It's the weekend again, and I finally have some time to talk about the games we played...last weekend. I said I'd come back to these, didn't I?
I think one of the games that had the biggest impact was Wondrous Creatures (Amazon affiliate link) - it hit the table twice over the course of the night. It's one of those modern games whose appeal feels connected to many other games we've played. I recognize that it is probably inevitable at this point because the greater your exposure to a wider range of games, the richer your game vocabulary becomes. It's funny to think of this as a worker placement game, but it actually is - it all just happens on a map. And the fact that your crewmember pawns are some rather funky creatures as well, so you feel more like you're exploring than just assigning a worker for things. In that sense, the theming of this game is pretty brilliant. Then you have 5 main types of cards with different effects like instant bonuses or recharge bonuses that help whenever you retrieve your workers, which feels like the different card types in Wyrmspan (Amazon affiliate link) that also have benefits that trigger at different times, like in-between rounds or at the end of the game. Figuring out your build is that classic engine-building puzzle that so many games capitalize on. I will say, the upgraded components (Amazon affiliate link) for this game (like the fancy trophies) make for a WORLD of difference for this game. Totally awesome board presence.
Funnily, one of the other new games we played then was Raising Robots (Amazon affiliate link) - although I own the deluxe edition with the wooden resources and such. This is really more about the engine-building as the central mechanic, while Creatures had a lot more one-time effects and on-play bonuses. This one really has you creating an engine with your robots as you try to make the most of every turn. I really like the action selection system of the game. They could have stopped with just the energy card deck every player has, with the need to decide which phases to activate this round. But adding the common energy cube mechanic opened the door to "extra" actions or empowering one or more of your selected actions, depending on your cards. This is what triggered some of the wilder swings in the game and really rewarded players who timed their selections correctly.
We still need to get used to the base games first before we explore all the expansion content. But that's the case with a lot of the crowdfunded games we own - they tend to come with expansions right out of the gate. And you can't dive right into ALL the game content at once when you're still trying to learn it.
Anyway, it's a chill Friday night for us at the Sietch. Work was kinda crazy today, despite it being a Friday, and I don't have the energy for much else. Anyway, we have some in-person gaming to look forward to tomorrow, so we'll save up our energy for that.
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