That strikes me as a legitimate wrong number text. You might just want to reply with “wrong number” then block if he responds with anything else… unless it’s an obvious scam, then have a field day.

I think chest tickets are the best buy when the majority of your team are 1 and 2 stars. But it feels like diminishing returns once they hit 3 since it takes so much (rightfully so) to get to 4 stars. I’ve been up against more and more players with Bea, Tanks, and some of these others I don’t have, and these players appear to be running the show.

Maybe it’s just a confirmation bias though…

Yeah, it took me 3 matches to make it to 6 (albeit the first match I only saw one running around and hadn’t seen any blue lights yet).

Any chance that this bug expects you to succeed at least 24 hours since your last success? I did the 50% maybe 20 hours ago, and this one isn’t triggering even though it’s open.

Me too! (With the problem and not being the only one). I 100%ed, then when it didn’t trigger I got 74%, 1 star, and ended battle, and still crickets.

I just want to say Remy (from Ratatouille )would be horribly offended by your theme. Do not try to shop this with rat-owned publishing companies! 😁

Awesome! But please charge your phone so you can keep it going.

I fit into the “depends” and “play the base game first several times” camp. No need to repeat others more on those.

What I came to add that hasn’t been addressed much: Kickstarter exclusives. Don’t waste money on most of these unless you’re in on the ground floor. Generally they’re only adding a little extra bonus content, and rarely is it essential. If it’s popular, they might include it in future kickstarters. Some companies like Wize Wizards games will offer KS exclusives for their other games in a new KS for something else.

I like Rising Sun, but I didn’t need to go all-in on it. It was fun to paint, but we’ve only played it once in 6 years.

Thanks! The games I’ve played from that list:

Millennium Blades: definitely a deck construction (during the game) + tableau game and not what one would usuallly think of as a deck builder. It’s a cool “CCG simulator” game.

Expeditions: This one might be a good fit. There is deck-building, and you have an option to permanently place a lot of cards onto your board (partially under) for other abilities and such. It’s a good game!

Imperium: Only played it once, but the 2 factions we played with (Magyars and Japan) did not really display what I would call a “tableau builder” feel. It was more like “some cards have abilities that last multiple turns”. The series has a lot of factions though and others might feel more like a tableau. It probably does meet the definition though.

Great Western Trail: Meets the definition. It’s a good game but if I was in the mood for a tableau or deck builder, this wouldn’t jump to mind. It has a lot going on and while both are in there, it doesn’t really feel like either.

I think both have their place. If you want to have permanent effects or potentially complicated ones, then tableau is the way to go.

If you’re still looking for variance or need a large volume of effects that shouldn’t be able to fire “every turn”, then Deckbuilding is better.

Generally I lean towards deckbuilders, but I do appreciate both. Res Arcana is one of my favorite games and it’s a tableau game.

I was trying to think of a game that used both together, but I can’t. Anybody know of any off the top of their head?

Guess I should stop throwing those packets away!

I have both (non-Golem Century though) and although I feel the same, I have kept Splendor since my wife likes it. Still a good game, and it feels more straightforward than Century.

My kids are currently 14 & 17. I play a lot of mass market games with my wife, and she likes most of the Ticket to Rides, but most hobby games are out of her wheelhouse, especially if it involves fantasy or sci-fi, is a co-op, has multiple ways to win (straight VP), or involves being clever. Over the years I have played a good amount of games with each of my kids, but probably the heaviest of them would be Clank Legacy of Vagrantsong. Life is busy now for both and my game time with them has decreased considerably.

During COVID, I hit max space and started culling games. When it came to the lighter fare that I wouldn’t typically play with my brothers, my rule with my wife was “let’s play it once”, and if she didn’t like it we sold it. That cleaned up a lot of space and also got her interested in more (like TTR).

Last November, her grandmother moved in with us, claiming my office-and game storage room- as her bedroom. This required me to cull more. This time around I started focusing in on overlap. I love engine builders, but there are a few I will always choose over others. The ones left behind are new culls for me.

I have also started looking at games that my kids liked to play with me but not love. My daughter liked Cascadia, but I Kickstarted it and so far we only played it once. There are plenty of other games she would rather play with me. It’s seen a little other play, but it might be getting traded away this weekend. There are other games that we might not have played in 5 years but loved it enough that it’s worth keeping for the nostalgia factor.

I consider this ‘curating’ my collection. I don’t need all the games, just the ones that will get played the most and the ones that are still loved even if they don’t see much play any more.

I love Res Arcana. I do not get “Magic-Killer” vibes from it, but my brother made a comment like it could replace it for him after our first game.

If you’re a big fan of combos and engine building, then this is a good game to scratch that itch.

The MtG killer for me though was also the “Epic Card Game” some others have mentioned. It’s just a step removed from MtG by having no lands and isn’t a CCG sale model.

The two games that pulled me out of MtG and into the world of board games were:

Smash Up &

Lords of Waterdeep

That might have been more of a sign of the times and gave me an appreciation for what’s out there more than replacement effect.

Last mention: if you’re into playing in CCG tournaments then Millennium Blades might be a good fit. It’s a CCG simulator and has tons of variability in the base game.

I thought the same thing. Now that’s just lazy! I want them to produce original material.

Totally agree with the consensus that end of turn is good for helping people plan out their next turn quicker.

One thing I wanted to point out is the only reason I can think of to switch to start of turn drawing: discard. If an opponent (or boss in your case) can force players to discard cards, drawing at the end can mean that they could potentially start their next turn with 0 cards - and if actions are all card-based, you could wind up with nothing to do.

So as long as there’s no risk there, end of turn seems to make us all happy.

That was awesome!

Towelie has entered the chat.

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Celtic embroidery? That’s a really good idea to do around that point hexagon and above the text area. That’ll really help the reduce the dissonance I feel between the art and text regions.

BTW: I really like both art options. I get a wood pushing (Garphill North/South/East/West) game vibe from the left and a plastic pushing (CMON) vibe from the right.

It feels like the -2 might be small for the size of the hexagon it is in, but if you have double-digit negatives, then you’re better off consistent and smaller.

The hex itself feels a little too “clean” compared to the art, but it does make it pop - that can’t be missed. I’m guessing that is pretty important to the game, and if so I wouldn’t change it.

I like your font choice - I always prefer readability over an anything else - BUT it feels off somehow. I can’t quite figure out why.

Since we’re talking about bases, I find the preferred way to deal with them as follows:

All factions have 2 bases that line up with them (One has a third in the World Tour 3 faction). I keep these bases with the factions that correlate to them, so that when we play with that faction, those bases get shuffled together and everybody has an opportunity for their best bases to show up.

I recently got that promo base that was tied to their Dead Reckoning (pirate-themed) board game. Right now that also gets shuffled in as a neutral base.

So far this has worked well, but we also don’t play Smash Up as frequently as others. Maybe there’s a scenario where this becomes a horrible idea.

Ouch, they’re not at Miniature Market anymore either. I would think those 3 expansions are pretty popular, so hopefully they’ll eventually do some reprinting. They’re also pretty early, which means you might be able to track them down at the smaller FLGS (friendly local game stores). I don’t know what the store landscape looks like around you, but there’s a chance that comic shops that also stock some games would still have this.