They just get better as well - amazing game, so many great ideas in that beautiful box

It's certainly its own thing - hard to compare!

(Mage Knight also gathers dust at mine, but the few plays I've managed means it will never leave my shelves. Just need to add an extra day into the week and I'll play it nonstop!!(

The difference is probably more in "how to rocket" is not really spelled out in HF, you just get the atomic building blocks and go from there.

Spirit Island feels more guided as a game system, only leave you to figure out how "Punishing Cards Don't Get Me Out Of This Doom Spiral" spirit works

Agreed - love crunching my way through Spirit Island at high difficulties. High frontier, albeit I only tussled with it twice, left me broken, sat around Earth with piles of water wondering how everyone else was zooming about the stars ..

Managed to snag a copy without really knowing what I was getting. One solo play had some good moments - really want to try it four player; it's harder to "optimise* the party when you're telling someone their character is likely going to die anyway, so can't have nice things 😅

Been a long road finding a game I can play with my ND son... but we found one late Feb. My top ten plays may never be the same again 🐔❤️

Yes, you're absolutely c*πting right!

Was meant to be a ? In the middle there, now it just looks like I'm super excited for no reason

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This one! www.justwatch.com/au/movie/the...

Wishlist'd!

Life is busier than ever, but the constant urge to start new community projects / clubs remains constant!

Weekly meetups are a little beyond me now, but inspired some local interest on BGG, and the upcoming expansion to get to 30 players, this is the year of Mega Empires Melbourne!

Second game went better, we reinforced more players WON'T be on a team now. This leads to the "fighting" starting sooner, which may benefit the game pacing, but with more tools you bluff it seems odd there are often fewer reasons to NEED to bluff? Still, it stays on the shelf with 1E, for now :)

Great to read your review of it, and sounds like we came into this series in the same fashion. I struggled with this edition on first try- as a Dissident I sprinted for the finish, made use of the more relaxed "gate closing" economy, and the cultists hobbled my "teammate" in response, but he wasn't.

Can't quite get into the "but it's not a game" part of The Mind. Groundhog Day remains my "it's The Mind, but with structure" favourite. Also everyone knows the theme. Also one minute Polka music timer + goofy "hit the alarm clock" when ready to start gimmick helps set the mood

Also only played Luthier, but thought it was very strong too, so certainly interested in playing the award winners at some stage

I dearly miss challenging co-ops! With Renegades I went through the same cycle of "what is this?" to "oh wow, challenging!" to "I don't know if I want to solve this puzzle". It's a great bit of design... but not one I wanted to keep. Sounds like Deckers stays in the same category then.

no hello please don't say just hello in chat

nohello.net/en 👍

In the pocket of Big good-as-heck, I knew it 😱

In any argument, nuance matters; Game being celebrated doesn't contain the morally objectionable content, but designer and future published content does. I think the objection is more focused with that (can't separate art from the artist). To be clear, I do not argue in favour of its inclusion.

Yeah, can't and won't argue that part (or any part of the other bullet point for that matter)

Ah, was AI used in later editions of the base game? I thought it was just for an expansion / promo products. Yeah, if any base edition has used it, then I totally retract that point.

Understand this is splitting hairs, but did the base game contain AI art? I think that is an important nuance to that half of the argument.

Can't wait either! It's been a long journey 😅

I wrote it off as a toy for the first edition, but the buzz around it was pretty strong. Took a punt on the second edition KS and have so far been delighted that I did; ever play has highlighted little design flourishes that add up to a relatively modest rules game with very high strategy options.

*stares intently at Australian retail* ... soon... soon...

Gave it a go; it was fine, but didn't do much more than similar co-op crawler / puzzlers etc...

It's thematic parallel, Grimcoven, on the other hand appears to be quite a nice chewy puzzle with similar "awesome moves" and more interesting progression.

Got it on preorder! Was hoping it would hit Australia for some Xmas fun, but CMYK stuff appears to move slowly down here (also waiting for Hot Streak!)

Crazy Jane!

More boardgames, especially those with fiddly rules, seem to use their own Discord to increase engagement. Which it does... and all the rules questions get answered... Over and over again, because Discord search is atrocious. It's a terrible knowledge store. At least BGG answers are discoverable.

That show passed me by; adding it to the list!

Is there an option to pull avatars from BGG? That would stop all my plays being me + many blank circles...