The NEW New Boardgames Thread

[Maladict]

Thirty Years War is garbage. The other two are great and worth your time.

I wish there was a really good Thirty Years War game. Apparently Ed Beach is working on one, should be ready within the next decade or two.

[Habbaku]

Ed is definitely working on one, but to say that's on the back-burner is an understatement.

I suspect it'll be ready within the next 4-6 years, optimistically. I'll almost certainly be playtesting it, so will probably try to recruit some of Languish for that.

[The Brain]

Gustavus Adolphus better be 6-6-6.

[Habbaku]

I think it's more likely he'll be K-I-A.

[Saladin]

Terrraforming Mars? Yea or nay?

[The Brain]

Terrraforming Mars? Yea or nay?

I haven't played it. Is young Sharon Stone in it? If so then hell yea.

[Saladin]

Terrraforming Mars? Yea or nay?

I haven't played it. Is young Sharon Stone in it? If so then hell yea.

Sadly no. 
And couldn't find any three-breasted women in it.

[celedhring]

TM is a good game, but I'll go and say I think the hype is a bit too much (happens with a lot of BGG favorites).

[frunk]

TM is a good game, but I'll go and say I think the hype is a bit too much (happens with a lot of BGG favorites).

Agreed.

[Oexmelin]

If you go for it, I would buy the Prelude expansion, which speeds up (!) the game. The OG drags on a bit.

[Saladin]

If you go for it, I would buy the Prelude expansion, which speeds up (!) the game. The OG drags on a bit.

Thanks for the tip!

[Tamas]

Bought a copy of this off a guy on the 'geek (I hope its legit!):

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/257599/invasions-volume-1-350-650-ad

Rules seem to be a glorious mess like La Grande Guerre's but I am ok with that.

Ok so I actually quite like this, it looks gorgeous, the guy who sold it to me also had the "in to the east" expansion that extends the map to the NW part of India. It is a sort of hardcore Britannia thing with a system for transition nations from Barbarian to Kingdom and then potentially Empire. There isn't much new in the design, although I quite like how kingdom/empire administrative management is abstracted.

However, the rules are a giant mess in their current version. I know the designer and his previous games, La Grande Guerre in particular, and I played it solo so I could decipher things at my leisure and now I feel like I have a firm grasp on it and could easily explain it to people, but it took some effort getting there. I would not like to be among the 4 players all playing their first game of this.

There's an errata arriving imminently and I hope they manage t rewrite the rules PDF soon, because otherwise the game is quite neatly balanced between playability, simulation, and alt-history story generator, so I hope they will have enough success with it to create the planned Volume II (Arab conquests and the historically far more significant Hungarian migration).

[The Brain]

[Maladict]

Bought a copy of this off a guy on the 'geek (I hope its legit!):

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/257599/invasions-volume-1-350-650-ad

Rules seem to be a glorious mess like La Grande Guerre's but I am ok with that.

Ok so I actually quite like this, it looks gorgeous, the guy who sold it to me also had the "in to the east" expansion that extends the map to the NW part of India. It is a sort of hardcore Britannia thing with a system for transition nations from Barbarian to Kingdom and then potentially Empire. There isn't much new in the design, although I quite like how kingdom/empire administrative management is abstracted.

However, the rules are a giant mess in their current version. I know the designer and his previous games, La Grande Guerre in particular, and I played it solo so I could decipher things at my leisure and now I feel like I have a firm grasp on it and could easily explain it to people, but it took some effort getting there. I would not like to be among the 4 players all playing their first game of this.

There's an errata arriving imminently and I hope they manage t rewrite the rules PDF soon, because otherwise the game is quite neatly balanced between playability, simulation, and alt-history story generator, so I hope they will have enough success with it to create the planned Volume II (Arab conquests and the historically far more significant Hungarian migration).

Interesting 

Does it play well solo?

[Tamas]

I think it plays well, as much as it can be expected without solo rules.

The only hidden information are event and diplomacy cards. Diplomacy cards are for sort of limiting what temporary treaties you can make in a turn, usually they translate to keeping another nation off your back for a turn. Event cards can be important but usually the sort of auto-fail/succeed sieges or interceptions.


Otherwise, all nations have custom list of VP locations and sources like in Britannia, these work quite well as a list of priorities to follow with each.


Once you work the rules out the narrative is very enjoyable, and looks very pretty with the map and counters. First game I aborted at Turn 2 as is often with games as  I have learned enough and realised the early mistakes. Second one was longer (stopped at Turn 6 out 12 as I really wanted to try the East expansion), and quite evocative.

Turn 1 was a bit of a warmup with 350AD. (each turn is 25 years), although the Persian-Roman border starts off rather intense. Turn 2 the Huns arrived with a special turn order.

Then Turn 3 the Suebi-Vandal-Alan coalition gets a special turn of being allied and having a special turn order. The VP rules basically give you a chance to gamble to go and pillage Rome for extra VP. I opted for that with them but in hindsight it is wiser to first assess just how strong West Rome is at that point. A series of successful interceptions by Stilicho in Italy and later in Gaul turned the great invasion into less than the rout it was historically. But the barbarians did manage to punch a hole and pour through into Northern Italy and southern Gaul. Seeing the stacks move about Gaul and later Hispania with Western Rome having increasing trouble avoiding collapse due to the falling income and removal of controlled areas was quite evocative, as I mentioned.

Then turn 4 is the first one with Attila. There is a rule for the Huns to try and establish an empire after his death but the requirements are rather punitive so unless you manage to do exceptionally well, you are better off pillaging everything in sight and vassalising barbarians, to rake in the VPs while you can.

It's fun. But you have to work for it thanks to the terrible rulebook.