Hero Forge Custom Miniatures has an online designer with various configuration options for game figures. Not exactly cheap, but if you really need a figure for a game, it might still be worth it.
Archive September 2015
Actually, I only took Jaipur as a filler for free shipping. But within a few days, it clearly became the most popular game among us. A significant point is certainly that the theme and game go well together. The actions usually make sense and are understandable. In addition, there are only a few different actions, and only in slight variations. However, based on this, there is quite a tactical competition with occasionally quite mean snatch actions. And a good dose of luck, which always leads to the luck turning again. One of the few games where Juliana not only asks to play it afterwards, but also wants to play it several times right away. Really a great filler game for two players, ideal for one or two (or three) rounds while waiting for the food or having coffee in the city. And perfect for travel, as it is small, robust and comes with quite manageable requirements for space on the table. It will probably replace the Valley of the Kings as our filler game. Oh, the game I actually bought, the one I took Jaipur with? I haven't played it yet. We were too busy.
Yesterday, I tested Dungeon Dice for pub suitability. It passed. At least in the base version. The main problem with the game is still the fragmented manual, but I've now gotten the overviews from BGG and will print them out, which should make things run much more efficiently - this will also make the expansions interesting again. The second problem is the endgame when everyone has almost won - but we had a mistake in the game because I, being a fool, forgot the "magical artifacts are glory points" rule and ignored the "trade 5 equipment dice for a magical artifact" rule. Because with these two rules, you can build a pretty good alternative path to the hunt for red monsters and thus ensure a bit more excitement than just "who kills the first red monster". In addition, this also makes trading artifacts and equipment more exciting again and helps players who are lagging behind. Well, that's the problem when you don't play a game regularly, you forget things. And for regular play, Dungeon Dice simply has the problem that it really only becomes fun with 3 players, as both combat and trading are rather flat with two players (cooperation against one's own goals is not particularly useful). But all in all, it's a really nice dice game where dice luck is not always controllable, but catastrophic consequences can be avoided with a bit of skill. It's actually just right for the pub table because the components are totally robust.
A few weeks ago, I picked up The Golden Ages at Schwerkraft because I'm interested in civilization games and it promised to deliver the goods in less than 2 hours. I finally got to play it. Naturally, as is often the case with new games, left hand against right hand. The right hand surprisingly won, even though the left hand was clearly ahead for a long time. And the game is great - I play many games against myself to learn them, but I'm relatively rarely really enthusiastic about the game itself, because it's quite cumbersome to play against yourself. But here, each player is given goals early on through their starting civilization and their future technology that point in a certain direction and thus provoke a rather asymmetrical build-up. This is complemented by a really smooth game system in which you don't have to keep track of much and each action is self-contained, so that you never get the feeling that the game is "fiddly". The only downside is that the setup is a bit time-consuming because you fill your tableau and empty it during the game (unlike in other games), so you have to assign technology tiles. But once you've done that, the next time will be faster - and with more than one player, you can build up in parallel. Including setup, my test game lasted 3 hours and was very exciting. It will definitely hit the table again.
Progress: Evolution of Technology was on the table again today with Juliana (well, the game was on the table, Juliana was sitting in front of it...) and off we went into the fourth age. Wow. What a game. We are still very enthusiastic about it. It is by far the most complex game we play together and it does take a bit out of you, but it's a lot of fun. This time I won, but only by a narrow margin (45 to 42). So far, we have only included the fourth age, we have not yet taken the other two mini-expansions, the game is already difficult enough as it is. A really great civilization developer that focuses on the part that is interesting to me - the technology tree.
Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:
Pergamon arrived yesterday (well, earlier, but we were on vacation) and hit the table today. A nice spiral around archaeology for the Pergamon Museum. It was a real bargain - actually no longer available, but a remainder of the English version was still available, the game for 7.50 - I couldn't say no. And it was worth it. A very interesting mechanism for obtaining funds for excavations, constantly "richer" excavation sites, an interesting mechanism where exhibitions slowly fade, and all this with great components designed with lots of love. And the game goes quickly, every single move is just a simple action, but combined with a lot of predicting what the opponents will do. Love it!
Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented: