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Played Letter Jam with 5 last night and we all felt it was pretty good really. Hung together as a game, tough on folk with dyslexia. Also the word was Count 
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Dec 2, 2019 11:21
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Aramoro posted:Played Letter Jam with 5 last night and we all felt it was pretty good really. Hung together as a game, tough on folk with dyslexia. Classic. My friend has tried to introduce letterjam to people on three separate occasions and it has bombed horribly each time. I think it exists in this weird middle ground of where no aspect of it fully commits to either the fun. simple party game or the heavy, ponderous Board Game. Got to play Mega Civ this weekend with 9 players and the building expansion from Western Empires. For those who don't know, the games are identical minus some cosmetic changes. Anyway, the expansion gives players the chance (during the I believe tech acquisition phase) to pay 30 points and build a special building in their territory (as determined by the rulebook's guidelines of what is traditionally yours). You're allowed to build any ONE building out there but you get bonus points for holding onto your own civ's special building at the end of the game. The main gimmick is that you can sack your own building, meaning you can destroy it and create an imaginary bonus card to any set of trade goods you're currently cashing in. Anyone who knows these games well should immediately raise an eyebrow at that because it's totally broken and I don't think it is balanced in the slightest, even with the fact the buildings get slightly more expensive as you go higher on the AST. This led to some ridiculous early turn buys that would have been impossible under normal circumstances outside of some savvy goddam trades. Ironically you'd think it would speed the game up but the early buys were highly aggressive cards that resulted in the game grinding to a halt because everyone was obsessed with waiting for their turn to respond to everyone else's responses. I recommend taking the buildings for a test drive if you're doing a smaller game just to find out yourself but personally I would never play with them again. Unsure about the end game bonus yet but it did make a big difference as far as the point differential between the leaders. Still had a great time even though it was a long game, even by civ standards. Conflict just grinds the game to a halt and it kills me that they didn't redesign the map to accomodate more tokens in the mediterranean where significant fighting often occurs. FulsomFrank fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Dec 2, 2019 |
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Dec 2, 2019 17:16
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FulsomFrank posted:Classic. We had a bit of a slow first game due to getting used to the rules but once you 'get' it then it works well assuming no one is a dick about wanting to give clues or what not. Our group is experienced boardgamers so I would say getting the concept was clear enough and we were having a casual game night playing 6 Nimmt, Drunken Sailor and Letter Jam and it fitted in well there. So I think if you have a group of gamers and you want something casual for 20-30 minutes it hits that spot well. I would think if you had any difficult characters in the group of people it could become a chore.
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Dec 2, 2019 17:30
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FulsomFrank posted:Classic. That's honestly how I feel about Pictomania. It's a party game for gamers, but it doesn't really work super well as a casual party game.
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Dec 2, 2019 17:41
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FulsomFrank posted:Got to play Mega Civ this weekend with 9 players and the building expansion from Western Empires. For those who don't know, the games are identical minus some cosmetic changes. Anyway, the expansion gives players the chance (during the I believe tech acquisition phase) to pay 30 points and build a special building in their territory (as determined by the rulebook's guidelines of what is traditionally yours). You're allowed to build any ONE building out there but you get bonus points for holding onto your own civ's special building at the end of the game. I assumed the buildings were just FOMO bait that look nice to have as capital cities, but glad to know it's that and more. Did you play on someone else's WE copy or your mega civ? If the former, are the player colors helpful across the table? I solved the city and player color problem by using scrabble racks displaying number of cities left to other players, but was curious if it was a QOL improvement.
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Dec 2, 2019 17:45
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Chill la Chill posted:I assumed the buildings were just FOMO bait that look nice to have as capital cities, but glad to know it's that and more. Did you play on someone else's WE copy or your mega civ? If the former, are the player colors helpful across the table? I solved the city and player color problem by using scrabble racks displaying number of cities left to other players, but was curious if it was a QOL improvement. I assumed that too. I'll just use them as cool pieces to paint or something! Oooh that's a neat idea wrt Scrabble racks...
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Dec 2, 2019 17:50
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Chill la Chill posted:I assumed the buildings were just FOMO bait that look nice to have as capital cities, but glad to know it's that and more. Did you play on someone else's WE copy or your mega civ? If the former, are the player colors helpful across the table? I solved the city and player color problem by using scrabble racks displaying number of cities left to other players, but was curious if it was a QOL improvement. Played on my copy of MC because 999 short-shipped my buddy his copy that we were planning on using. There was another game of WE happening next to us though and I think the coloured player boards definitely helped everyone identify things a bit quicker but in general no one has ever complained about not noticing how many cities people have left because they're staring so intently at the board. I think it happened once or twice that someone forgot how many cities their personally had but again, most were acutely aware of that fact when it mattered. I introduced two QoL things though: first was using business card holders and zenbin euro card holders. The business card thing is a borderline must-have as far as I'm concerned because it drastically cuts down the footprint and annoyance of sorting out the tech cards. I used tiered ones that could hold six separate techs and the only issue was that several of the holders were cracked on delivery so I had to lay the big buy techs down.Also looks nice. The zenbins were not essential but hold the SLEEVED trade goods properly and can be drawn and distributed easily.
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Dec 2, 2019 17:55
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I finally cracked open my Orleans Deluxe. I also own the promo tiles & the expansions, but haven't added them yet. I have a few questions: 1. How do the wooden versions of the goods that come with the Deluxe copy work with the game? The cardboard chits are very easy to randomize onto the map because you can put them facedown and then flip them. How does one randomize the wooden goods? Do you just throw them all in a bag, pick at random, then afterwards resort them into separate piles? That seems like a ton of work. 2. After 3 plays of the regular game I cracked open the expansions & promo tiles. Holy moly, it triples the number of buildings in the game. Is there any suggested/preferred way of handling the buildings if you have everything? Do you just use everything every time & have all of them available from the beginning like the base game? I've seen some people suggest doing a market row by having a facedown stack and only keeping 3 face up available to purchase at any given time. This seems like it would create it's own issues by injecting the randomness that plagues other market row games. I've seen other people suggest using everything, but allowing each player to remove 1 tile before the game starts. I've seen some people suggest a draft, but not explain the details of how it would work. 3. Are there any buildings that are completely broken and I shouldn't bother playing with? 4. Both expansions seem modular. What's worth adding and what should be cut? I know the beneficial deed board from Intrigue is supposed to be aces. Is the Intrigue board itself ever worth using? What do people think of the all new events from Intrigue? Is anything from Invasion beyond the new buildings worth using if you aren't playing one of the scenarios (which I have little interest in). I see there is a whole addition to the board in the form of the carpenter-- is this something that should/could be added to the base game or is it only for the prosperity scenario? 5. When mixing, matching, adding, and cutting from the expansions does anyone find they need some sort of special variant or rules to make things work? If any of you use everything, do you have any general tips?
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Dec 2, 2019 18:08
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I played this party game "Medium" because it had a sweet color scheme and I'm a sucker for that. The premise, at least two-player, is that you both play a card face up with a word on it, think about the pair of words for a bit, count up to three and then both try to say a word related to the pair of the words on the table at the same time. If you say the same word, you get points, if you say different words, you get to try again using the two words you and your partner blurted out as the new pair. It's kind of a looser, more freeform Codenames almost? I can definitely see enjoying it with a bigger group.
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Dec 2, 2019 18:15
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Wavelength is really really good. Up there with Insider and Codenames for imminently accessible and great party game.
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Dec 2, 2019 18:19
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Bottom Liner posted:Wavelength is really really good. Up there with Insider and Codenames for imminently accessible and great party game.
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Dec 2, 2019 18:35
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FulsomFrank posted:
Megasabin posted:I finally cracked open my Orleans Deluxe. I also own the promo tiles & the expansions, but haven't added them yet. I have a few questions:
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Dec 2, 2019 18:41
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Do I want wavelength if I have decrypto?
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Dec 2, 2019 18:44
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FulsomFrank posted:Played on my copy of MC because 999 short-shipped my buddy his copy that we were planning on using. There was another game of WE happening next to us though and I think the coloured player boards definitely helped everyone identify things a bit quicker but in general no one has ever complained about not noticing how many cities people have left because they're staring so intently at the board. I think it happened once or twice that someone forgot how many cities their personally had but again, most were acutely aware of that fact when it mattered. Two sessions of MegaCiv at once?  Where do you live? Can I move there???????
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Dec 2, 2019 19:00
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They're pretty different, since Decrypto is Codenames adjacent and a lot harder to wrap your head around. Wavelength is more of a discussion game with the team trying to find the right consensus on a spectrum, so beyond the clue giver you don't have to be really clever. It's great for big groups or drop in/out play too.
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Dec 2, 2019 19:08
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Chill la Chill posted:I've been using the zen bins and I'm glad it works for others as well. There's a lot of them, but they're good and useful. I got the full set of tech cards so I can now give each player the full set and just let them deal with their own tech tree. I actually own all promos & both expansions. Would you recommend just putting out all the buildings from the beginning of the game? Or do you do a select few chosen at random? Is a pre-game building ban necessary with all the expansions & promos?
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Dec 2, 2019 19:23
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Megasabin posted:I actually own all promos & both expansions. Would you recommend just putting out all the buildings from the beginning of the game? Or do you do a select few chosen at random? Is a pre-game building ban necessary with all the expansions & promos? In that case, all buildings are fine. There’s enough variability between the events, goods layouts and contracts that you don’t also need to vary the buildings. The main problem with the base game is that there’s no reason to climb up some of the tracks since tech and guilds were the majority of points. The contracts help with agriculture/goods builds and the events can make the tactical turn by turn play more interesting.
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Dec 2, 2019 19:50
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I like Orleans well enough, and the new Trade board makes the competitive game much better. I absolutely love Invasion mode, however. It's almost always how I'll play the game. The best pure euro coop on the market imo.
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Dec 2, 2019 19:53
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I'm actually entirely sick of Codenames and I hope never to have to play it again. If we're doing a party game my preference is for Anomia now.
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Dec 2, 2019 20:11
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CommonShore posted:I'm actually entirely sick of Codenames and I hope never to have to play it again. If we're doing a party game my preference is for Anomia now. Duet is the best version anyway.
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Dec 2, 2019 20:19
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silvergoose posted:Duet is the best version anyway. Agreed. Still sick of it.
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Dec 2, 2019 20:21
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CommonShore posted:I'm actually entirely sick of Codenames and I hope never to have to play it again. If we're doing a party game my preference is for Anomia now.
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Dec 2, 2019 20:24
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CommonShore posted:I'm actually entirely sick of Codenames and I hope never to have to play it again. If we're doing a party game my preference is for Anomia now. Dear sir, can I introduce you to the word of our Lord and Saviour, Decrypto?
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Dec 2, 2019 20:24
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Jedit posted:Dear sir, can I introduce you to the word of our Lord and Saviour, Decrypto? *aliens from Toy Story voice* De-cryptoooooooooooooooo
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Dec 2, 2019 20:25
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CommonShore posted:Agreed. Still sick of it. Fair; I haven't played any in long enough that I'd be happy to. But I'm kinda over party games of all types, myself. I'd rather play light card games, like Maskmen, Potato Man, Wind the Film!, etc.
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Dec 2, 2019 20:26
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I play party games like maybe once a year now if that, but I would definitely play decrypto over codenames at this point.
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Dec 2, 2019 20:27
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The decrypto army is growing strong. Also I kind of forget to post my analysis of the games I played in a big boardgaming weekend. Most of it was that John Company, Irish Gauge, Vinhos and Gandhi were good, the Terra Mystica expansion and Letter Jam were alright I guess and that On Mars sucked loving rear end. EDIT: let me know if you want me to explain any of those further (except On Mars because I've already written words about it)
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Dec 2, 2019 20:30
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If I'm getting together with a bunch of people like at Christmas and no one really cares about score Telestrations is still my go to because of the amount of people who are crying from laughing so hard by the end.
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Dec 2, 2019 20:31
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Tekopo posted:The decrypto army is growing strong. Also I kind of forget to post my analysis of the games I played in a big boardgaming weekend. Most of it was that John Company, Irish Gauge, Vinhos and Gandhi were good, the Terra Mystica expansion and Letter Jam were alright I guess and that On Mars sucked loving rear end. I'd love to hear about the Terra Mystica Expansion. Is it enough to make one go back to play TM over Gaia?
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Dec 2, 2019 20:46
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I think my problem with Codenames is that for it to be interesting you need to be on roughly the same page with the other players in terms of education, cultural touchstones, etc etc. I'm a bit of a weirdo. If I'm at a party, it's with my SO, who works in medicine, and who has many friends who work in medicine. That means that most of the people at the party will be in medicine, or be the SO of someone who works in medicine. So all of the clues will be about medicine, popular movies, tv shows, or sports that I don't watch because I'm a weirdo. Or it will be with her relatives, and then the clues will be about hunting instead of medicine. God forbid that one of the kids pulls out Disney codenames. This is exhausting and awkward, and it makes me feel even more out of place in a crowd where I already have trouble fitting in. I've just played that version of Codenames so many times that it has become the game for me. If it's at an event with my friends, who share my interests, we'll be playing a different game, because that's why we get together. The reason I prefer Anomia is that you don't need that common ground to play. If you have a table with a psych nurse, a doctor, a humanities PhD, a plumber, and a Dr. Phil watching housewife, the game doesn't stall out. I can imagine that if I were hanging with my old grad school crowd (humanities folk) that we could have fun with it, but that group is also entertaining enough that we can just hang out and talk and have fun. This post took me way too long to write.
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Dec 2, 2019 20:53
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Tekopo posted:The decrypto army is growing strong. Also I kind of forget to post my analysis of the games I played in a big boardgaming weekend. Most of it was that John Company, Irish Gauge, Vinhos and Gandhi were good, the Terra Mystica expansion and Letter Jam were alright I guess and that On Mars sucked loving rear end. Are you talking about the Gandhi COIN? Because I wanna hear. Continuing the streak of Mars being a planet nobody should bother with.
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Dec 2, 2019 20:55
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Megasabin posted:I actually own all promos & both expansions. Would you recommend just putting out all the buildings from the beginning of the game? Or do you do a select few chosen at random? Is a pre-game building ban necessary with all the expansions & promos? The rules cover this. You're meant to use 12 each of the I and II place tiles, with the rest remaining in the box. That's still more than you can possibly build even with the new Beneficial Deeds board.
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Dec 2, 2019 21:02
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CommonShore posted:I think my problem with Codenames is that for it to be interesting you need to be on roughly the same page with the other players in terms of education, cultural touchstones, etc etc. Also why I prefer Mysterium (just about the only party game I will willingly play) to Dixit. The coop nature of it means we're all equal participants, and the clues only come in the form of other pictures.
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Dec 2, 2019 21:04
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I would rather not play party games at all, but I have a small collection to ward off other people's shittier party games. Codenames is OK, but it seems to grind to a halt while the two clue givers analyze the setup and everyone just sits around quietly. Which is what you do at a party, right? Taboo is more lively in the groups I've tried it with.
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Dec 2, 2019 21:36
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De Crypt O! DE CRYPT O! For us it's been a straight upgrade from Codenames. Also, and this might be a specific problem, I found Decrypto a lot easier with a mixed group of people with English as a second language and all different first languages.
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Dec 2, 2019 21:37
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cenotaph posted:I would rather not play party games at all, but I have a small collection to ward off other people's shittier party games. Codenames is OK, but it seems to grind to a halt while the two clue givers analyze the setup and everyone just sits around quietly. Which is what you do at a party, right? Taboo is more lively in the groups I've tried it with. My theory has always been that Codenames should be played as if it were an asynchronous game. Like you don't gather everyone around to play codenames and stop whatever else is happening. You take a picture of the board and put it on the TV. Everyone goes about their business partying or playing other games. Then when the clue giver is ready everyone (or whoever isn't too busy) huddles up for a second and makes a guess, and then goes back to what they were doing.
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Dec 2, 2019 21:53
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My partner was going through some poo poo a while back, and his method of coping with this appears to have been backing tons of board games on Kickstarter. Some have been arriving, some have yet to arrive, I was just wondering if the thread had an opinion on these before we open them - Suburbia collectors edition (this arrived last night and is loving enormous), Eclipse, and Dinosaur Island. In other news, I bought Brass: Birmingham and Tiny Towns due to thread recommendations, and they both seem fantastic. Had a bit of a shaky start with Brass, it seemed overly fussy, but I've warmed to it a lot.
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Dec 2, 2019 22:19
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HampHamp posted:My partner was going through some poo poo a while back, and his method of coping with this appears to have been backing tons of board games on Kickstarter. Some have been arriving, some have yet to arrive, I was just wondering if the thread had an opinion on these before we open them - Suburbia collectors edition (this arrived last night and is loving enormous), Eclipse, and Dinosaur Island. Suburbia is liked. Dino Island feels like too much work for not enough theme.(to me at least) Eclipse got called “a poor man’s Twilight Imperium” the last time it was mentioned.
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Dec 2, 2019 22:24
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I found Suburbia to be one of those games that is just so much better with some automation. I am not confident that I didn't make some scoring error in every game I've played since there's a lot of stuff that cross interacts, so things can easily slip through the cracks. It's mechanically fine but just incredibly fiddly to play. Castles of Mad King Ludwig improves on it by just removing a lot of that cross interaction.
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Dec 2, 2019 22:24
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| # ? May 11, 2024 16:42 |
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Okay, the TM expansion: The central premise of the game is to do more things with rivers/lakes (there are new maps that come with the expansion). The way that the mechanisms work is that you can now get boats: these are usually built by building a new tech 3 building, basically a shipdock/port that allows you access to a new action that builds ship for resources. The ships have actions that allow them to move and if they reach another player's settlement, you get points based on the type of building you "traded" with, along with bonus resources. You use a marker to mark that you have traded with them as well. There is also some faction balancing since the new extra boards that have the dock piece also give you bonuses/maluses based on which faction you are. Other additions are stuff like new favours, new objectives (trying to trade the most for example). Overall, I didn't see what it really added to the game. It makes the map substantially clunkier to look at/determine who has already traded with what, and it doesn't really add any really interesting mechanisms. I don't think I would be very interested in playing it over base TM, especially since it doesn't add any new factions, which is the only thing that would interest me from an expansion.
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Dec 2, 2019 22:39
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