Life got turned upside for us over the last two months and due to that, I'm behind on most things, including my #ReducingThePile quest.
This is my first step on trying to get caught up. Here you will find a list and short review of all of the new to me games I got played in May.
You can find my previous #ReducingThePile posts by clicking on the hashtag.
In May I only got 12 game plays in and of those only 5 were new games to me so this will be a shorter post this time.
CVlizations - 2 plays - I really dig CV so I was very excited when I heard a civilization building version was coming out. The problem is that this game has nothing in common with CV besides the name and the art style. This is a card drafting game unlike the yahtzee based dice system in CV.
It's quick to teach and pretty easy to learn. We must have enjoyed it well enough since we played two games in a row. It's not a bad game, just wasn't what I expected when I saw the CV name.
Quests of Valeria - 1 play - I love Valeria Card Kingdoms. I picked that up at Origins 2016 and have played it many times since (including about 10 plays at the con itself). At this point, I was so impressed that I would try anything else from Daily Magic. Unlike CVlizations Quests of Valeria did not disappoint. Now I wasn't expecting this to be similar to Card Kingdoms but it does feel a bit like it. You are hiring adventurers and putting them in a tableau, but then you spend them from that tableau to complete quests. What this game is actually most similar to is Lords of Waterdeep. It's pretty much Lords of Waterdeep the card game without the WotC license. Quests of Valeria is well worth checking out. It's quite fun.
Lucha Jefe - 3 plays - I received this microgame during the TabletopDay celebrations at Brimstone Games. This is yet another Love Letter knock off. What's different about this from most is that I actually liked it. I'm not a big Love Letter fan but this was actually kind of fun. It's got a Luchador wrestling theme which is cool. Added to that you are selecting two cards to keep for the end of the game. Your main event wrestler and your back up. Unlike Love Letter where the highest card wins there's a lot more variety here. Overall though it's still a silly Love Letter like microgame. I don't think this will see a lot of play here, but if you dig Love Letter and its isotopes I suggest checking out Lucha Jefe.
Automobiles - 1 play - I dig Trains. I even like Planes. I've also heard that Automobiles may be the best of what's being called The Transportation Trilogy from AEG. I'm inclined to agree. Automobiles is a bag builder. When I first set up the game and started teaching it I was wondering why not just use cards, once we started to play I totally got it. This is an excellent racing game that doesn't take hours to play (as most good racing games seem to). It's just like a deck builder, where you all start with the same basic 'deck' and use those 'cards' to buy better 'cards.' The difference is that you have coloured cubes and these represent cards. The gear cards are used to move around the board, all the others do cool interesting stuff and represent gear, pit crews, and tech upgrades. If you dig deck builders or are into racing at all check out Automobiles.
Robo Rally (2016 edition) - 2 plays - The original Wizards of the Coast RoboRally from Richard Garfield is one of my all time favourite games of all time. I love that game so much. I still have my original edition and most of the expansions and break it out now and then. I tried out the Avalon Hill re-release that was made in 2005 and wasn't impressed. I didn't even bother buying it. I was happy with my original. When I heard that the rules had been improved in this new 2016 edition and I had to have it.
Everything I've read about this game is true. The rules truly are the best they have ever been. Players now have individual programming decks instead of sharing a pile. The initiative rules have been improved and simplified and are no longer based on what action you are taking. Damage is done in a style like a deck builder adding spam and virus cards to our deck. Virtual robots are gone. There is one problem though: the components are horrible. Really really bad. The player boards are little more than paper. The cards are the thinnest cards I've ever held. The robots feel like cheap hollow plastic toys. It's bad. Which is really a shame as this really is the best edition of Robo Rally yet as far as fun and the rules are concerned. On a positive note, it's cheap.
So that's it for me for May and new games. Not a lot got done towards #ReducingThePile but I did get to play 5 new games three of which I really enjoyed.
What did you get played two months ago?
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