Zephyr

When I first played Dominion i thought “ok game, but that’s it, nothing special”. Then I played a couple of games on Brett Spiel Welt, then some more, than my games played count was about 100… i still don see this game that good, but if i keep playing maybe i should buy it…

Now I own Dominion and 4 expansions. It has become one of the best gateway games I have, and its one of the few gateways that I really enjoy playing even when there are no new players [with most I regret I couldn’t play something more complicated] I enjoy solving new puzzle with every card set and D. Vacarinnos rules are the best i saw in a board game (and it’s quite important when the game is all about playing with card powers)

The game has its downsides though. The most fun thing in this game is thinking how to build your deck with given card pool, you do it at the beginning of the game, whole play is just testing whether your idea worked or not and adjustments on the way. Most hands are no brainer to play (with expansions it gets more tricky, but it’s still quite mechanical with not much decisions) Interaction is very limited, it’s more like a race than actual competition. Attack cards are not really interaction for me, by design they hit all players and are more like background then actual fighting for me. Some strategies have many cards played that do not much but turn takes forever to finish, I like playing complicated combos but it slows the game really hard. Gold rush that ignores card pool is also quite strong. I dont think it breaks the game, but it makes many interesting ideas pointless as they wont be able to get momentum before game ends.

All in all it is a good game, i recomend trying it. Also i dont like dominion spinnoffs
– Thunderstone i find a worse wersion of dominion with better theme, but theme is not something that can carry a deck building game with bad card interaction (played two or three times, dominion without card combos… extremely boring).
– Ascension I also find not good enough, cards are much more interesting, but the mechanism to get them feels like the game plays itself… (played twice or three times, okish i guess, but not an improvement from dominion for me)
– Nightfall seemed interesting but with more than two it is a diplomacy not deckbuilding game as rules do nothing to discourage 2v1 bashing (i played only one game so i cant say much about actual card interactions, but chains are an interesting idea)

Only Puzzle Strike I found an interesting approach to deckbuilding – it focuses on asymetric power interactions and balance between economy and offense. Not that many interesting “card” interactions though and geekiest theme i ever saw (i love it :D).

Caylus was one of the first modern board games I played (along with Puerto Rico and Power Grid). A few years have passed. I joined local gaming club. Played many, many, many games. And it still is my favorite game.

It has its flaws. The artwork could be better, stone resource production buildings could use a nerf, resource track could use a buff, but it still is the best…

Many games use worker placement mechanics, but they lack provost – this little guy who tells what works and what doesn’t brings interaction to the new level and does it perfectly – the fight for resources is brutal, but at the same time clever placement will let you benefit no matter how it ends. If you place correctly harming you will be bound to harming other players, brilliant idea. Why aren’t new worker placement games like that – loads of interaction but relatively little chaos. Even with 5 players its not that easy to bash clever leader and with experienced players there is so much control.

It is brutal fight for every point you can get, so the game really shines with competitive players of similar skill. (when you don’t try your best to get points the game will become boring) There are many rules and some mechanics are not that easy to grasp so you’ll probably need to play more than once to appreciate this game.

But I still don’t know of any better game… and i would really like to see one.