Onirim. Relaxing solitaire game that can also be played by two. The theme is relatively abstract, but somehow it fits with the cards. However, you really shuffle a lot and the cards suffer after the first few games, so it's probably better to put them in sleeves in the long run, then the shuffling also goes faster.
Archive February 2015
Download Free Smartwatch Faces for Moto 360, LG G Series, Samsung Gear, Sony SmartWatch 3 and Asus ZenWatch | FaceRepo. It says: Watch Faces. For WatchMaker and facer.
start [[Watchmaker Wiki]]. Noted for later, just because it's practical. Watchmaker has a lot of cool stuff in it that you can use for watches. And the weird effects when dimming, which I had initially, are not happening at the moment.
Valley of the Kings. I had actually speculated about playing a round of Super Motherload, but Juliana wanted to play something more familiar, and so we ended up at the Valley of the Kings again. A very beautiful deckbuilder, my strategy of aggressive grave-laying combined with a lean deck and a few powerful cards paid off, and the aggressive attack cards were also helpful - in the end 137 to 85. And in my case, a perfect set of all colors. Wow.
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. The House of Elrond took up Celebrimbor's secret - and unlike the wimpy Wood Elves, the Noldor have given the Orcs a good beating. However, Galadriel was no longer there; she had returned to her husband, with whom she was once again at the Fords of Isen - and was sent home due to a rules violation. Ouch. But hey, Elrond and his people were successful. Instead of Galadriel, Frodo was there, with low threat, usable willpower, and in an emergency, quite useful as an Orc stopper. And with the amount of threat reduction and low starting threat, the deck can also handle a few quests with Glorfindel without the Light of Valinor.
Waggle Dance. Again with Juliana, playtime is around 7 honey somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes, including setup and teardown. It's getting more strategic now that we have a better eye for combinations. Interesting how the perception of individual parts changes - at the beginning it was "wow, queen cards are strong", now they are rather something you take if nothing else is free.
Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. The attempt to give the Tactics deck more willpower for adventures by incorporating Theoden failed - but I'm starting to think that's just because of this rather stupid Ford of Isen. I have to say, I enjoyed the Khazad-dûm quests much more than the Ringmaker quests. The player cards from the Ringmaker expansions are good, but the adventures have actually annoyed me so far.
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. Legolas, Mablung, and Hama wanted to investigate these strange invisible Dunlanders again. They were driven off in the first attempt, but they were successful in the next attempt. However, this was in easy mode and the threat was already 48 - the deck is crying out for core Gandalf for threat manipulation. Especially since he also helps a lot with questing. Unfortunately, Trained for War did not appear this time, which would make questing much easier. And whether Hama is really so central, I still have to consider - I only used his action once. But basically, the deck also works under time pressure - and in general, it is well set up for the hand-hate of the Ringmaker quests, a tactics deck wants to play everything it has.
Sentinels of the Multiverse. Again Legacy, Wraith, Tempest - together with Unity, who did a lot more work here, even if they started a bit slowly. Baron Blade certainly did not conquer Metropolis.
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. At the Fords of Isen, Dunlanders gathered and Grima failed with his diplomacy. Hama rode with Legolas and Mablung. They were accompanied by a group of Eagles and also met some Ents at the river. But it was all in vain, during the massive attack of invisible Dunlanders in stage 2B, all Eagles, Ents, and heroes were destroyed. This "X damage with X equal to cards in hand" mechanism on a time 2 trigger is highly stupid, especially when there are no more Dunlanders in the staging area or in combat. And wandering Ents are also stupid if there is no Treebeard to play them. One is the fault of the deck builder, the other is the designer of this scenario.
Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island. The ship's carpenter and a fellow traveling researcher made it to an island, even the ship's dog survived and a friendly native joined them, but it didn't help - the researcher starved to death first. An island is not a pony farm after all. And Robinson Crusoe is a coop game that simply runs over an inexperienced team - without good preparation, the later rounds are brutally difficult. Thematically and mechanically, however, wonderfully implemented.
Sentinels of the Multiverse. A time hole to Silver Gulch in the Wild West era and Ambuscade lurking around? A case for Legacy, Wraith, Unity and Tempest. Ambuscade might be a bit frustrated now, as cleanly as he was dismissed. The first mini-expansion for Sentinels is really nice, although I still have to get used to Unity, she didn't really come into her own. Wraith was the star today. And Tempest was solid as always.
Sentinels of the Multiverse. Someone messed up while scrapping Omnitron - he showed up again in Megapolis! Legacy, Wraith, Ra, and Tempest took care of it again. But Omnitron was probably still weakened from the last battle, he was only a shadow of himself and was sovereignly dismantled into his individual parts.
Waggle Dance. Played for the first time with four players today. I actually only wanted to show it briefly, but then we just played a game up to 5 as a digestif. It really explains well and is also pleasantly fast with 4, as you only place one die and then the next player is up. With two new players in the first game, it took about an hour and everyone was close in points, which is a good sign.
Legends of Andor. Today was Legend 5's turn, the one with the dragon. I guess we'll agree on a draw. The dragon was indeed defeated sovereignly, and as Münster residents, we are tolerant of squatting monsters in the Rietburg, it was just an old building that would have needed to be renovated. Highlight of the evening: I find the abducted Prince Thorald, Juliana grabs the Gor, the prince stands up, the narrator brings the next Legend card, and it places the dragon directly on the prince. Ouch. The game is always fun, but I really don't know how to achieve it in the 60-90 minutes indicated on the box. Martin and Klaus brought the Journey to the North, so: there is replenishment. But first, there are still the Star Shield and the Battle for Cavern.