Catching Up on Games (9/17/24)

It was a longer break this time since my last catch-up, partly due to some missed game days. But there are loads of games because there were more days when we played multiple games (which we used to very rarely do). This time, there are a lot of card games, including some dead ones! And as the year winds to a close, my group has been trying to nail down what are the must-play games before the year is out. Lots of replays and some anticipated new games.

Tiny Epic Galaxies

This wasn’t really planned, but we didn’t have time for what was planned, so this was a quick backup. It was quick to learn and play, but we were all kind of lukewarm on it. It was… fine. My friend also has the expansion and it looks to add some more complexity (and hopefully more depth), so we’ll have to try it at some point. The base game just didn’t feel like it had enough meaningful decisions. And as soon as things get going, the game ends.

BattleTech CCG (Solo)

Just to get a feel for the game again, I played a game while trying out some very basic solo rules. It’s still very much a work in progress, but it got the job done, helping me learn the game in preparation for our actual 2-player game. It was somewhat close, with my deck running low when I won, so it kind of works. Though I’m sure a real deck would make it much easier.

Bitoku

I hadn’t looked into this one at all but knew it was well-received. It’s certainly a big game with lots of bits, but it didn’t take too long to get the hang of it. But doing well is a completely different thing.

It’s quite the crunchy game. Some parts are more opportunistic, where you need to jump on a good chance when it shows up, while other aspects reward long-term planning. But trying to stay flexible without sacrificing your long-term goals is a real challenge.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. The theme is neat, even if completely made up (just inspired by Japanese folklore).

Unmatched: Sun’s Origin

This was our first foray into Unmatched. We instantly loved it. It’s such a quick, intense game, and each character has such different flavor to them. My friend ended up going (almost) all-in and buying tons of it except some of the Marvel ones.

Vindication (with Villages & Hamlets)

Back to Vindication, my #2 game, but this time with a new expansion. Villages & Hamlets is a bit of a table hog (like most of the expansions are), but it adds some neat locations. Some of them came out a bit late for us to really use, so we’ll just have to bring this back out another time. Still a lot of fun. I haven’t yet decided which are my favorite expansions and what my ideal setup would be. Some affect the game length more than others.

Also, we’ll probably stop using the End-game Trigger cards going forward and just trigger the endgame when the last trigger coin is taken. The volatile length is just kind of annoying.

BattleTech CCG

Finally! It was time for a 2-player game. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to finish, but it was mostly over. My friend was getting the hang fo the mechanics but not necessarily the nuances of when to attack or block and with which ‘Mech. He’s still new to this style of game, and this was probably more complexity than he was ready for (a different kind of complexity than he’s used to in heavy Euros). Regardless, we both enjoyed it. I’m still on the lookout for good deals on more, but there’s not a lot out there for it.

Honey Buzz

Like Bitoku, I knew nothing of this game until it was time to learn it. It was surprising that it came from the same company as Merchants of the Dark Road, a game I enjoyed but felt it needed a lot more streamlining.

Honey Buzz is much more streamlined and plays a lot faster. The spacial puzzle is pretty satisfying, and though there’s some pretty hefty luck with the orders, it seems bad luck can be curbed by selling honey at the market if it’s not coming out in the orders. The theme doesn’t do anything for me, but I’d happily play again.

Sol: Last Days of a Star

Speaking of a theme that doesn’t do much for me. Sol is about building stations around a sun to collect energy so you can escape before it explodes. It’s a bit of an odd Euro that’s fairly straightforward. There aren’t that many options for what to do on your turn. Build ships, move them into position, cash in ships for structures that do a few different things.

As a result, however, I did find the game a little repetitive. Build ships, move them around, spend them to build other things, rinse and repeat. A lot. Also, apparently building one of the scoring stations on the outer ring as your free setup build is very busted. All-in-all, this one isn’t for me. It’s not bad, I just didn’t really find much to enjoy.

Middle-earth CCG (Solo)

After getting into BattleTech, a dead CCG, I decided to check in on Middle-earth CCG. I had tried maybe a few years ago, but there was little available, and what was out there was expensive. I was quite sad to not be able to get any since it seemed like a Holy Grail game for me. Lately, prices have come back down, so I decided now was the time to jump in!

My first game of it was a simple starter game using the official solitaire rules. The deck was a mostly complete deck I bought for a good deal (just a random starter, not one of the challenge decks, and it was only missing a few cards).

Poor Kili got discarded from a corruption roll early on (snake-eyes!). Radagast was able to help, but a Siege had the company for a good handful of turns, unable to escape the siege. Ended with 19 points, just about as much as the deck has! Which is fine since the recommended point total for basic starter decks is 18.

Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North

It had been quite some time since we last played this one, so my friend decided it was time to bring it back out. I chose one of the more complex decks, one of the ones from the Japanese expansion.

The deck I had was interesting, almost like a pick-up-and-deliver minigame of moving resources between cards. The deck seemed to not care much for sending ships out; it needed to focus a lot on the things going on at home. It was a challenging puzzle to figure out, but worth the effort.

We’re still unsure how replayable decks are, but given how rarely we play, it might be a moot point.

Caverna

After playing some Stardew Valley again, then moving on to Valheim for the Ashelands update, I was in the mood for a crafting/building sandbox sort of game but also some Vikings and adventures. Caverna happens to hit all of the above!

Since we hadn’t played many times and it had been a while, I opted to just play the base game. Some of the races have higher learning curves than others, so they seem unbalanced if you’re still getting the hang of the game. This time, it seemed that all of us had a better grasp of the game and were building up more than in previous games. It was pretty satisfying filling up my board!

Old CCGs (Middle-earth and Rage)

Since Middle-earth CCG was available, I wanted to get some more. And after describing the game to my group, they also seemed interested in trying it out (and I was expecting this to be a solo-only game for me!). But that meant needing to own enough to make 3 playable decks at one time, not just 1. I also was on the hunt for other good deals.

I got the Wizard’s Companion for a great price as well as some rares and a couple of Saruman. There were also some packs for only a few dollars, so I bought some to open, more so just for fun. Buying bulk lots or singles is generally a better way to go, especially for old games. Getting back into Middle-earth stuff, I also had started re-reading The Lord of the Rings.

After buying a bunch more MECCG, I also saw a good deal on a 2-player Rage starter deck. I had never seen the 2-player starter, so I figured I’d buy one just for fun. Since the old starters were random anyway, I might get some cards not already in my collection. Turns out I got 3 new ones (and a bonus Doom Troopers booster pack they sent me)!

I also ended up finally getting some better storage for my CCGs and the L5R LCG. Everything was so scattered in different boxes, and I had nothing good to store MECCG in. So I bought some bulk boxes and moved all of L5R into one, all of the LotR TCG into one, and moved Rage and my Magic: The Gathering cards into another. This freed up some of the smaller boxes for my small but growing MECCG collection. I also made some custom deck boxes for MECCG since the old starters weren’t designed for sleeved cards. Maybe soon, it’ll be time to bring LotR TCG out for some games.

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