From my interpretation, this meme suggests we should just stop building cars. The fact we are buying so many cars is just a testament on how bad public transportation is. Even with traffic I still manage to get 1 hour and half faster than public transportation by train + subway.
I wish the solution was as simples as a resource redirection, but unfortunately it would require some city planning and possibly rebuilding around public transportation. Not gonna happen, I guess.
I really hate driving but it takes me 30 min to drive somewhere where public transportation takes me 2 hours. Driving saves me 3 hours a day.
If public transportation was good, I wouldn't drive.
I wouldn't call it awful ckick bait article. It's just heavy games the writter happens to enjoy. It's not like they are bad games or games with fancy IPs.
The campaign for North Africa would just be a waste of a slot, no one is actually interested in completing a play. It takes 20 years and a group of 8-10 players (yes, that's a real player range). I would also argue that wargames are their own tabletop category. A factual top 10 most complex boardgames would be, without a doubt, 10 wargames.
In my previous home I had a couple of billies but the shelves are all noticeably curved from the weight. It was much easier to manage, tho.
are the low hanging fruit of boardgame storage
It was definitely a budget option for us. It looks nice enough and I don't think I can find something cooler for 120 euros.
You built that yourself?! Hats off to you my friend!!
They don't fit, they're either too tall/wide or way too deep :/
Standard box sizes in general is something I'd really really like.
Hi friends!
Recently-ish I move to my own appartment with my SO and bought a 5x5 IKEA Kallax to store all my boardgames. Picture attached.
Unfortunately some games are just too big for the Kallax, I can't store them neither vertically nor horizontally. For the longest time I've just had them just on top of the Kallax freely, but recently we (finally) got an AC unit and they would block the airflow.
Currently they're sitting on the floor but I feel sad for them :P
I considered getting a small Kallax, like a 2x2 or something and put them on top, but seems a bit overkill and I'm not sure it would be aesthetically pleasing.
Sorry to link you to reddit but there is a very active subreddit /r/tabletopgamedesign, they have a ton of interesting content. Unfortunately no lemmy alternative.
It depends on the difficulty. Each case consists on a couple of cards that point you to right direction. The first cases are very easy with very few cards, you'll complete them in 10-15 minutes. Super fast. Then the missions become harder and with more cards, you have to go way back to find the offender. I'd say 30-40 minutes for the longer ones.
The game also has a hard variant where you just read the introduction of the mission and deduce everything else by yourself. I really like this variant and it obviously increases the duration of each mission. The game isn't hard but if feels really great to deduce everything correctly!
My one criticism is that the game shines with 2 players at most, maybe 3.
You don't destroy or mark anything so you can replay or borrow it at any time. However, once you know the solution to the puzzle it's pretty much ruined. My shitty memory forgets the solution so I replay the missions once in a while when introducing the game to a new person.
MicroMacro: Crime City is excellent. Can't recommend it enough.
I found Deception: Murder in Hong Kong to be really disappointing. At the time it had stellar reviews but I found it really frustrating. I don't know who had the idea to use the tiniest possible cards on a game that is best with 6-8 people. It's a game for ants.
Yeah, that's also fantastic. I had a friend with a 3d printer and would ocasionally ask me to print something.
Check out this website, if you haven't already. It lists 3d printable resources for all the games in your BGG account. Pretty neat.
I used to make organizers out of foam and they worked out ok. Unfortunately I'm not a very skilled individual and came out all crooked XD
If you have the skill to measure and cut straight, which I don't, definitely consider buying foam sheets and wood glue on your local hardware shop. It's so cheap!
I remember when I first got my Broken Token organizer (with player boards) for Terraforming Mars. What a game changer!
I think Wingspan is a good game but its weight is a bit tricky. My group finds it too light, my family finds it too complicated... Fantastic production value tho.
It's sad that Wingspan is the #1 in the Family category on bgg. From personal experience it's more like a "next-level" kind of game. Everdell at #3 isn't doing anyone any favors either!
Dorfromantik (3x, 2p): I ended up buying it because it won SdJ and I didn't have any tile-laying game anymore. The game starts slow and slowly adds new components and "achievements". Kind wish it was more goal oriented, to be honest. There's no win-condition, you just sum your points, the more points you have the faster you unlock the new components. Definitely want to play it some more but I can't say I loved it.
The 16th Annual Dice Tower Awards
Spoilers below, don't scroll down if you don't want to see the results!!
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Best welcoming game
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Best expansion
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Best party game
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Best solo game
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Best two-player game
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Best reprinted game
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Best co-operative game
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Best game by new designer
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Best game by small publisher
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Best theming
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Best production value
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Best artwork
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Best strategy game
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Most innovative game
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Best game of the year
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In order to promote discussion on Lemmy, I’m doing micro-reviews for my favorite boardgames by genre. Please join in, provide your reviews, flame me for my terrible taste or to suggest a category for tomorrow!
Today's game is Spirit Island
TL;DR
Score: 9/10
Positives:
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Gorgeous artwork
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Theme fits great in the game
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Very thinky
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Tons of difficulty adjustments and scenarios
Negatives:
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The upkeep of this game is very high
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Prone to Analysis Paralysis
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Quarterbacking/Alpha gaming is nearly impossible but it's still really important to discuss how to approach each turn; Not everyone enjoys that
The Review
In Spirit Island you play as a magical spirit of the island. Your task is to protect the land and its native tribes from the colonizing invaders. The objective of the game is to wipe the colonizers or inflict so much fear they give up. If the colonizers spread too much or you run out of time, you lose the game.
Image credit to Richard on bgg, source here
This game is really special. The artwork is absolutely amazing and fits the theme really really well. The Spirits feel REALLY different from eachother, they totally change the way you play the game. Some Spirits are more focused on defending the land from colonist attacks, others are really good at killing enemy units and others play more of a supporting role.
At the start of game you are very weak. You have very limited range, and your starting cards are probably not very powerful. It quickly starts to feel like it's an impossible task and you're going to lose. Part of the island is going to be permanently corrupted and it's going to feel bad.
It's nearly impossible to be an alpha gamer in this game because your decisions are already too complex, you would be totally overwhelmed if you tried to control everyone else's. That said, while all actions can be performed simultaneously, it's very important to communicate your intentions with your team mates. Say you can wipe 1 of 2 possible areas. It's important to communicate that ability with your team mates because maybe someone else is more restricted than you and can only deal with 1 of those areas. Not everyone enjoys this interaction but I truly believe it's key to success.
As the game goes on you will be spreading your influence across the island and acquiring new and more powerful cards. You will start to feel like a god and the game starts to feel easy. It's quite an interesting arc, really. The game comes with a ton of difficulty adjustments but the arc always seems to be the same: you start miserable and thinking the game is impossible but you clutch it out and win when game is nearly over.
I really love the hard decisions in this game. You want to save the entire island, you want to kill every colonizer, you want it all to be perfect. That's not going to happen, the game is designed for that not to happen. You're going to have to make sacrifices and try your best to deal with the threats while gaining some much needed power. I love that aspect of the game. The Spirits are really unique with clever little names. My favorite spirit is "Ocean's Hungry Grasp" and it's so fun because your gameplay neatly simulates the ocean waves. It's amazing.
The one thing that knocks a point out of this game is the "invader phase" upkeek. Spreading colonizers and disease is a REALLY boring step and very prone to errors. It doesn't seem too much in the first couple of turns but it really starts to become a dreadful task that you perform every single round. For this reason, I really don't recommend the first expansion. You need to add even more stuff to add to the board and has yet another upkeep step. There's a Steam adaptation of the game which probably solves this problem but I tend not to enjoy digital adaptations of boardgames.
Context Information
Number of Plays: 15
Suggested player count: 2-3 players, 4 is fine if everyone knows how to play and no one suffers from AP
Average playtime: 2.5 hours
Win-rate: 93.3%
Honorable Mentions
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Aeon's End: The New Age - Really fun deckbuilding game with the unique novelty that you DO NOT shuffle your deck. Once you play all your deck you simply flip it, no shuffle. Great game. There are a ton of Aeon's End games, I played The new Age and The Outcasts. I recommend The new Age, felt like a better game.
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The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine - Trick tacking games are played a lot in Portugal. Every family owns a deck of cards and everyone can play "Sueca". This game feels like cooperative "Sueca" and we had a blast playing it. I also played a bit of the second one but I find the simple design of the first one a lot better.
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The Shipwreck Arcana - Forgot to mention this one! This is a very clever cooperative deduction game. Small box, small prize, amazing game. It's a solid 9/10 for me as well.
