Boardgames 2024

Shieldwolf · 2024-06-27T17:51:17.678Z

Has anyone here played Federation? I know it’s on the BGA.
I’m surprised it isn’t getting more word of mouth.

Federation is a prime example of a game that desperately needed another pass by a rule book editor. Unclear explanations, details scattered over various pages and poor photo examples hamper this mid weight game to the point that we almost didn’t play it. Maybe that’s why it’s not being talked about. Still, if you get over that hurdle, there is a really cool game here.

At its core, Federation is a worker placement game. Send your ambassadors (workers) to visit various planets. Each of the planets has their own rewards and a prestige tracker. When you take an action on the planet, you gain prestige on that particular planet. This sets you up for end game points. The planets have silly names, but essentially they’re trading, mining, economy, bonus powers and one time special actions.

At the center of the board, are all the worker placement spots. The board is divided in half and further divided into rows and columns. At the top of each column is another tracker that corresponds to one of the planets. We will come back to those in a minute.

Each round starts with two goal tiles drawn representing the 2 of the 5 planets. At the end of the round, players will vote for one tile to score. Ideally, you want the tile with the planet where you have the highest prestige to win. Simple enough, but it’s not.

When you place your worker not only are you having to choose the action you want to take, you’re also also choosing which tile you want to vote for based on the side of the board the action is on. This leads to situations where you want a particular action but you may be voting against where you would get the most points or vice versa.

It can be a tough choice, but Federation isn’t done with you yet. Your ambassadors have different voting strengths and are two sided. Use the voting side to bolster the goal tile you want to win the vote and help to give you control of that row for even more victory points. Or, you can flip the ambassador over and use its funding side. You lose out on voting with that worker, but gain a resource bonus, a bonus action on your personal board, and moving the tracker at the top of the column your worker is in.

Why are those trackers at the top so important? Remember the prestige tracks on each planet? Well the column trackers match up with the planets. If the column tracker for that planet doesn’t reach the end it doesn’t matter how much prestige you have, that planet will not score at the end of the game.

Federation offers tough choices throughout as you try and max your points. It plays great with 2 players, but can imagine it is even better with more. Mechanically the game is fairly simple, but Lacerda like multi-action workers anda poor rulebook make the game feel harder than it is.

Definitely recommend giving it a try if you like worker placement games and I hope it does well enough for an expansion as I can think of some really cool ideas I would like to see added.

Jamesthe1st · 2024-06-27T18:28:41.579Z

It’s a good game, it’s been a hit around here locally. The vote part is great. I love games with shares like Imperial and the 18xx games and that adds a similar shared incentive type flavor.

Djscman · 2024-06-27T21:44:18.334Z

My buddy is going to teach this tabletop game, Gaslands, at an upcoming convention. One problem: he needed experience teaching the game. So he rounded up me and some other friends, who knew about Matchbox but hadn’t played Gaslands. You could say that we came over to his house to play cars, or that we vied for vehicular victory over a parched post-apocalyptic wasteland with weapons and wacceleration. I lost, but had a good time losing. It took us about 3, three and a half hours to get through a relatively simple track, but it’s the sort of game where once you grasp the basics, you immediately want to play again with more options and a longer, even more complicated track. My friend did a great job with his hand-painted and hand-crafted vehicles and scenery, it added a lot to the experience. (It would have been loopy if I brought my son’s Pixar’s Cars cars to race and destroy.)

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These were my two little challengers. We four players each got a team of one “car” and one “buggy”. The object of the game was to get either one across the finish line before anyone else’s vehicles. The papers are to track damage (but not “hazards”, which were tracked separately). These dice indicate what gear your vehicles are driving at. There are other sets of dice too, we used red dice with the usual pips for inflicting or evading damage, and special green dice for handling checks (resulting in Shifts, Slides, Spins, or Hazards) and a massive six-sider for tracking the Gear Cycle initiative system.

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The track. Four sections, some sharp turns and straightaways. Weapon systems came online after the second checkpoint.

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All car combatants lined up, waiting for the green flag.

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Each person chooses a plastic shape template to indicate where they want to drive on their turn, then roll dice to see what other wacky stuff might happen to you.

The wrecked car foreshadows the fate of one of my cars. The hand foreshadows the grim hand of death.

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It’s a tight, cramped turn around this butte. Surely my green car won’t smash right into it!

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My green car smashed right into it.

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My other green car, this little buggy, zips forward towards freedom and first place. This was my two-part strategy, the buggy takes a commanding speedy lead and the car hangs back and shoots up the followers with its front mounted machine gun.

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Seriously, it’s not quite Mad Max, but doesn’t it look cool?

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My green buggy was overtaken and then things overturned for the worse.

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This purple car is about to drive through my buggy like the Kool-Aid Man comes through a wall. Oh yeah! Oh no!

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To swerve, to veer, to turn, and not to yield.

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Imagine there are little people in the cars and they are shooting at other cars. Surprisingly we weren’t making too many vrrrrm varooom or bang kablooie sounds. Because we are grownups and this is serious business.

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The purple car cruises towards the checkered flag, the jerk. Good game though.

Matt_W · 2024-06-27T22:42:40.311Z

Lol, all of those photos look like they’re screenshots from Tabletop Simulator, but I think they’re actually real photos, right? The art style is very “computer graphics”. But I’m not sure why.

Djscman · 2024-06-28T01:33:58.744Z

Matt_W:

I think they’re actually real photos, right?

Heh, yeah, real photos.

dionisus1122 · 2024-06-28T03:31:09.246Z

Gaslands looks like a ton of fun

Mark_Crump · 2024-06-29T22:42:10.426Z

I played the full game with the cubes today. It was a rousing success. We kept the Leader minis to give us still the feel of the minis.

It didn’t take anything away from the game other than the frustration of the minis. I ordered a bunch of extra cubes just in case one goes flying. Kept aside for the free peoples, of course, due to set limits.

I never thought removing minis from a game would help.

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tomchick · 2024-06-30T12:36:09.374Z

Mark_Crump:

I never thought removing minis from a game would help.

The hero and elite minis do all the lifting that needs to be done. More readable, because now you can see the map under the armies, and I think it looks better, to boot! Very nice, Mark.

tomchick · 2024-07-01T17:24:38.420Z

Well, shoot a monkey, I went back to search and couldn’t find who it was, but I seem to recall a brief exchange with one of y’all about Garphill’s West Kingdom games, back when I’d only played Architects and Viscounts, but hadn’t tried Paladins yet. A couple of y’all were calling out Paladins as your favorite, and one of you in particular was particularly full-throated in your acclaim. I made a mental note of it and I’m only now thinking back to that exchange, because I’ve finally played Paladins of the West Kingdom.

amazon.com

Amazon.com: Paladins of The West Kingdom Strategy Board Game, 1-4 players, Ages...

Paladins of the West Kingdom is set at a Turbulent time of West francia's story, circa 900 AD. Despite recent efforts to develop the city, outlying Township are still under threat from outsiders. Saracens Scout the borders, while Vikings plunder...

$51.76

So why am I going back to the West Kingdom series, especially when Garphill is going strong with their South Tigris series and especially especially when they’ve just released Ezra and Nehemiah?

A little history: The South Tigris series currently consists of Wayfarers and Scholars, with Inventors due out later this year. Scholars is incredibly complex and a bit daunting and I’m scared of it, to be honest. Which is a sensation I crave! I love being intimidated by a game! I love being dragged out of my comfort zone! I can’t wait to tackle Scholars in earnest, and it’s sitting on my shelf, burgeoning with all its little colored dice, waiting until I’m ready.

amazon.com

Amazon.com: Renegade Game Studios: Scholars of The South Tigris : Toys &...

Scholars of the South Tigris is a new stand-alone game in the South Tigris trilogy set during the height of the Abbasid Caliphate, circa 830 AD. The Caliph has called upon the keenest minds to acquire scientific manuscripts from all over the known...

$42.88

And I love that Garphill is calling out the Golden Age of Islam in the South Tigris series, which is partly why the earlier and simpler Wayfarers is so dear to me.

amazon.com

Amazon.com: Renegade Games Wayfarers of The South Tigris - Dice Placement...

WAYFARERS OF THE SOUTH TIGRIS Is set during the height of the Abbasid Caliphate, circa 820 AD. As brave explorers, cartographers and astronomers, players set off from Baghdad to map the surrounding land, waterways, and heavens above. Players must...

$46.92

It’s such a lovely little glittering example of Garphill’s dopamine machines, intricately built on the concept of exploring the lands, the seas, the very heavens; a game themed not with accumulation, but with learning; a game about wisdom instead of wealth, set in the culture of Mohammed and the Arabs’ newfound dominion over most of the known world: “…and when the Caliph saw there were no more lands left to conquer, he didn’t weep, but he rolled up his sleeves and got to work!”

So you can imagine my delight that Garphill’s next series is visiting Biblical history, beginning with the recent release of Ezra and Nehemiah (that’s one game title, named after the two reformists who were instrumental in rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem).

amazon.com

Amazon.com: Renegade Game Studios: Ezra & Nehemiah - Strategy Board Game,...

EZRA & NEHEMIAH - Ancient Jerusalem Awaits! Ezra and Nehemiah is a thematic strategy game for 1-4 players, set in ancient Jerusalem. Players will be building the temple and city walls, and teaching the Torah to returning exiles. Players may also seek...

$56.99

I eagerly bought it the moment it was available (last week!), tore off the shrinkwrap, set up a solitaire game (this is how I play most of my Garphill), and sat down to play. Only to discover that it’s repurposing one of the basic concepts in Viscounts of the West Kingdom! Ezra and Nehemiah, like Viscounts, is about managing a posse of three townsfolk cards who give you icons to perform actions.

And if I’m being perfectly honest, I’m a little disappointed at the theming in Ezra and Nehemiah. It has its share of historical/textual specifics (the three reformers available for hiring, the two prophets making their demands each week, Sabbath as bookkeeping phase, clearing the rubble of the old Temple, sacrificing resources onto an altar, building up the priesthood, the tech tree supposedly representing study of the Torah) but for the first time, they feel a bit slapped on to me. What’s up with that? Perhaps because I have a more intimate frame of reference for the time period, having spent a lot of my advanced education studying the Hebrew scriptures? Or perhaps I’ve just seen so many Garphill games at this point that they have an innate familiarity? Or perhaps the theming is, in fact, thinner this time around?

Whatever the case, I decided to forego playing it until I’d spent more time with its influences. Before I draw any conclusions, let me jump into its history real quick. So I went back to sample some Viscounts and had a grand time, all over again. I normally hate the restrictions of rondels, but when it’s presented as Marching A Dude Around The Kingdom To Do Stuff, and when it’s driven by my townsfolk and can be mitigated with the judicious use of money, it feels a lot less arbitrary than the usual rondel. So in an almost RPG way, I really enjoy making the rounds with my viscount, managing my followers, and choosing whether to push the kingdom into prosperity or let it sink into poverty. It’s not just an economic engine builder, but a nifty little Kingdom Simulator. Whereas Architects is a nifty twist on the tired old worker placement games but ultimately still a bit of a tired old worker placement game, Viscounts is an adventure disguised as a rondel!

So from here, I figured it was finally time to complete the West Kingdom trilogy. It was time to play Paladins of the West Kingdom, to complete this stage of my Garphill fandom before more fully exploring the South Tigris series, and especially before visiting their new Biblical game, since it seems partly inspired by Viscounts.

And, holy cats, do I see now why some of you called out Paladins over Viscounts and Architects! I’m not sure I’m ready to declare a favorite West Kingdom game yet – I’m smack dab in the middle of my Paladins honeymoon phase and aflush with magical new fondness! – but, oh my golly, am I having a grand time with Paladins. If I thought Viscounts was an RPG Kingdom Simulator Adventure, I hadn’t seen nothin’ yet! The eponymous Paladins, like Knights of the Round Table tasked with quests, making their appearances to whip the kingdom into shape with soldiers, scouts, merchants, and priests (so much is lost if you just think of them as red, green, blue, and black workers!). Whereas Viscounts was about exploiting and developing the young kingdom, Paladins is about heroic knights helping position it in a hostile world: sending teams to secure and build walls around the city, expanding into the lands to the east with monks and outposts, conquering/assimilating the people who live there. And probably more than any other Garphill game, it’s stuffed full of unique and interesting characters: the paladins, the townsfolk, the workers, the outsiders.

It’s still very new to me. I’ve only gotten in one full game, and I had no idea what I was doing, so I have a feeling I’m going to be playing more learning games. But I wish I could have found where some of y’all were calling out Paladins of the West Kingdom as your favorite, because now I see what you mean!

Also, I can’t believe I’ve missed this, but there is a whole mess of add-on material for the West Kingdom games! There are expansions for each individual game – two for Viscounts, it seems! – and even that crazy overarching Tomesaga mode. I had no idea they’d put so much new West Kingdoms content into the pipeline. Hoo boy, do I have my work cut out for me.

divedivedive · 2024-07-01T17:39:32.278Z

Djscman:

Seriously, it’s not quite Mad Max, but doesn’t it look cool?

Definitely. I haven’t played Gaslands but I dug into Car Wars at an early age. I need to find out more about this game.

porousnapkin · 2024-07-01T19:17:06.962Z

This is making me want to try Paladins again. Did you play solo?

I wasn’t that fond of it when I played it (only once). I played 4 player and it felt really long, interesting, but completely heads down. I don’t remember thinking about other players’ actions a single time during the game. But that may mean I’d love it solo. I wasn’t playing board games solo at the time so didn’t give it a shot, but I am now, may need to revisit it.

porousnapkin · 2024-07-01T19:19:03.311Z

I actually had the opposite experience with Viscounts as Paladins. I got it, played it solo about 5 times and didn’t love it. I thought about getting rid of it, but then tried it multiplayer and it suddenly clicked. If you get the expansions, tell me how they go! I didn’t know about them. Watching quick overviews it’s not clear to me whether they’d be interesting or not.

tomchick · 2024-07-01T19:47:26.436Z

porousnapkin:

This is making me want to try Paladins again. Did you play solo?

Yep, solo only for me. I showed a couple of friends Raiders of Scythia, but it didn’t “take”. I’ve also pressed a couple of other friends into playing Wayfarers with me, but again, it didn’t seem to take. Maybe it takes more than one Garphill game, or perhaps more than one playthrough? But I’ve had very little luck getting others to play Garphill games with me. : (

Fortunately, Garphill is all-in on solitaire support, and not in the half-assed “throw 'em a bone” way of most multiplayer designs.

porousnapkin:

I wasn’t that fond of [Paladins] when I played it (only once). I played 4 player and it felt really long, interesting, but completely heads down. I don’t remember thinking about other players’ actions a single time during the game. But that may mean I’d love it solo. I wasn’t playing board games solo at the time so didn’t give it a shot, but I am now, may need to revisit it.

Yeah, I can imagine it really dragging with four players. Those last few turns will be absolute beasts at any player count, and having to wait for three other players must have been deadly. This is very much a multiplayer solitaire game, more so than other Garphills, given that there is literally no interaction beyond blocking and taking something someone else wants. I mean, you don’t even have to select a player color in Paladins of the West Kingdom, because the player pieces never interact! Even the “Inquisition”, this game’s Moral Crisis, feels minimally interactive.

porousnapkin:

I actually had the opposite experience with Viscounts as Paladins. I got it, played it solo about 5 times and didn’t love it. I thought about getting rid of it, but then tried it multiplayer and it suddenly clicked.

Interesting! But that makes sense to me, since there are more interactive systems in Viscounts: the Moral Crisis can be a big deal for everyone, the Prosperity/Poverty fate of the kingdom can be a big deal for everyone, the workers jostling around in the castle for the center spot can be a big and very interactive deal, the race for the cleric cards. Yeah, off the top of my head, I can see how Viscounts feels like a definite course correction after Paladins to include more player interaction, to keep up the pace for four players.

And I figure it’s only a matter of time before I get the expansions, especially since one of the Viscounts expansions apparently affects the solitaire mode? I haven’t even read the marketing on the boxes, but I believe I saw a BGG post to that effect. Anyway, I’ll definitely report back as I bang on these and either dig deeper into West Kingdoms or move on to Scholars or Ezra & Nehemiah.

triggercut · 2024-07-01T22:46:43.043Z

tomchick:

Well, shoot a monkey, I went back to search and couldn’t find who it was, but I seem to recall a brief exchange with one of y’all about Garphill’s West Kingdom games, back when I’d only played Architects and Viscounts, but hadn’t tried Paladins yet. A couple of y’all were calling out Paladins as your favorite, and one of you in particular was particularly full-throated in your acclaim. I made a mental note of it and I’m only now thinking back to that exchange, because I’ve finally played Paladins of the West Kingdom.

I think it was here, in January of 2021:

Boardgaming 2021: minis are back, baby! Games

Just reporting back to @porousnapkin that Architects of the West Kingdom is a big hit! I’ve only got three games under my belt, but I love the way the workers build up and dissipate, build up and dissipate, build up and dissipate. It gives Architects a distinct rhythm that sets it apart from other worker placement and resource management games. So snappy, too! I look forward to sharing it with our group one day. And as a solitaire game, I really like how you have to control the AI’s worker …

dionisus1122 · 2024-07-02T00:15:50.957Z

Got a 2p base game Arcs played last week… And I happen to think it was amazing.

It is an aggressive game, and I lost 32-31 against my very aggressive opponent, but I was already dreaming up different ways to combat that style in the future.

Even the base game created distinct narrative. I was focused on fuel and materials, while my opponent got gobs of aggression cards and focused on pushing me to the limit.

In round 4 I had a shot to get a double ambition and put it out of reach, but he made a clever maneuver and got a fleet across the map to ransack my court and take the double ambition.

I can’t wait to play the leaders and lore, and the campaign.

tomchick · 2024-07-02T22:58:00.823Z

triggercut:

I think it was here, in January of 2021:

Oh man, the ancient times of 2021! That means I’ve only been playing these Garphill games for three years? What the heck, they feel like lifelong friends.

I still can’t find where someone was telling me with absolutely certitude that Paladins was their favorite, and I remember thinking, “Huh, I need to remember to let them know what I think of Paladins when I finally try it…” and now I don’t remember who it was. Heck, maybe it wasn’t here…

Thanks for looking, though! That was fun to go back and read my charmingly naive 2021 self who had no idea what he was missing out on. : )

Jamesthe1st · 2024-07-02T23:23:34.930Z

I didn’t like Paladins, I thought the card draw limited the worker placement too arbitrarily. It’s the same problem I have with Dune Imperium. Ezra and Nehemiah is way better to me, every time I’ve played it I’ve done something completely different strategy wise.

dionisus1122 · 2024-07-03T02:15:49.336Z

Paladins is my favorite of the West Kingdom series. It might be my favorite overall but I haven’t played it enough.

Legacy of Yu, Paladins and Raiders if Scythia probably top my list (all solo).

I enjoy Shipwrights Redux and Architects a lot.

I’ve only played Scholars of the South Tigris once, but enjoyed it. Need more time with it.

Played the app for Raiders of the North Sea, and like enough.

I own Explorers of the North Sea, Viscounts and Ezra and Nehemiah, but haven’t played them yet. Ezra is calling me because of the positive buzz!

Only one I really didn’t enjoy was Hadrian’s Wall, but that wasn’t even Shem Phillips.

Shem is my favorite for that resource optimization puzzle, and it is why his games work SO WELL solo

divedivedive · 2024-07-03T21:11:51.867Z

Great video about Arcs from the SU&SD crew. To sum up, from Tom: “Arcs is the best boardgame I have ever played.” I haven’t spent enough time with it to say that definitively but it’s really great.

dionisus1122 · 2024-07-04T01:36:01.930Z

I’ve played twice and the game made an appearance in a dream I had last night.

I think about it constantly and have barely scratched the surface