Solomon's Ring from the Catacombs of the Kingdom of Biblios
Wow. This report is already over 2 weeks late. But a little thing called Christmas was part of that time, as well as a big game day at Norton's Game Room (that'd be my house, if you weren't up to speed on my nickname) that was a ton of fun but also had me cleaning up for about 14 hours beforehand. Plus, I've already given part of the report for all of the Risk: Legacy that we played over these two game nights, so what are you complaining about?!!!
Oh, wait, I guess you weren't really complaining. I was just feeling guilty. Well, either way, here we go with the games...
Kingdom of Solomon [BGG]
I've been really excited about this game since I first heard about it and its Kickstarter campaign, and I was fortunate enough to receive a review copy from Minion Games a few weeks ago. To be honest, my interest was mostly due to the theme, because regardless of what you think of the obvious religious implications of the Bible, Biblical history is far under-used as a theme in any sort of gaming. And just in case the theme worries any of you out there, you can rest assured that it carries no religious overtones at all and is probably only as strong historically as something along the lines of Puerto Rico.
What Kingdom of Solomn is, however, is a really solid worker placement game with several nice little twists. The main thing that you do on each turn is to place workers either in geographic regions of Israel to get resources or on special action spaces where you get some special ability. The really cool thing, though, is that there are also a few super-awesome spots (which is not their official title in the rules, of course, but pretty accurately describes how powerful they are) that you can also choose, but which require you to place all of your remaining workers there. It reminds me a lot of the "downstream" mechanic in Egizia, actually, because you always have the option of pulling the trigger to get that big ability you want, but you're going to give up the chance at getting a number of lesser actions to do so. Plus, it sort of introduces a little push-your-luck or "chicken" element into the placement, as you all try to gauge whether or not someone else will jump on a spot you want before your next turn. And since there are always one less super-awesome spots than there are players, someone will miss out on them completely (but probably get more regular actions in compensation).
In addition, the game also includes a "realistic" market that is populated purely by the players, the only currency in the game are victory points, and players then use their resources to either build buildings (which give VP and offer more spots to place your workers to use their abilities) or the Temple (which gives VP and can give you a special ability if you're the biggest contributor). And that's not even touching the whole ability to link regions with roads and get multiple resources with one worker, but that's too much to get into right now.In our game, we were all feeling out the rules a little bit over the first couple of rounds, and sort of all ended up taking different paths through the game. Ian went heavily for building the Temple right from the start, which made him High Priest (and let him use our resource regions whenever he wanted to) and got him a good number of points. Chris built a lot of buildings and drew a lot of Fortune Cards (usually giving more resources), and then made this huge resource region by the end that would have been ridiculous if we had played for another turn or two. I built some buildings and did a few other things, but the way I made probably the bulk of my points was to sell to the market, and in the end, I managed to stay ahead and take the win!
Time: 60 minutes
Score: Norton* 159, Chris* 128, Ian* 121
Ratings: Norton 8, Chris 7.5, Ian 8
As I mentioned on Twitter, Kingdom of Solomn really stayed with me over the following day or two. There are just so many little interlocking parts to the game and, at least on the surface, so many different ways to score points and things to build strategies around. I don't know if the Market is as powerful as it seemed to be, or if it was just because I was the only one selling much into it, or if I just managed to be a little more efficient with my general play. I really look forward to trying out different "paths to victory" and seeing how well they work out!
I'm sure that many people will criticize Kingdom of Solomn of being just another retread or mash-up of standard eurogame mechanics. And to some extent, I'll agree that there's not a lot of originality in the core mechanics of the game. However, both here and in a number of other games I've played lately (Belfort and Lancaster come to mind), the originality and perhaps even spark of brilliance isn't so much in original mechanics as in new combinations of or twists on older mechanics, all packaged up in a very well-designed and well-balanced package. I'm still far enough away from boardgame burnout that I can still see relatively subtle differences between games, and as long as this new breed of "Frankenstein" eurogames keep being this good, I'll be more than happy to keep playing them!
Hopefully, I'll be able to get in a few more plays soon and write a full review in a few more weeks...
Biblios [BGG]
Ian and I pulled out Biblios for a couple of quick filler games on one of these game nights. It was really solid with 2, and I'll definitely keep bringing and playing it for the time being. Thanks again to my BGG Secret Santa!
Time: 13 and 10 minutes
Game 1: Norton 10, Ian 6
Game 2: Norton 12, Ian 3
Ratings: Norton 7.5, Ian 8
Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
Journey to Rhosbogel quest [BGG]
Kenny, Keith and I have been planning for a few weeks to get in a game of the Lord of the Rings LCG using custom/constructed decks. Kenny and I put together a few decks, and in the end, Sceadeau joined us as we played through a couple of games with the Journey to Rhosgobel quest.
Unfortunately, they didn't go well at all. In the first game, we drew two Exhaustion cards on the first turn and lost half our heroes. We lost in no time and had no fun. Thinking it an anomoly, we reset and tried it again. This time, it was practically a cake-walk. Sceadeau wasn't very impressed, and frankly, even the rest of us (who are all pretty big LotR LCG fans) didn't have any real fun.
Game 1: Journey to Rhosbogel - Win; Heroes (Norton, Keith, Ken, & Sceadeau*) - Lose
Game 2: Heroes (Norton, Keith, Ken, & Sceadeau) - Win; Journey to Rhosgobel - Lose
Ratings: ???
I've heard so many good things about the Journey to Rhosgobel, and I was so looking forward to trying it out. The whole idea of having to escort and protect Wilyador rather than primarily having to just fight or explore locations was pretty cool, and having the timer of him continuing to take damage seemed like it would be a nice pressure on us. But in the end, success basically just depending on whether or not we could stop Exhaustion and a few other choice Treachery cards when they came up. We also got pretty lucky with drawing into Athelas in the second run-through, so the game seemed totally at the whim of luck.
If I can ever find the time, I need to try to solo this and some of the other quests that I still haven't tried out, and I'm still definitely a big fan of the game. I can't wait for Khazad-dum and the Balrog it will inevitably bring with it!
Catacombs [BGG]
Our Game of the Month! in December is Catacombs, of course. And while I actually let someone else take my spot in the game on the 13th (and played Kingdom of Solomon instead), I managed to run it for a few new players the following week. One of them, Anna, is a nurse with me at the hospital, and I was really excited to see her and her sister join us! Hopefully, she'll be able to make it back again from time to time!
In the game, though, it was pretty ugly for the heroes. I'm pretty good at flicking games, and by the last room, Anna was the only one left standing (despite them resurrecting two players at the healer). The Dragon was too much for them, and I managed to get the win.
They started off strong... but in the end only Anna stood against me!
Time: 84 minutes
Score: Norton (Overlord - the Dragon) - Win; Heroes (Anna*, Maggie*, Matt, & Robert*) - Lose
Ratings: Norton 8, Anna 8, Maggie 6, Matt 9, Robert 9.1
Catacombs is awesome. All the cool kids think so...
Kingdom Builder [BGG]
To finish up last week, we played a quick game of Kingdom Builder. The Harbor/boat-thingy was one of the special tiles included, so I made sure to get my hands on one as soon as I could. In the end, I won, but I gave it a big-ole' asterisk because Keith actually pointed out a way to score an extra couple of points on my last turn that I almost missed. And then I beat him by one point...
Time: 39 minutes
Score: Norton 59* , Keith* 58, Ian 50, Matt* 43
Ratings: Norton 7.5, Keith 7.5, Ian 8, Matt 8
So far, I've only seen 2 real issues with the Kingdom Builder:
1) Getting dealt the same terrain card on your first two turns pretty much ruins your game (which I'll address whenever I get around to talking about my Big-Butt-Game-Day), and
2) That the boat doo-jobby tiles seem overpowered.
And since #2 seems to be the case, I really wonder why the board that included them only has 1 spot for them, which seems to actually make it more of a limited resource and therefore an even larger advantage for the 2 players that get it instead of the possibity of every player being able to get one if there were 2 locations for them. Especially with the Merchant scoring card (which gives points for connecting location and castle spaces), having the boat mama jama be able to let you connect over the rivers (which are otherwise impassable) is pretty huge.
Regardless, however, I'm still enjouying Kingdom Builder a lot. It's so quick, and even though there's a ton of luck involved, you're faced every single turn with a choice about how to best deal with the luck you're given. And it's over in 30 minutes or so! I really need to play this with Gwen...
Other Games Played
—-December 13—-
Catacombs (with expansions)
Time: 95 minutes
Score: Ken (Overlord/Gorgon) - Win; Heroes (Steve - Paladin, Sceadeau - Witch Hunter, Chip - Barbarian, & Keith - Ice Princess) - Lose
Ratings: Ken 9, Steve 8, Sceadeau 8, Chip 8, Keith 8
Catan: Germany
Time: ??
Score: Alton 10, Charles* 7, Matt* 7, Mark 6
Ratings: Alton 9, Charles 7, Matt 7.5, Mark 8.5
Eminent Domain
Time: 40 and ?? minutes
Game 1: Mark 34+, Charles 34, Shawn 27
Game 2: Sceadeau 34, Ian 24, Josh 17, Steve 16
Ratings: Mark 9, Charles 9, Shawn 9, ???Homesteaders
Time: 51 minutes
Score: Alton 63, Charles* 61, Matt 59, Mark 56
Ratings: Alton 9, Charles 9, Matt 9, Mark 9
Jamaica
Time: ~45 minutes
Score: Alton 46, Steve* 24, Ian* 19, Chip 9
Ratings: Alton 10, Steve 7, Ian 6.5, Chip 7.5
Kingdom Builder
Time: 19 and ?? minutes
Game 1: Mark 67, Shawn 43, Charles* 36
Game 2: Steve* 61, Charles 61, Shawn 48, Mark 30
Ratings: Mark 9, Steve 7, Charles 8, Shawn 9
Kittens in a Blender
Time: 6 minutes
Score: Mark 13, Chris 12
Ratings: Mark 5, Chris 5
Mondo
Time: 29 minutes
Score: Chris 83, Ken* 61, Sceadeau 53
Ratings: Chris 8, Ken 8, Sceadeau 8
Quarriors! (with expansion)
Time: 22 minutes
Score: Chris 12, Sceadeau 10, Ian 7, Shawn 3
Ratings: Chris 6, Sceadeau 3, Ian 7, Shawn 9
Spectral Rails
Time: 25 minutes
Score: Sceadeau* 24, Ian* 16, Shawn* 16
Ratings: Sceadeau ?, Ian ?, Shawn 7
—-December 20—-
Anhk Morpork
Time: 37 minutes
Score: Ian* - Win; Chris, Sean*, & Shawn* - Lose
Ratings: Ian ?, Chris 8.5, Sean 7, Shawn 89
AscensionTime: 70
Score: Sean 89, Shawn 88, Ian 80, Matt 72
Ratings: Sean 10, Shawn 10, Ian 9, Matt 10
Can't Stop
Time: 30 minutes
Score: Sean 3, Matt* 1, Shawn 1, Ian 0
Ratings: Sean 9, Matt 6, Shawn 9, Ian 9
China
Time: ??
Score: Chip 50, Robert* 42, Matt* 38
Ratings: Chip 9, Robert 8.1, Matt 8
Eminent Domain
Time: 120 minutes (???)
Score: Ian 64, Dan* 52
Ratings: Ian 9, Dan 8.5
Forbidden Island
Time: 30 minutes
Score: Explorers (Ian, Shayne, Mayei, and Ken) - Win, Forbidden Island - Lose
Ratings: Ian 8, Ken 8
Kingdom Builder
Time: 30 minutes
Score: Ian 49, Sean* 45, Shawn 45, Matt* 29
Ratings: Ian 7, Sean 7, Shawn 9, Matt 7
Letters from Whitechapel
Time: 79 minutes
Score: Police (Chris, Sceadeau, Anna, Maggie, and ???) - Win, Jack (Matt*) - Lose
Ratings: ???
PitchCar
Time: ??
Score: Mayei* - 2 wins, Keith - 1 win, Everyone Else (Shayne, Chip, Ken, Sceadeau, and Matt) - 0 wins
Ratings: ??
Ra
Time: 53 minutes
Score: Chris* 52, Matt* 28, Maggie* 25, Rebecca* 16, Anna* 15
Ratings: ??
Rattus
Time: 21 and 17 minutes
Game 1: Sceadeau 9, Matt 8, Damion 7, Chris* 4
Game 2: Anna* 10, Matt 9, Maggie* 9, Chris* 8
Ratings: All 7's
Sorry! Sliders
Time: ??
Score: Mayei -1 win, Chip - 1 win, Shayne - 1 win, Matt - big loser
Ratings: ??
Unspeakable Words
Time: 25 minutes
Score: Mayei* 105, Shayne 105 (but insane), Ken 84
Ratings: Mayei "Good", Shayne 8, Ken 8
* First play for that Person
Posted by Chris Norwood at 12/30/2011 3:42 PM 
Categories: Game of the month, Gaming Weblog, Hypermind BoardGamers
Tags: Kingdom of Solomon Fillers Lord of the Rings LCG Catacombs Kingdom Builder
Categories: Game of the month, Gaming Weblog, Hypermind BoardGamers
Tags: Kingdom of Solomon Fillers Lord of the Rings LCG Catacombs Kingdom Builder
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