it primarily for the added “Role Cards”.

Anyway, I think the co-op idea has it’s place. It’s not for all game nights, but among non-combative gamers this will get a big two thumbs up. It can be exhausting to think through all the options with 4 people (a long term negative to the game) and while I like this game quite a bit, over multiple plays I personally want more from it. I find it is a bit dry in theme and so I keep wanting it to take me to a different level of fun only to be disappointed that it really is just a big complex puzzle to solve. I am exploring other co-op games that I have learned are very popular and follow similar mechanics as Pandemic but with a little more complexity and theme…hoping to find the one!

One note about these co-op games is how quickly everyone playing realizes they all need to really work on their communication and influencing skills, one of the great parts of the co-op experience!