Board games lately

[blimix]

Feel free to skip this post if you aren't a board gamer.

Kingsburg (with To Forge A Realm expansion):

I don't own it, but I quite enjoy playing it. So I still have strategies to explore other than my usual "roll high numbers a lot" one (which, admittedly, tends to work well enough that one wonders why I would need any other strategy). Sometime last month, I wondered about the efficiency of a "losing" strategy. That is, deliberately losing to the monsters in winter. That day, I was lucky enough to draw the alternate building track that included The Hidden Refuge, which causes monsters to not take away victory points when they win. I went ahead with that and the lucrative Farm track, not caring about the -1 to battle. I did wuss out when it came to losing buildings, though. I bought a "sneak peek" at the monsters each year, and the two years when they would have cost me a building, I devoted resources to at least tie them. That was easily afforded, though, and I still had my "4" reinforcement token at the end of the game. I avoided losing resources to monsters the other three years by precisely using up my resources at the end of fall. (I think I built the Exchange Office to help with that.)

I won that (three player) game handily, but must admit that, while I had a decent mix of good and crappy rolls, Kevin rolled badly most of the time. So he didn't really have a fair shot at beating me. And I would certainly have done worse without the Hidden Refuge track.

Lords of Waterdeep:

Ever since my first time playing it (What, four games ago?), I had wondered how a player would do if they played Larissa Neathal (who scores points for buildings) and, early in the game, got the quest that gives points for buildings. And then built lots of buildings. Two weeks ago, I got to do exactly that. I built seven buildings, six with that quest in play. (If it hadn't been for the limit of ten buildings on the board, I could have built two or three more.) I wound up with a good score, but not a game-winning one. I only completed a few quests for money rewards (to pay for buildings), and also did bogart Aurora's Realms Shop for money, which I think held back the other players a bit. roamin_umpire stomped me and qhudspeth with a quest-heavy strategy, chaining quest rewards into quest prerequisites, snagging bonus points from buildings, et probably alia.

I'm very glad that I got to satisfy my curiosity about that strategy.

Unrelatedly, I like that each of the spaces gets you something. Even when you don't get the spot(s) you want, you never really waste an agent. (Contrast to Manila, in which you can waste every agent, at the whim of the dice.)

Mage Knight:

Karen and I have played the introductory scenario twice, and a full scenario once. Everything about it took way too long: Setup, learning, gameplay, even finding rules in the books. It feels like a cool game, but we're not getting enough enjoyment from it to justify half the time investment. Anyone want to trade?

Comments

[corpsefairy.livejournal.com]

Is there a building limit? I don't own the game so I can't check, but I was under the impression that the number of spaces on the board wasn't meant to limit the number of buildings you could build.

[blimix.livejournal.com]

You are correct; thank you! Owning the game doesn't help, as the rules are not explicit on this point. ("The game board has nine basic Buildings, and ten additional spaces are provided for Buildings that players purchase during the game.") But the FAQ (https://wizards.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2233/~/d%26d%3A-faq-for-lords-of-waterdeep-and-scoundrels-of-skullport) states that more than ten buildings may be built.

I would still have had a hard time catching up to roamin_umpire even so, but I think it would have been close enough to change my mind about the viability of the strategy.